I can remember the exact day, the exact time, and the exact moment I first thought about getting a piercing: at the time (almost two years ago), I didn't know anything about piercings—let alone what the area I wanted to get pierced was called. I just knew that, when I saw how the piercing looked, every fiber of thought cried out, "That would look AWESOME on me!"...however, I was only sixteen—old enough to get pierced, but only with a parent's permission, which I had none of.
At A Glance Author Joshua Azevedo Contact Joshua Azevedo@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Daniel Studio Body Exotic Location San Jose, CA Skip forward in time to last month. I was hanging out with my friends and we were channel surfing when the video for "Prayer" by Disturbed popped up (my original muse, by the way) and, once again, I thought about how good it would look on me, and also the fact I'd be 18 in less than a month and wouldn't need a parent's permission. With that thought in mind, I pored over every website I could find to get information on what I wanted to get pierced (I found out it was called the 'labret'), possible complications, problems, costs of the piercing, costs of the jewelry, and just anything I thought would be relevant. And then I told my parents...
My mom's reaction: "Well, I don't like the way it looks. But if it's what you want, I don't mind."
My dad's: "If you get this piercing, it will drive a wedge between us."
Moving on, my chosen piercing studio was Body Exotic, in San Jose, CA. I'd driven by and talked to the guy who was going to do my piercing about a week and a half before I got it done, gotten a look at the place, and deemed it good, picked out the jewelry I wanted, and had a brief discussion with Daniel (my then-piercer-to-be) about gum recession and overall just got a good feel about the place. A week later, I made my appointment, then three days later I went in for my piercing.
Like most first-time pierce-ees, I was a little nervous, having heard everything from, "I felt nothing at all" to "It felt like my flesh was being torn with a red-hot sewing needle" but my friend Scott just laughed and told me to go ahead. I filled out the necessary paperwork (won't hold them responsible if I'm injured, may cause irreparable skin damage, nobody's guaranteed there'll be no scarring, etc), listened to my CD player for a minute, then went into the back room.
I was handed a little cup of super-mouthwash (it was strong enough that, after spitting it out, my lips and cheeks felt numb), guided through the process (for the sake of space: mark, poke, insert post, select final jewelry), and I tried to be prepared as best I could. After getting the general width I wanted right on the first try, Daniel then proceeded to spend the next 10 to 15 minutes marking the exact position for my labrets (turns out the right side of my face moves more than the left side of my face so he had difficulty getting them aligned), but after the marking my nervousness vanished and I was ready to go. He told me to breathe in and out easily, said, "You're going to feel a slight pinch,"...then started piercing the left side first.
Although it didn't hurt as much as some people said it does, the most disconcerting thing for me was that I could feel the needle searing through each little layer of skin and flesh, but before I could contemplate how much longer I had to go, the needle popped out of the other side and the jewelry I'd chosen, the standard spike, was on the left side. Then came the right side, a little of the nervousness returning at the thought of feeling each layer of skin give way to the needle again, but I didn't want to look lopsided so I just gritted my teeth and waited for the needle to slide through, and before I knew it, it was over.
I asked for a mirror so I could see what I looked like, but it was a little too soon as one of my pieces was in, but the other had the second piercing needle sticking straight out of it, and after a laugh from me and Daniel, my second piece was inserted and it was done. I was given the aftercare instructions, two 4 oz bottles of antiseptic formulated for skin piercings, a 4 oz bottle of Tech 2000 (I already had Biotene at home), and I paid, making sure to give a tip to Daniel for being so cool.
I've had it for 10 days now and I love it: it gets looks (mostly from curious people), I think it looks badass on me, and a lot of girls really like it. The only problem I've had with it was when, last night, I was cleaning it and I noticed the cone was loose on the end of it, the cone dropped off, and I almost lost it down the sink. Then, if that wasn't bad enough, the post came completely out of the hole, and I was worried sick for a moment that I wouldn't be able to get it back into the hole—but no worries, I managed to get it in and screw the cone back on without any problems, and I got a crash course in changing my jewelry!
Overall, I'd recommend this piercing if you think you'd look good with it (but why get a piercing you think doesn't look good?), but also be prepared in case you have to remove it because they can (and most likely will) cause gum erosion/recession: I'm going in to my dentist sometime next week to have her look at my teeth and gums to make sure they haven't started receding yet, and I'm going to buy a teflon flatback stud as soon as the store near me gets them in stock. Until next time...