Posted on 05/05/2005 5:26:47 AM PDT by jalisco555
NASHUA — A Brookline woman is suing a Nashua tattoo shop because of a belly button piercing that allegedly went horribly awry.
Kaitlin M. Brew, 20, said an employee at Tattoo America pierced much too deep, poking straight through to Brew's stomach. The injury, which went undiagnosed for more than two years, caused months of constant pain and eventually required exploratory surgery, Brew said.
"It's not a pretty thing whatsoever, I have to admit," Brew said yesterday, describing her experience.
A Brookline woman is suing Tattoo America, a Nashua tattoo and body-piercing shop, because of an injury allegedly inflicted by a belly button ring.
Brew's attorney, Rick Follender, said he wants Tattoo America to pay for Brew's medical bills, which exceed $16,000, and her lost wages, plus compensation for her pain and suffering.
An employee at the Canal Street tattoo parlor said its owner, Scott Jones, was out of town. Follender said he has been unable to contact Jones since the case was filed last month.
Tattoo America has locations in Nashua, Seabrook and Fort Myers, Fla. The company has been in business since 1977, according to its Web site.
Brew said a female employee inserted the ring, a surgical-steel loop with an ornamental ball, in June 2002. Because Brew was just 17 years old, her mother took her to the shop, she said.
"I had lost an extremely large amount of weight and my reward to myself was to get my belly button pierced," she said. "It's something that you want to show off."
At first, it seemed the piercing was fine, she said. The only noticeable problem, she said, was that the hole wasn't healing properly. For two years, it never did, she said.
"It always had the yucky, nasty discharge," Brew said.
About a year and a half after the surgery, shortly after taking a job at a Bank of America branch in Reading, Mass., Brew began to feel a mysterious pain in her stomach, she said. She started missing work, she said, finding it was difficult just to get out of bed in the morning.
"I got written up at work for missing so many days," she said.
Brew said she saw doctors in Nashua, Milford and Lawrence, Mass. None of them could explain the root of her pain, she said.
Last May, she had a colonoscopy, "which at 19 isn't something you want to be going through," she said. The results were negative.
When all else failed, she said, she was referred to Dr. Brian F. Gilchrist, a pediatric surgeon at the New England Medical Center in Boston. While operating in July, Gilchrist not only found that Brew had a hernia, but that the ring had perforated it, she said.
"The piercing had pierced through the hernia sac, coming through my stomach lining and out," she said.
Gilchrist explained Brew's stomach had twisted around the ring. Over time, the twisting became more and more painful, until finally Brew could no longer ignore it, she said.
A spokesman at the New England Medical Center said federal privacy laws prevent the hospital or its staff from discussing the operation, or even confirming that it took place.
Brew said her health insurance covered most of her medical costs, although her family had to pay for certain medications that her plan did not cover. She estimated her lost wages at more than $1,000.
Today, she said, she has a "pretty normal-looking belly button," except for one thing.
"I have this scar that's like an inch to an inch-and-a-half long," she said. "It looks nasty."
The experience hasn't completely turned her off to piercings, she said. When done right, she said, it can look cool. But Brew advised people to first consider the potential risks.
"So many people are doing it, and so many people go to places that are worse than Tattoo America, that are unsanitary," she said. "I just think they should take a step back before going ahead and doing it."
There's nothing worse than a boring troll. And you are very boring.
I looked at that site, and it really shows the low level of intelligence behind it's creation.
Yuk. I remember when I finally had my ears pierced, I actually went to a doctor to get it done.
I know it makes me an old fashioned geek (well, not geek, geek is cool now--what the heck is the current, trendy word for old fashioned people?) but I just don't get the cultural embracement of piercings and tattoos. They are pretty mainstream now. It's weird. But, I wonder about health ramifications later. I suppose we'll see.
susie
A poor angry person. I figured there was something behind it I didn't know about. I wasn't interested enough to try and figure it out! :)
susie
They banned your account. Imagine that! Those FReeper "goons" are so mean....
So, let me see, this idiot and her mother go to a tattoo parlor to have her belly button pierced and it gets screwed up and takes her TWO YEARS to figure it out!!!
Not being a rocket scientist, and continuing to visit doctors who (probably) never knew that she got her bellybutton pierced, the wound (according to the article) never properly healed.
Now she wants to be compensated for being an idiot in the first place. I think she learned an important lesson and should leave it alone. She isn't entitled to compensation.
If God intended us to wear all of these so-calld "adornments" we'd be born with labels that said "Insert Adornment HERE" with an arrow pointing to the appropriate location.
I bet she won't do that again....
No, she'll probably pierce something BELOW her abdomen the next time...
I found it especially amusing how the paragraph discussed people being banned from FR for dissenting views, when I rarely see that happen, but man, I sure have racked up a few tombstones on DU, and never for disrupting or being disrespectful, just suggesting a pragmatic of looking at things. Free thought is not the left's strong suit.
This reminds me of something that *always* seems to ring true about leftism: Whatever it is that the left is accusing everybody else of doing, you can be DAMNED sure that is exactly what they are up to.
Bones
This moron is polluting every thread today.
Bet she will, you give her far too much credit.
I can't wait until the next generation comes up & since all their parents are covered with these creepy tattoos & piercings, decide to rebel against it & it all becomes so NOT COOL. Then, all these idiots will be scarred for life & regretting it. Thinking about how these things will look on a 65 year old body is making my breakfast want to come back up.
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