Piercing
I've never had a piercing before.
So maybe it's stupid to say, but the primary experience of getting my ear pierced was the sensation of something not just digging into my ear, but going through it.
It was very painful. It was a bearable amount of pain, but mostly because it was over so fast. I am very surprised that we do this to children. Maybe in some ways it sets a pain bar for them? I don't know.
After that, your body gets flooded with a bunch of chemicals emitted by your nervous system from the trauma. I imagine this experience is different for different people, but I felt pretty sick in the immediate aftermath. Then thirsty. Like, really thirsty. I downed two bottles of water in rapid succession.
On balance though, I am happy with the outcome (so far). I think the piercing looks good (thank goodness) and while the pain was very high for a short period of time, it dulled pretty quickly.
What a strange thing that we do to ourselves.