My dream is kind of icky. I had my navel pierced a year ago January, and ended up taking it out after about 2 weeks because it wasn’t healing right (ie, in the right place...there was no sign of infection). I was sad about taking it out ’cuz I really liked it. I had a dream recently that I looked down, and I’d put a big bandaid over it like last February, and it had been there ever since...the same bandaid, for over a year. So I went to take it off, and was scared that it would be really difficult to remove (painful) ’cuz it had been on there so long, but it was very very easy. When I looked down at it, the ring was almost grown out, and my whole navel was this big infected area, draining yellow-green gunk. I pulled the ring out most of the way (not thru the original hole, thru the skin over it) and that was basically the end...but what does it mean? I’ve thought about getting it re-done, but haven’t seriously considered it in ages.

--Gina, Age 22, Peoria, IL, USA

Hi Gina-

Dreams can give us a little more detail than we really want to know sometimes.. Wait until you see the next dream in this section!

Your dream actually is a pretty good example of an ordinary concern of yours (about the navel ring) becoming represented in dream form. You mentioned that you had to remove the navel ring because it didn’t set right, and that this was January a year ago. In your dream, you had left a bandaid over the ring for over a year - since February, which makes the time-frame accurate in the dream. Certainly a main concern when you get a navel pierce is infection, and I think your dream is reflecting this anxiety. Why you should dream about it at this point in time is anyone’s guess. You may have noticed someone else’s navel ring which triggered your memory of your own experience, or perhaps you are thinking about getting your pierce re-done but you are worried about infection, especially after you had problems with the first one. If you do decide to get it re-done, perhaps you should visit a different piercer! Navel rings are very beautiful, but they do have to be placed with more care than other types of pierces. Good Luck!