Background
At A Glance Author Ice_Pick_Abortions Contact Ice_Pick_Abortions@bme.anon IAM Ice_Pick_Abortions When A month ago Artist Shaun Studio Snakebite Location Cork Tattoo Convention Vertical labrets? Huh? I stumbled upon vertical labrets by accident. I was reading the BME QOD and someone had asked a question about them. I had no clue what they were or even how they were possible. How on earth could a labret be considered vertical? This prompted a trip to the BME encyclopaedia and it was there that I fell in love. There was a picture of someone with double vertical labrets and they were simply breath taking. I began reading as many experiences as I could about them but realised that at that time they were out of the question so the idea was shelved for a while.
Fast-forward about 3 months and I was coming to the end of my final year at school. The idea of vertical labrets began to appeal to me again. I was trying to think of a way to mark the new chapter that was coming up in my life. The freedom of university, meeting new people and forming a new identity for myself. Vertical labrets would be the perfect way to mark this. I brought the subject up with my piercer a week later and to my utter dismay he said he wouldn't do them, as he wasn't comfortable with them. I was gutted. There was no one else in my area that I would trust to pierce me and it seemed like vertical labrets just weren't meant to be mine. However, talking to some fellow IAM members I learnt that a very reputable studio (Snakebite) would have a stall at a tattoo convention that I happened to be going to. Excellent! The plan was back on. I emailed Snakebite just to be doubly sure that they definitely did them, as I didn't want to have my hopes crushed. To my delight the reply confirmed that they did them. I also messaged some people of IAM who had vertical labrets done to ask them how they looked after them. I especially wanted to talk to someone who it hadn't worked out for so I could possibly learn from their mistakes. Now all I had to do was wait for 2 months.
Slowest 2 months of my life! It took 6 hours on the train to get to Cork for the convention and after a lot of running around like headless chickens l °>ÃwŒë ooking for the place it was being held, my boyfriend and I were rescued by another IAM member, Carrie, who was also there. When I got to the hall it was being held in there was lots of introductions to other IAM members that I'd never met before and after that they dragged me off to meet the guy who would be doing my piercings, Shaun. He talked to me for about 10 or 15 minutes about the migration rate of these piercings, the things I would have to avoid eating, drinking and doing and how bad it would be if they did begin to migrate or reject. I decided to go and sit and think things over for a while.
These piercings would be the first ones that I couldn't hide with my hair or cover with clothes. The only other facial piercing I had was a nose stud that was pretty discreet. If I got them they would be the most "in your face" mod so to speak. Could I afford to do that? What would my work say? What would my parents say since I had *ahem* neglected to tell them I would be getting these done. It would be a big step for me...and I decided to do it. Sure it would cause an up roar but I felt like I needed these piercings. They would remind me of the life I was leaving. After deliberating for about half an hour a wee group of us went back to find Shaun so I could get it done. While I was waiting for Shaun to come back to the stall I realised that I hadn't had anything proper to eat all day and was practically frog-marched out to get a burger by Dave, for which I am really grateful because I probably would have fainted otherwise.
Procedure
When I was sat down Shaun ran over things again with me and asked what kind of placement I was wanting. I wanted them to be pretty central and Shaun said "no problem" and snapped on a pair of gloves. A lot of time was spent with Shaun's gloved fingers in my mouth getting a general feel of my lip and then out came the callipers as he took measurements for what size of bars to use. After all of this 14mm titanium 14ga curved barbells were decided on and he began to get the needles and jewellery out. He changed his gloves and then got a toothpick, dipped it in some purple ink and started to mark me up. This took about 5 minutes and since there were no mirrors to hand I had to get up and run off in search of one to check the placement! It was all good and when I sat back down, Shaun changed his gloves, opened up a brand new needle and put some lube on it. He told me to take deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth, and he would pierce the right hand side one on the third breath. I've never been good with having people concentrating on my face and as such had a bit of a hard time keeping a straight face. The fact that I was also focusing on a Simpson's poster with quotes didn't help matters but that stopped once I felt the needle go in.
The hole at the bottom of my lip really wasn't any worse than any of my other piercings but when it came to coming out the top of my lip that feeling changed. Once the needle tried to poke out the pain got sharp and took my breath away. I had to force myself to keep breathing. I could feel the needle straining against the skin, trying to break it but once the needle got through the sharp pain receded to a dull throb. The needle was left in while Shaun got the barbell out of its packet.
In a few second the needle was out and the barbell was in. "Oh dear". The 14mm barbell was ridiculously long, prompting my boyfriend to burst out laughing. It was soon changed to a smaller 12mm barbell and Shaun changed his gloves and prepared the next need °>ÃwŒë le. The sensations of left hand piercing was the same as the one on the right, with the pain becoming sharp as the needle attempted to get through the top of my lip. However, once this needle poked through a river of blood began to make it's way down my chin. I could feel it being pumped out of my lip, taste it in my mouth and feel it's slow progress down my chin. Strangely I wasn't panicked about this and actually found it quite funny. This may have been due to the endorphin rush I was experiencing or simply because it looked quite funny.
Once they were done and I was cleaned up as much as possible I made my shaky way to find the mirror to have a look. Despite being bloody they still looked amazing. I was so happy and euphoric I started to make my way out of the hall to meet up with the rest of the IAM group. It was only when I was about 5 minutes down the road that I realised that I'd forgotten to actually pay! I had to run all the way back and pay Shaun 80 Euros and apologise and thank profusely. He also gave me a detailed aftercare sheet, some wipes to clean the blood crusties later and a business flyer so I could find the actual studio when it came round to downsizing.
