A steel tray displays the instruments of the art of body piercing: the cleaning swabs, the sterile, packaged jewelry, the needles.

Peter Grochowski, a freshman in chemical engineering, lays back in the chair, which resembles one found in a dentist’s office, with his hands crossed. He has had one lip piercing for about two years now, and he came to Blue Flame, a piercing and tattoo parlor on Hillsborough Street, to get a second one, completing his set of piercings known as “snake bites.”

“I’ve been wanting it for a hot minute,” Grochowski said. “I’m psyched!”

Jason Mosley, one of the piercing artists at the parlor, preps Grochowski for the piercing. Mosley cleans the area to be pierced and marks Grochowski’s lip to make sure the existing piercing and the new one will be even.

He explains to Grochowski the process of what is about to happen. He tells him to take deep, slow breaths and that on the exhale he’ll pierce it.

Grochowski braces himself as Mosley begins to pierce him. With the needle sticking through Grochowski’s lip, he gives an approving two thumbs up.

This time hurt more than he remembered the first one hurting, according to Grochowski. He said it was worth it, though, regardless of what his mom might think.

“I feel so much sexier. You don’t even know!” he said, adding, “My mom is going to absolutely shit her pants!”

According to Seth Cameron, a piercing artist from Pro-gress Body Piercing on Hillsborough Street, the most popular piercing for males is the side lip, and the most popular for females is the nostril.

Sara Picone, a freshman in psychology, has had a total of 12 body piercings. Picone started as most kids do, with having her earlobes pierced. She then got two more holes pierced on each ear, followed by her top cartilage.

Picone said the cartilage was a home-done job. She had a friend numb it with ice and then put an apple behind her ear before piercing it.

“The ice really does help out a lot,” Picone said.

Picone’s first body piercing was a Monroe, which she said she got just because she wanted to. Chelsea Gregg, a sophomore in English, also has her Monroe pierced. According to her, she got hers pierced because she had seen it on some other people and thought it was cute.

Gregg also has her ears gauged to a size six, which is about 4 millimeters around, on her left ear. A gauge is when a person stretches his or her pierced ears to a larger size, and Gregg and Picone have the ear gauging in common.

However, Picone has size one-half inch on her bottom lobes. She has the “bling” earrings, as she likes to call them.

“I always have to have my bling on me. Seriously, feel how heavy these are. I feel like I could go up another size just from them hanging! Well hold on, let me get the cheese off first,” she said as she cleaned off the crust from her jewelry.

Picone described the crust from her piercing and the jewelry as the cheese. She said she knows she has cheese when she can feel the stuff coming off her ear and she can smell it. Picone said every time she touches her ear she swears everyone around her can smell the odor.

“I really hope no one can, though. I’ve even asked people. I guess it’s just because now it’s on my hands,” she said. “It’s gross. I just need to make sure I clean them more.”

Gregg and Picone both have their belly buttons pierced as well. Gregg has had hers for six months and said it hurt the worst of all her piercings. She also said it gets a little red and itchy sometimes, but it isn’t bad. Picone got her belly button pierced on a whim by her friend who worked at a piercing shop, she said.

“There was this stupid little dolphin jewelry that we always joked around about who would be the person to get it. It had been there for like, two years!” she said. “So he said if I got the dolphin jewelry he’d pierce me for cheaper, so I did.”

In addition to the other piercings, Gregg has snake bites. She got each lip piercing about a year apart, and they are her favorite piercing. She said her lips swelled for about two weeks after being pierced, which “freaked” her out. The healing was the worst part, according to Gregg, and she said it was annoying when the hoops got caught on anything and were tugged, like while eating.

Joey Turner, an undecided freshman, also has snake bites. He got both of the piercings at the same time and said seeing it was the worst part.

“It was just really weird seeing the needle poking up out of my lip like it was,” Turner said.

Turner complained of swelling as well, and said it made it difficult to go out and eat sushi with his friends right after he was pierced.

With the variety of piercings available also comes the variety of reasons for getting pierced. For Gregg it was just to piss off her mom, she said with a chuckle. But for Picone, it was more of a personal reason.

“I like being pierced because I see myself as a strong individual, and I believe that the holes reflect that — I can put up with a lot,” she said.

Picone pierced her own nostril soon after she had her Monroe pierced.

“I was put on suspension for having a facial piercing while my boss had her nose pierced. So a week later I was fed up with it and pierced my nose just to piss her off and rub it in her face when I quit,” Picone said.

Just as there are reasons to get piercings, there are just as many reasons to take them out.

Picone also had her septum pierced at one time, but she took it out not long afterward as a Christmas present to her mom.

“She really hated that one, so I took it out for her. I mean, what are you going to do?” Picone said.

Picone’s last piercing was her tongue. She said that it was the worst one of all. Picone said she bled way more than she thought she would and that her tongue was really swollen. She also said it was hard to talk and eat, so she took it out after about two weeks.

“You can still see where the hole was in my tongue, see?” Picone said as she stuck her tongue out.

Regardless of the piercing people have chosen, they seem to have the same consensus.

“It’s addicting!” Gregg said.