I've always thought piercings were gorgeous. Piercings and tattoos.. totally fascinated by them - decoration your body just seems so interesting to me. But all my life I've been terrified of needles and such, so I never really thought I'd get anything done, not even my ears. I ended up getting those done on Halloween '02, which lead to an eyebrow piercing in June '03. Anyone that tells you piercings are addictive? They're not lying, by any means. It's kind of scary.
At A Glance Author kelli Contact kelli@bme.anon When A week ago Artist jennifer Studio uncle freddie's Location buford, ga So a month after I got my eyebrow pierced, I started looking at more piercings and was wanting another one. Every time I mentioned this to my mom, she would flip out, but my dad seemed okay with it. I finally decided on a lip ring - either off-center or labret - and tossed up the idea to him. After a few days of begging, he finally gave in and agreed, but kind of wanted to wait a while so that my mom wouldn't go psycho on us/him. But, since I hadn't been able to go to two concerts I'd been dying to go to, he figured I deserved it. We slipped out of the house when my mom wasn't paying attention, and headed to the parlor. To my slight disappointment, it was closed, but would be open the next day at noon. I didn't completely mind because I wasn't really ready. So I went back home piercingless.
The next day I decided that I would "practice" with one of my old CBRs, just to see how my mom would react. I thought she would figure out that I wasn't going to wear a fake one for three years, but I guess she didn't. After I "mastered" eating and talking [ha], my dad and I once again managed to fly under her radar, got in the car, and headed up to see Uncle Freddie.
When we got there, there were only two people there, both behind the desk. By now I was freaking out even though I'd been reading up on the procedure for a few weeks. I decided on a centered high labret, and picked out my jewelry, which I have two complaints about, but I'll get into that later. I paid, my dad signed the forms, and the lady behind the desk [who ended up behind my piercer], Jennifer, went into the back room to get it ready. A few minutes later she came out and said we could come back. The room has been burned into my memory.. the desk, the chair, the mirror.. terrifying. Jennifer told me that she would be using a 16 gauge ring so that, if I decided to take it out, it wouldn't leave a huge scar.
I sat back in the chair and Jennifer gave me a cup of Listerine to swish around, which was BRUTAL. She wiped the iodine on my lip, marked me up, and said I had a perfect lip for the type of piercing I want, so yay! She told me that she would talk me through the procedure like she always does, and that she wouldn't use clamps, which I am thankful for because I've heard horror stories about those things. She held my lip in place and gave me a minute so that I could get ready, and pushed the needle through. I made noises I've never made in my life. I guess maybe I wasn't expecting that kind of pain.. it was about a 7 on the 1-10 pain scale. It didn't really feel wonderful when she put the ring in, either. After what felt like an hour, she finally got the bead in, and let me lay down for a little while because I felt faint. She was even nice enough to bring me a damp cloth for my forehead.
The first few days are definitely worse than getting it pierced. The ring ended up being too small, and cause my lip to split a little on the inside when it swelled, so I had to take it out one day and change it to one of my old, bigger 16 gauge CBRs. I couldn't close my mouth for a couple of days, and sucked on ice/lived off advil and ibuprofen. But after a while my lip went back to normal size and I can now move the ring around with no pain.
All in all, it was an interesting experience, and I absolutely LOVE my new piercing. The two complaints I had about the jewelry are: the ring was too small [as I said before] and she only used a 16 gauge needle so it might be kind of hard to find different types of jewelry to wear.
I definitely recommend it, but be ready for what's in store.
Happy piercing!