Aftermath
The rest of the day was uneventful with me and my boyfriend buying some baby wipes and Ibuprofen and then heading back to where we were staying and going to bed as we had about 8 hours of travelling to do the next day. The next morning I woke up and I personally didn't think my lip looked too swollen, although my boyfriend assured me that it was. There was an enormous amount of blood crusties on the left one which was gingerly cleaned off with help from my gentle boyfriend. Drinking was funny. Due my research on BME I knew it would be awkward and I would probably dribble all down myself so to combat this I bought a sports bottle with one of the caps that is kind of like a baby's bottle. This meant I could just squirt the water into my mouth, no dribbling (almost) and no banging off the lip.
The journey home wasn't too interesting. When my lip got a bit sore I poured some of the water over it and took the Ibuprofen as directed on the packet. The left one constantly crusted up with blood. It would be cleaned only to be absolutely covered in crust in under a minute so I gave up on it and just let it be, cleaning it just before being picked up by my dad so it would look a little bit more presentable.. My dad's reaction wasn't as big as I expected. He simply said "Ooooo" and made a face at me in the rear view mirror. My mum's reaction was more theatrical. She sobbed and yelled and sobbed some more. I just left her to it. I know from experience that she'd never even attempt to try to understand my point of view. After the first 24 hours the fun really started.
Week one – two
My main adversary for this week was blood. Lots of blood. I woke up on the third morning to find the top of my duvet covered in dried blood and looking in the mirror I saw that a nice big chunk of my chin and neck was covered in blood from my lip. I had to sneak into the bathroom so my mum didn't see it and really freak out about it. Once it was cleaned up it was no problem. The blood crusties appeared in huge amounts for about 4 days. I soaked my lip in salt water three times a day to soften these up and then removed them carefully with a moist cotton bud. This was decreased down to two soaks a day for the remainder of the week as the bleeding calmed down. There was also a huge amount of bruising on the bottom holes and the top of my lip. My lip also swelled to about twice its size however, it looked much, much worse than it actually felt. Eating was never a problem. My lip just felt a bit stiff but as long as I took my time putting the fork in my mouth and opened my mouth wide, I was fine. The big problem was drinking. I just kept using the sports bottle and squirting the water into my mouth. I'd tackle glasses later.
Week two – three
After the first week I just kept doing the salt soaks twice a day. The bruising was still there, and wasn't even close to being gone right up until the end of the second week. There was also a lot of skin peeling and cracking because I couldn't lick my lips or apply any lip balm or Vaseline. The swelling also didn't go down much. This was probably due to me throwing a house party and drinking too much and smoking too much. Needless to say this was a bad idea and I felt it in the morning. My lip was really painful the day after but I wasn't surprised since I had done the two things I had been told specifically not to do under any circumstances while the piercings were in the initial healing stages. Note to readers DON'T DO THIS!
Week three – four
Once my lip had recovered from the party I stopped cleaning it. I have learnt from experience that I heal piercings best by cleaning them regularly for the first two weeks and then leaving them well alone. I found this out through trial and a lot of error. Just because this works for me doesn't mean it will work for everyone else. You disregard your piercers advice at your own risk. I rinsed them in the shower and maybe cleaned them once a week from now on but that was it. The swelling had started to go down by the end of the second week and during this week I started to think about downsizing the bars as they were beginning to catch on almost everything. You never realise how much you bump your lip until you get it pierced. You bump it hugging people, eating and drinking, changing clothes and even moving in bed you will catch the duvet. I also relearned how to drink from a glass and a regular bottle this week. I had to poke my tongue out a bit in between the bars to form a kind of substitute bottom lip to stop the water from dribbling out between the bars. Since then I've managed to drink without doing this. It just takes a lot of practice!
Week four – five
This is around where I am now. I recently got the bars downsized to 10 mm. I just bought the bars from my piercer and did them myself, as I couldn't get down to Snakebite. The bars aren't snug to my lip but since they're still healing I'd rather have a wee bit room in case of swelling. Maybe by the end of August I'll get some Blackline 8mm bars and put them in so they're right against my lip.
Conclusion
Apart from the first week the healing has been pretty easy considering I've heard they're meant to be really awkward to heal. They've also attracted a lot of attention but unfortunately it appears to be more negative than positive. Most of the negative comments happen when I'm at work. You'd think that they'd be from young kids but the majority of those kinds of comments have come from people over the age of 30. They range from small remarks up to a five-minute lecture I received from a "beauty therapist". Maybe it's the generation gap or maybe it's just that Northern Ireland is a small country. I wouldn't advise people to get these done unless they're willing to take some serious self-esteem beating. Sometimes I wonder why I got them done until I remember I got the done for me, not my family, not the customers who come into the store but for me to mark a new chapter of my life. A summary of points for those thinking of vertical labrets would be:
Make sure you are ready for a lot of babying, care and staying away from alcohol and smoking of any sort. Just because it worked out ok for me doesn't mean it will for you. These piercings can be quite temperamental in healing
Moisturise your lips for a few weeks before hand. Hopefully that will mean less pain for you when the needle exits through the top of your lip. I think my skin lips were so dry and tough and that's why it hurt so much.
Eat slowly and drink even slower! Take your time learning to drink from glasses and bottles again.
Be sure you're ready for a lot of attention, some of which will be hurtful remarks but don't let it get you down. Stand tall and be proud of who you are.
Thanks for reading and I hope I've helped. Email me or message me on IAM if you have any more questions.