About a month ago, my good friend of mine and I decided that we would go out and get ourselves pierced. Since Triple Take, our usual piercing place, had mysteriously closed, we were told to go to Advanced Tattoo Clinic. We hopped on a bus downtown one Friday night after work to get it all done. When we arrived downtown, we walked to Advanced Tattoo Clinic. Having planned everything for a while, we each knew what we were to be getting. I was to get my Madonna and she was to get her tongue pierced.
At A Glance Author jennifer When A month ago Studio Advanced Tattoo Clinic Location downtown Windsor We walked in and filled out the usual forms about what we wanted to get and how old we were. We had been through this before, but for those who haven't its basically just generic information about yourself and a checklist of things that you may or may not have done prior to getting pierced. When we were done we handed in our forms and were brought to the back room. My friend decided she wanted to go first and I waited patiently. Her piercing seemed to be over really fast.
When my turn was up, I was a little bit nervous, but then I always am whenever I get anything pierced. The piercer gave me something to rinse my mouth out with so I would be nice and clean. I got up on the chair and the piercer, drew a dot on my upper lip to mark the spot where he was going to pierce it. I agreed to the placement. He then clamped my lip and pushed the needle through. I thought it would hurt more than it did, just because I assumed that an oral piercing hurt more than the average kind. He then put the bar through the hole and screwed the ball on for me. There was a little bit of blood, but I didn't notice it until he had already wiped it off.
The bar was a bit too long for my liking, but apparently they do that for everyone and you are able to change it after a few weeks when there is no more swelling. I was given a solution to clean it and paid my fifty dollars for the whole thing. It was worth it and I was very happy.
It was all over so fast and I was afraid to talk for most of the night, let alone make and movements with my mouth. On the first day I refrained from eating very much so I wouldn't irritate it a lot and I drank a lot of water, which I was advised to do. It hurt for maybe the first night and then gradually it got much better and now I can do everything that I did before.
To my surprise, oral piercings aren't very difficult to take care of, other than watching what you eat for the first couple of days. I had to rinse my mouth out whenever I ate and cleaned it twice a day with the solution that I was given. It was a little bit swollen on the first couple of days but it subsided, which he told me would be expected. I thought it would have taken more effort on my part, but I guess it was just like any other piercing.
It got infected for a while because of the long bar. After the swelling went down, the bar just kept getting stuck on my teeth when I opened my mouth wide enough. I guess after the first few days the length of the bar was unnecessary. I couldn't wait to get the bar changed. About two weeks later I went back in and they changed the bar for me free of charge to make it look more normal. It no longer gets stuck on my teeth and it hasn't been infected since.
My one problem since getting this piercing has been dealing with the jewellery. I have lost a few balls that screw on the end and have had to buy replacements. I can never seem to get them tight enough. I find that plastic ones have served me much better than metal because my first three were metal and I've lost all of them, but I've only had one plastic and I haven't lost it yet.
I would just like to say that the people at Advanced are wonderful people and they made me feel very comfortable. They are really nice and tell you everything you need to know about what you're getting done and how to take care of it. Because of them I avoided much infection and I am enjoying my piercing very much. I suggest that any of you in the Windsor, Ontario area who are looking for a new hole to go there for all your piercing needs.