One day, while talking about piercings we'd like to do and have done, my lovely friend and piercer Jake suggested vertical lowbrets to me. He'd never done any before but thought he was up to it, and thought I might like them. After listening to his explanation I said it sounded nice and I'd give it some though. I ran home to see what I could find out about them online. The first thing I came across was a picture of a pretty boy on BME with a very pretty set of vertical lowbrets. They looked lovely, especially with his medusa and labret, which I also have pierced. I thought it was a nice combination and I was on a bit of an oral piercing roll at the time and was getting quite comfortable with that sharp, but superficial type discomfort I'd come to associate oral piercings with. I was also getting to like the fast, easy healing, and the taste of mouthwash. So I spent a few days looking at the picture and then I decided that I wanted to have them. I waited four or six weeks, doing some other projects and generally letting my anticipation build.
At A Glance Author Stigmatophilia Contact Asphyxiaphilia@yahoo.com Artist Jake Studio Body Piercing Location Newcastle, NSW, Australia When I decided that the time was right my friend Goob also decided that the time was right for his medusa and we went down together. He was meaning to take some photos of the process but there was some kind of chaos involving him having to give someone a lift somewhere and it didn't end up going down, which was fine by me. I didn't really feel like being in front of a camera anyway.
So Jake did Goob's medusa and I took photos of the process for him and they ended up turning out fairly well considering I took them from the other side of the room with an old camera that I'd never used before. Goob's medusa was nice and he ran off to give someone a lift somewhere.
Jake set up and I climbed up on the bench and waited. We discovered about then that we only had 25mm needles. That wasn't the best news, since as far as we could tell this was going to be about a 26mm piercing. Not much room for error but we went ahead anyway.
It took forever for us to get the marking right, partly because my face is not incredibly symmetrical, partly because we were both so worried about getting them exactly right and partly because it's just plain difficult to get two dots on either side of your face perfectly in line. We ended up drawing a big grid on my face with surgical marker and both having a good scribble to work it out. Calipers and purple ink all over the place, a sexy look to be sure.
We decided that the best course of action would be to use 14G 30mm bars incase of swelling, receiving tubes and pierce from the bottom up, guaranteeing that we didn't come out in the wrong place, at least visibly. This didn't turn out to be the most efficient plan ever, as when we got down to the needle pushing there was a fair bit of gouging, repositioning and grinding going on before we managed to have the needle come out inside the receiving tube. I didn't mind. I was so keen I didn't actually notice at the time, thank you adrenaline and those little flecks in Jake's eyes that I always seem to get distracted by while we're doing this sort of thing. Come the second one I did notice, but sat through it without jiggling around too much.
When everything was screwed in and rinsed out I had a look and got all excited. Jake wasn't looking so excited. He looked a bit concerned. He said, 'That second one exited in your cheek. We can either hope that it grows down, scalpel it and push it down or repierce it.'
'Let's scalpel it!' I was being a bit of a damage glutton, I admit. Jake scrunched his nose and suggested that we repierce it. After all, we'd only need to put a catheter in, withdraw it half way and do the top half of the piercing again. On second though that sounded like the most sensible plan so we did that and when we were done and I was all rinsed and the endorphins were starting to make me gush the whole thing had taken at least half an hour.
I thanked Jake ten or twenty times, told him they were beautiful and promised to take him out for drinks some time (even though every time I try he ends up buying all the drinks) and left him with a waiting room full of slightly perplexed school girls.
For the first day or two I felt a bit like I had a little graze or something on either side of my chin. Not the big deal I was expecting. I had expected not to smile or eat crunchy peanut butter on whole wheat toast for a week. I might have swelled a millimeter or two, but that would have to be at the outside. I didn't even feel them on the inside. We put very small balls on the tops, so that they wouldn't bother me and I was wondering if small balls might be a bit inclined to be swallowed by mucous membrane but they seemed to be just the thing required. They got a few bumps early on, including my dog Tigger slamming her head into one on the first day but there were no big dramas and no discomfort. The first stage of healing seemed to happen incredibly quickly.
For my aftercare I had decided to alter my regular method and try something a bit more low impact. Where I usually subscribed to twice daily saline soaks, I only did one every few days. Where I normally washed twice a day with Dettol Antibacterial Liquid Wash, I did only once. Usually I rinse with 50/50 mouthwash and water after every kiss, snack, meal, drink and cigarette, but this time I rinsed maybe four or five times a day. I also decided to include an Echinacea and Zinc supplement in my diet for the first two weeks. I think that might have helped as well. I didn't change my diet in any other way and I think I'm going to stay low impact from now on with my aftercare. Next time I'd like to include lavender flower tea as a soak, and see how that goes, because I've been hearing a lot of good things about that. (I told my mum and she bought me a baby lavender today, so maybe I can make my own some time.)
So after a few weeks we changed down to 26mm barbells and they seem to be doing incredibly well, no lumps, no bumps, no redness, no irritation, no lymph building up inside the piercing or anything spooky like that. They're not quite my favorites but I do love them.
Cheers Jake.
More stories as I think of them and pictures when I get around to them.