I got my scrumper pierced. Of all the things I want to pierce, this was not something I've been thinking about or planning on. I'm a person who likes to laugh and has plenty of opportunities to do so, but I don't like to smile. You can't really see a smiley piercing unless you smile.
At A Glance Author DirtyPrettyThings Contact DirtyPrettyThings@bme.anon IAM DirtyPrettyThings When It just happened Artist Russell Studio Legacy Imports Location Stockton, CA So this is what happened. As usual, John and I dropped by Legacy Imports on a Sunday afternoon. John is one lucky duck, he can get any facial piercing he wants and the school or even his place of employment doesn't say anything about it. Me, I have to be really discreet. I'm an office slave so I have to look really conservative. The only real facial piercing I have is my septum, but I wear a retainer. Other than that everything else is pretty much covered up if I'm wearing office-appropriate clothes. I don't think anyone will say anything about my lobes until I'm able to start stretching them.
John went to the shop to get two side labrets. We looked at the jewelry displays and chit-chatted with Russell, the piercer on duty, for a while. We see the guy at least twice a week whenever we're in the area. Everytime we come into the shop he asks "What are you guys getting done now?".
I always notice when Russell has new piercings, like when he did his cheeks (but retired them a couple of weeks later). While we were talking, I noticed he had his smiley pierced and I asked him how long he'd had it. Russell has had it for two months, but I never noticed it.
John's never seen this kind of piercing before. I've only seen a few pictures on BME and wasn't really drawn to the look. I don't think I'll really be satisfied until I get my vertical labret, but Russell said he wanted to do a scrumper piercing so I volunteered right away.
After Russell finished John's labrets, I hopped into the chair. Russell called the other piercer, Jose, to come help. I didn't know why until they were both gloved up and I was sitting sideways in the chair.
When I was done drying up the saliva over my upper gums with a paper towel, Jose stood behind me and held my lips up while Russell did the piercing. I was a little embarrassed, I'm sure I looked really silly. John kept making Mr. Ed noises and I was pinching myself to stop from laughing. It didn't work too well but the longer I kept laughing the longer I had to sit there with my lip pulled back.
I chose a 14g smiley, and I for sure thought this piercing would hurt intensely. When I thought about it, 14g seemed really big to be putting in that tiny web of skin. But with my head tilted back and Jose reaching over my shoulders with his hands crammed in my mouth, I couldn't really tell what was going on. I was hoping I wouldn't drool like I did when I had my tongue pierced, but fortunately that didn't happen since only the front part of my mouth was being messed with.
When the needle went through, I hardly felt it. It just felt like someone was tugging a little. The screwing on of the horseshoe balls was the most painful part.
And when the piercing was over and I was able to close my mouth, it felt so weird. It felt like I had a piece of apple shoved up between my lip and gum.
We paid Russell for the piercings, and left a tip for him and Jose. Then we went to the movies. The whole way downtown, I kept looking in the mirror. My mouth felt so weird. The sensation of the jewelry lying against my teeth was like fingernails scraping a chalkboard. It was driving me nuts. My gums started to feel a little sore too, but nothing too bad.
The horseshoe kept rotating to one side and wouldn't stay centered. I know you shouldn't keep touching a new piercing, but I couldn't help it. I kept straightening out the jewelry whenever I saw myself in the mirror. Hopefully I can change it to a captive bead ring later.
At the movie theaters, I ordered a large Diet Coke. I wasn't sure if I wanted to try to eat anything just yet, even though it didn't seem like the new jewelry would interfere.
It's the day after the piercing and it doesn't feel weird anymore. I had to be careful while brushing my teeth, I'm not sore or swollen. I rinsed with sea salt and warm water last night so hopefully that helped. Hopefully I will learn to love this piercing. Maybe I'll learn to love smiling too.