I had been wanting to get a new piercing for about three weeks now, and the scrumper/smiley ring was pretty much a spur of the moment kind of thing for me. I was looking at different lip piercings on BME, and I just suddenly came across the smiley ring. I quickly became infatuated with the look of it. I just found it some what attractive and provocative. I wanted it there and now.
At A Glance Author Leslie Contact Leslie@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Conor Studio A Holy Body Piercing Location Honolulu My friends picked me up to hang out later that day, and I could not stop thinking about it. It was almost like a love story, so I made them take me to this piercing shop called, A Holy Body Piercing, down in Waikiki. I know the piercer there, and he told me it would be thirty dollars. I went in the back, and he had everything set up, as usual. For some reason, this particular piercing made me more nervous than usual. I think it was because whenever I get a piercing, I try to learn everything about it, and I did not know too much about the smiley ring except for the look of it. Conor asked me if I wanted it at a sixteen gauge, and I told him yes. He put his gloves on, took the needle out of the package, then bent the needle to a little less than a half circle. I had never seen a piercer bend it before, so I pretty much knew that this piercing was going to be different. He took two different clamps out. One to put the captive ring in, and the other one to clamp my skin. He told me to gargle with Listerine for thirty seconds, so I did, then spit it out and he prepared me for my piercing. Conor dotted the area where I wanted it done, laid the seat down, and clamped it. The piercer told me to take two deep breathes in and out, then on the second breath out, he pierced it. I was holding my friend's hand to calm my nerves (I always get these before piercing nerves), but in the end, it turns out that I really did not need it. Conor had a little bit of a hard time getting the ball in on the captive bead ring, because it is such a small ring, but he managed to do it without tugging or anything, and before I knew it, the whole thing was over, and to tell you the truth, gargling with Listerine hurt more than the actual piercing.
After the piercing was over, Conor told me about all of the things to do to keep my smiley ring clean. I need to gargle with Listerine after I smoke, drink anything but water, eat, or pretty much do anything with my mouth, however, I should not gargle with Listerine more than once within an hour, because it could be a bit harsh on my teeth and gums. I should only do this for the first two weeks, and after that I only need to gargle three to five times a day. I gently suck on ice because it helps to bring the swelling down, because my lip will be swollen for the next three to five days according to my aftercare instructions. Conor told me that it would take at least a month to heal.
When I left the piercing shop, I could still feel it tingling just a little bit, but after maybe fifteen minutes the whole sensation from the needle just sort of went away. When I woke up this morning (the day after), I could feel that my lip was swollen, so I did what I had to do to keep it clean, and the swelling went down later on today. The captive ring makes my mouth feel completely different. I feel like I need to keep an eye on my front two teeth because the ball on the ring clicks on my teeth sometimes. When I sneeze, or I have an itch below my nostrils, I can feel my smiley ring hurt just a little bit. It is not the kind of pain that people can't handle. The ring seems to move around a lot in my mouth, so I don't know how I'm going to avoid not playing with it, because it seems to do that naturally, but so far, it has been great. The smiley ring is kind of a pain in the ass to clean, because you need to clean it so often, but it is really rewarding to see the result. I love my smiley ring and I wouldn't change this for the world. In fact, if I could do it all over again, I would. I loved the process, and I love the result. I recommend this piercing for all people.