Well for a few months I had thought about getting my vertical labret pierced. I thought they were absolutely beautiful and loved the whole little ball on the lip thing, but I had always been held back by school rules/work etc. But a couple of days before school finished, I really wanted to get something pierced, and I had some "unpaid school fees" shall we say in my possession, and I thought I would put them to good use and buy myself an early Christmas present.
At A Glance Author Julia Contact Julia@bme.anon When A month ago Artist David Studio Absolution Location Christchurch, New Zealand So I took the afternoon off school with a couple of friends, and went into Absolution Body Piercing, figuring I would go to a good place considering I really wanted a good job done of this due to it being on my face and all. I went in and took a while deciding whether to get a vertical labret, or something else. I asked David and Quille a lot of questions about aftercare, jewellery and healing time for the vertical labret first and they were really helpful. I looked at some photos too and finally decided to get it done there and then, figuring it was now or never, and none of my friends would let me back out now.
I went back behind the curtain, lay down, and got my friend Emma to hold my hand. My lip was cleaned and the little dots were drawn on for where to pierce it. I had to make a lot of times that it was straight. Then David told me it was going to be done freehand! Now the only piercings I had ever had done before had been done with a gun pretty cheaply, and I thought with needles you were supposed to use a clamp but no, I was wrong. So I kind of fretted again a bit and finally gave up, making sure it was definitely straight though after hearing that.
Well then the needle was pushed through my lip and it hurt, I mean come on it was a needle going through my lip! I made quite a few little noises but it did not take too long for the jewellery to go in and for David to finish it up, and straight away friends started talking about how great it looked. It did not bleed either, which I was quite glad about.
I finally got up after feeling a little dizzy and looked at it. It looked quite good, but it still hurt so I wasn't too happy. I had to sit down for a while again, and then I paid up, asked a few more questions and got my sea salt and aftercare sheet and was on my way. It looked great even straight after it was done! No swelling, no bleeding, nothing, so I felt pretty lucky. I don't think it swelled at all, which was good considering there was not really room for it. And it didn't hurt for more than a couple of hours either.
The first couple of days I was very wary of it, cleaning it probably more than a couple of times a day, mostly after I ate. I had this problem with not being able to lick my lips and they dried up a bit. It got quite sore but I didn't want to use any lip gloss or balm because of fear of infecting it. Like the aftercare sheet said, No Makeup! Eventually I started to get used to it though and everything returned back to normal.
Now it's all healed and absolutely beautiful. I have a little habit of clinking it on my teeth every so often, but hardly notice it's there. It was never infected or anything unlike my other piercings which were my nose and ears, but I put that down to going to a professional, getting it done with a needle, and taking really good care of it. Unfortunately though the other day my friend banged me in the face, and it hurt, BAD, but not for too long.
I am going to get a little spike for the end of it soon, and it is a really cool piercing. I think only a few other people actually have it in my city, but most people have the reaction of they like it because it is different and very cute. No one actually seems to have seen one before or knows what it is called. Most of the time I get, "I like your lip thingy". Guys seem to love it too, which I suppose has added to my love of it! My family has had no problems with it either unlike my other piercings.
Thanks go to David for doing a really awesome job and for all the information and help he gave me. All in all, get it done professionally and take care of it, and you should have no problems.