I have always thought I had a rather nice mouth, one that I care to accentuate with various oral piercing, and I thought what would be better to put through my bottom lips than two matching surgical stainless steel vertical labret pieces with matching gems, top and bottom.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A year ago Artist Dirty Dirty Studio BlackHole Location RENO I figured this would look nice because from afar, it might look like my bottom lip had glitter on it, plus since I have been very young I have always been attracted to things that have that certain shine to them, (i.e., diamonds).
I made the decision to go to a friend of mine who had been piercing for a couple years at a pretty good local shop, I knew that the vertical labret was his favorite so I made the appointment and went in.
I was slightly nervous because I had had this piercing before, but directly in the middle so I was somewhat aware of the pain that I might be enduring, twice.
We went over what exactly he was going to do and began to mark where we wanted them. I was very particular about the placement and so was he, so we spent a good 30 minutes getting them perfect, when all was ready, he had me rinse my mouth again and lay back on the table.
He stood over me and put the needle in place, and coached me on my breathing techniques and on the count of three; he pushed the needle through creating my newest addition to my piercing collection. There was a little bit of bleeding, but the follow through with the jewelry went smoothly and the next thing I knew he was cleaning it up and ready for the second side.
He moved the tray to the other side and we went through the same thing as we did the first time, only this time it hurt quite a bit more than the first. I sort of jumped which wasn't the best and I bumped his hand, but being the good piercer he is, he finished it like a pro.
He cleaned me up and we went over the after care. He suggested I get a mild antibacterial soap to gently clean the outside, and to rinse with an anti microbial mouthwash throughout the day. I asked about sea salt soaks and he agreed that they would be good. I find that sea salt heals almost faster than anything else.
The healing process was rather rough; I think it took a good few weeks until the swelling had completely gone down.
For the first few days, I looked like my bottom lip was three times larger than it should be, but the pieces of jewelry I had chose shone like I imagined they would. I kept cleaning them and remained patient, and in the end I do believe I ended up with a beautiful set of piercings.
Unfortunately, their life on my body was short lived. With all the care I put in them, they never healed right. I was waiting and waiting for shorter posts to come in, because I still had the original 1/4" posts in, but for some reason the company I was ordering from, the only one who made posts that would fit my ends, couldn't get their story straight.
I tried sticking it out as long as I could, but I would wake up and they would be swollen and always had crust on them. One side would swell up super big and the other would be fine. I took them out and soaked them until I just gave up. I finally retired my beautiful vertical labret piercings after only a few short months. I was so in love with the jewelry I had, I decided to use it again.
I went back to the shop I had them done in the first place, had them autoclave my original jewelry and filled out the paperwork to have my naval done twice, one on each side (I'm a sucker for having things balance out on my body).
I found that the naval piercings were much easier to heal than the vertical labrets and not nearly as painful, but I wouldn't change it. I loved they way the vertical labrets looked and plan on having them done again, but not until I have that shorter posts in my physical possession.
So, I guess if there were to be a moral to this story, it might go like this: if you have something you want done, but you know that in the future you might have to get something else, some other type of material, that maybe you should first make sure it is going to be as easily available as you think it is. Do your research by yourself and don't depend on someone else to do it for you, because chances are you can probably do it better.