Number 75 — Get a Tattoo and/or Piercing

"I want to get my nipples pierced, I saw this girl in playboy with one done and I liked it."

That's how it all started. My ex looking over some discarded playboy where a Japanese girl showed off her pierced left nipple in a side ad.

After a bit of googling, a few youtube videos, and some bmezine experience reports I decided I wanted to get mine done too. Now first issue first, we were both 15 at the time so we couldn't exactly go get it pierced profesionally. Next step, the internet!

A fairly experienced eBay user by now I was opened up to a whole new world of possibilities. Did you know there are such things as self nipple piercing kits? Well there are. $9.99 plus shipping bought me two needles, two captive ball rings, forceps, sterilization wipes, and gloves. Pretty good, huh? One week later kits in hand and we were ready to set up shop.

Now I'm not going to say we were just bouncing around ready to do this. Personally, I was scared shitless. We sat in the living room for a good 20 minutes holding ice packs to our nipples praying to god it wouldn't hurt as bad as it looked. From there a good 30 minutes was spent flipping out about how the hell to do this. Actually by the time I had actually marked the dots where I was hoping to pierce her all the numbness had completely worn off.

I then pierced hers, got the jewlery through, admired how incredibly crooked they were and relaxed for a while. Another sad attempt at trying to numb my nipples off it was my turn.

I layed down marked the entrance and exit points and sat straight up as I heard my mother come through the front door. We freaked out stashed all the stuff and quietly waited for her to come down the hallway and check in on us. She did, we said our hellos and she went back to the living room to watch some tv.

'Do you still want to do this?' she asked me.

'Yeah, why not?' is what I said, Fuck no is what I meant.

I got up blasted some Dead by My Chemical Romance and got ready for it. Now she wasn't quite as coordinated as me, no way could she hold those forceps and try to pierce me at the same time. So being the gentleman as I am a clamped down and waited for the needle.

'FUUUUUCCCCKKK!!!'

Holy shit did that hurt like a mother fucker, the tearing of the flesh, the sickening pain of the jewelery following through. It didn't help that i pinched my nipple all the harder with the forceps while I anticipated the pain to come. Haha we spent another good 15 minutes just trying to get the ball in the CBR. Once it was all done the though, I knew it was worth it. I loved my new nipple piercing.

The aftermath. The next three days even my shirt brushing my piercing to hard sent me into a torrent of pain. It sucked. I wore a fucking sports bra to bed and I still couldn't lay on my chest. It was worth it though and I knew it. Great story, great fun, and a memory I'll never forget.

Accomplished: April 15th, 2008

Number 27 — See an Erupting Volcano

Really not all that exciting as it sounds. I was on a trip with my ASOF group to the big island during this trip we did a hike to the erupting volcano Kilauea. It sucked. First off we had about twenty people in the group and 10 flashlights, by the time it got dark only 6 were still working. We hiked along a paved trail for a good two miles before reaching the point where the lava destruction began. From then on it was a perilous three mile further journey over an unpredictable rocky landscape. There were hills and sink holes, little light so footing was all guess work and after a good couple hours of it we finaly got to the lava and I had forgotten to bring a stick to poke it with! The lava was cool to watch however, bloody hot though! We chilled around for around an hour trying to take pictures but none seemed to come out very well, chucked rocks to make the bubbles explode and then returned back home. It took four hours to get back, four hours to walk three miles! I still have the scars running along my legs from a few to many missteps. Good story, not so good time.

Accomplished: March 7, 2007

Number 47 — Milk a Cow

Four of my mother's brothers and sisters live on farms so virtually every time I've gone to visit my cousins in order to speed up chore time so we could play I would help out and go milk cows. Now I'm not claiming i was anywhere near as skilled as they were but I did enjoy the rhythmic feel of milking them or the zzzt of the milk pounding against the tin buckets.

Accomplished: 1999