In this Experience I will tell you about the beginning of my piercing – addiction. Today I have several facial piercings, some even removed again, and some more piercings that not everyone has seen yet :-). But it all started somewhat more harmless...
At A Glance Author der_narr Contact der_narr@bme.anon IAM der_narr When Two years ago Artist Nils Studio Serious Piercing Duesseldorf Location Duesseldorf/germany INTRODUCTION:
It was in early 2001, when I, definitely influenced by my girlfriend, who had then had several piercings, decided, that I wanted to have a piercing of my own.
So I checked out what piercings I might like. I had, at the age of 16, already had a nostril piercing but had taken it out some date.
But now, I felt, it was time to get some metal back into my body. So I decided to get a side labret. After having made that decision it was time to search for a studio I would trust enough to pierce me for the first time. After doing some research on the internet, I found the website of the "1.OPP" – a german organisation one can compare to the APP. Their members are "forced" to keep strict rules on hygiene, so I felt quite safe.
As I did not want to travel for ages to have my lip pierced, I searched for the nearest OPP – piercer from my home and soon found Serious Piercing in Duesseldorf/Germany. When contacting them on the phone they made me feel really welcome and answered all my more or less stupid questions, so I decided to go and get my lip pierced there.
THE DAY:
The day I was about to get my piercing I was quite nervous but sure about what I wanted so I grabbed Kentaro – a friend of mine – and together we made our way to the studio. When arriving there, I was surprised how clean and friendly the place looked.
Then Nils, the piercer, came out from changing someone else's jewellery and asked me about what I wanted done, then explained at length all the risks that a piercing might bring with it, answered all my questions and assured me, that he could always stop when I wanted him to do so. So I agreed to have my piercing done, filled out some sheet with a lot of questions about allergies, illnesses, medications etc, so that Nils would see if there were any complications possible. As there were none, we went to the piercing room.
Here he held a mini-maglite to my lip to check for veins, then made a mark on my lip after asking me about how I had imagined the piercing to look like. I told him to go on after checking the mark. Then I was asked to rinse my mouth with a somewhat bad tasting liquid to kill off germs etc. On the outside he cleaned my lip with some alcoholic spray and let it rest there for about a minute.
He then changed his gloves and opened all the briefs including several clamps, scissors, the jewellery, needle etc – all in front of me. He then threw those gloves away too, put on some extra sterilized gloves and put the clamps on my lip. This did not hurt bad, but as it was new to me it was unpleasant.
Then he quickly pierced my lip and I opened my eyes again when he told me he was done. I tried to sit up and was quite dizzy, so he got me a glass of water from the counter and handed me a mirror to see my new addition. I was so glad.
After resting some more minutes I went to the front counter, chatted for a while and handed him 75€ for the piercing and all, and off I went.
Aftercare:
Aftercare was pretty easy with this piercing. On the sheet Nils had given me were some rules I carefully followed: no mik on the first days, no smoking or alcohol, no bodily fluids from others to prevent an infection.
Apart from that I cleaned my piercing after each meal and rinsed my mouth with Camille-tea from time to time to calm the piercing.
I also used a wound-desinfectant to prevent infections, called Octenisept, which I can say works really fine on most piercings as long as you don't overdo it.
Some 7 weeks later I went back to the shop to see if I had correctly cared for it and to have a ring inserted into my lip instead of the labret stud he had first put in. This ring was also included in the piercing price.
Serious Piercing is a studio I can recommend to anybody getting pierced in NRW !
www.serious-piercing.de
Should you have any questions about the Studio or are looking for studios in Germany, feel free to ask me. Photos of my Labret can be found in the Lip Ring Galleries of BME