At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When Three months ago Studio I shouldn't say Location South Dakota, USA When I went to get my monroe piercing, the shop was packed. I'd never seen it that busy before! Since I was a "regular", I didn't have to watch their aftercare video. We just went over the highlights of their aftercare (which I don't follow anyway...I do sea salt soaks, which they think are horribly wrong) At some point, I paid. The apprentice accidentally undercharged me by $15. I knew how much it was supposed to cost, but I didn't say anything. I felt guilty at the time, but over time I've grown to dislike the shop so I have no problem with that now.
To begin, the apprentice took me to the sink and had me rinse my mouth out with hydrogen peroxide. That was an experience all in itself...if you're bored someday, give it a try. I had flossed, brushed, and used mouthwash (twice!) immediately before going there, and still my teeth were foaming. Yuck. The taste isn't great either. We walked over to the piercing table with my teeth still foaming.
We marked the monroe three times before we had a safe placement for my mouth. Then, the clamp, and the needle, and the jewelry: a 14 gauge, 3/8" labret stud. (The piercer gave me the abbreviated play by play since I'd been in there a lot, but she did everything right. She did have a helluva time getting the ball on, though.) Of course it hurt, but it was just a sting, and then it was over. What surprised me, though was how fast and how much it swelled up. I had a 3/8" stud in, and it was instantly swollen most of the way to the end.
The next morning, it was swollen all the way to the end and a little more--I had a slight crater from the ball. The swelling went down some through the day, but overnight it filled the stud again. It stayed that swollen for 2-3 weeks. After that, it started deflating a little. The day/night swelling cycle continued throughout healing. I occasionally caught the stud on my teeth while eating, which didn't help the swelling. I also got into the habit of playing with it, and I think some extra abuse from it going crooked while I slept caused it to stay swollen for 2-3 more weeks.
Then, the piercing was 5 weeks old. The swelling hadn't gone down any for 3 weeks, and it was clear that it would stay swollen until I got a shorter stud that I couldn't play with or get caught as easily. I went in to my piercer, who refused to change it because it wasn't 8 weeks old yet. (According to the shop, everyone's monroe heals in 8 weeks, everyone's navel heals in 6 months, etc. Bullshit.) There aren't any other piercers in my town worth mentioning, and at that time, I was uncomfortable changing it myself, so I just waited.
Two weeks later it was still swollen about the same, and I was about to go on vacation. I stopped by the shop, and since it was almost 8 weeks old and therefore almost healed, they agreed to change it. I picked out a gem ball from one of the 3/8" labret studs in the case, we checked the threads to make sure it matched up with a 1/4" stud, and then we went back to put a shorter stud in. She grabbed a sterile packaged stud, but didn't disinfect the gem ball. Nice.
She put on her gloves, opened the new stud's package, unscrewed my old ball, and swapped the jewelry, putting my old stud on the paper towel on the tray. My monroe swelled immediately from being touched, and it was all the way to the end of the threads of the 1/4" stud. That obviously wasn't going to work; and they didn't have any 5/16" jewelry. So, she put the way-too-long 3/8" stud back in (without disinfecting it) and then screwed on the gem ball which we (and who knows who else) had handled with our bare hands. I went home and immediately did an extra long sea salt soak to soothe my piercing and in hopes that any germs I'd picked up would die. Nothing bad came of it, but still, it was a very bad practice on the shop's part. The next morning I left town with a 3/8" labret stud sticking too far out of my face.
A couple of days into my vacation, my friend admitted that the big thing sticking out of my face had to go, and he called every piercer in town to see if they had a 5/16" labret. One did. They only had 16g in that length, and only one style--with a clear gem ball (not even plain steel). I originally planned to wait until it was fully healed to go down to 16g. Since I was planning to downsize anyway, and it was better than a way too long stud sticking out, I bought it.
We went back to my friend's house. I cleaned the stud and put it in. I would have liked that piercer to change it for me, but he didn't offer and I wasn't as nervous about changing it myself by then. I did just fine. The area swelled up as much as it had when my piercer tried changing it, but the 5/16" stud still fit.
I played with the new stud less, and the swelling went down dramatically after that. After only a few days, the stud was too long most of the time. I still had overnight swelling, but then that stopped after another week or so.
Now my monroe is 3 months old, and it's healed. I put in the 5/16" stud about 6 weeks ago. Today I got a 1/4" stud in the mail. I tried to get the old one out, and I could not get that little bastard unscrewed! Since it's healed, I wasn't as concerned about cleanliness as I might have been. All I had on hand was one of those rubber things for gripping jar lids. I tried that to get a better grip on the ball...no luck. So, I made a quick run to the store for latex gloves and KY. (I'd been meaning to get some KY for lobe stretching, etc. anyway, but hey, isn't it mildly humerous to see a woman walking through walmart with only a box of gloves and KY? I wanted to see if I'd get any looks...I didn't.) I put gloves on, and of course the ball screwed off instantly. I put the 1/4" stud in, screwed on the new ball, and it fits. There was no swelling at all. It does stick out a little, but since they don't make them any shorter, I'm stuck with that small gap.
By the way, my 16g labret studs were made by different manufacturers, and the threads are different. I wasn't expecting them to match, but it would've been nice to have the gem ball fit on this shaft so I could wear it once in a while.