At Twenty-Five, I Got My Nipples Pierced

By Lyndsie Conklin

A quarter-life crisis solved 

with two men, two needles 

and permanent depressions 

in the apex of my breasts. 

The heat after the countdown 

hissed quick within my teeth 

and tensed in my back, sticky 

on the sterile leather platform. 

This same abrupt heat emitted 

throughout myself. An addiction 

formed, which I kept chasing 

in brilliant bubbling thrills 

of needles, men, and colorful paint 

temporally laced upon my canvas. 

The radiance of my crisis 

gives me a whimsical power, 

flagged by my imperfections 

and the self-inflicted depressions 

one solution made permanent 

with two needles, two men, 

and one quick hiss in the teeth. 

At twenty-five, I did something 

as a simple gift to my confidence, 

but it’s given me so much more.