I'm not sure where I first got the idea to get my scrumper pierced. Although I had seen pictures of the piercing on BME, and read several accounts of it, I have seen almost nobody with one, and I cannot really explain why I wanted to get this piercing. I do remember meeting a girl a few weeks before getting the piercing who had a little ring through her scrumper, and there was something about it which drew my attention. This may be what prompted me at the time to get my scrumper pierced. It is quite a rare piercing, and perhaps for this reason I felt it would be a good thing to get done. I also figured that it was likely to be relatively straightforward; after all, there is not much to pierce, and so it probably seemed an easy choice of piercing, with minimal problems likely to arise.
At A Glance Author G Contact G@bme.anon IAM wiggly woo When A year ago Artist Tamara Location Broome Anyway, while in Broome, at the top end of Western Australia, I stumbled upon a tattoo and piercing studio. I forget the name now, but I am sure there is only one in town. I spoke to the piercer in there about getting my scrumper pierced. She took a look in my mouth to ensure that the piercing was practical, and fortunately it was, but she did warn me that these piercings are heavily prone to rejection, and although some people keep them for quite a while, I should be aware that there was a very high chance of rejection in a relatively short timescale.
In any event I decided to go ahead with the piercing. I figured that I could always remove it in the case of problems occuring, and in any event as it was going to be inside my mouth I was not especially worried about any risk of scarring as I may have been with regard to, say, a facial piercing. The process was painless. I think of all the piercings I have gone through - tongue, nipples, septum, eyebrow, labret and lip - this was the easiest by far.
After cleansing my mouth with some mouthwash, the piercer prepared to pierce my scrumper, and there was really nothing to it. It was a relatively straightforward case of clamping the area and pushing a needle through, which felt like barely more than a slight prick. I could not believe it had been done, it was so easy. I forget which gage I was pierced at, but this was the smallest size of all the piercings I have had done. Most have been 14 ga, but this was a lot smaller, perhaps 18 or even 20 ga. I was pierced with a small bcr. Inserting the jewellery proved more difficult, especially the putting the ball onto the small bcr, and the piercer dropped the ball a few times in her attempts to fit it on to the bcr. I am not really surprised though when I consider the small size of the ball, and it can't be easy for anyone to try and get it clipped onto a ring in somebody's mouth.
Aftercare was easy. Unlike my tongue, lip or labret there was no swelling at all, certainly none that I could notice, and although a little sore at intervals over the next few days, there was no significant discomfort caused by my new hole.
The positioning of my scrumper sadly meant that I did not have much opportunity to show off my new piercing. Although there can be benefits to hiding piercings, this was one I wanted to have on full display. Unless I pulled up my top lip nobody could see it was there. I didn't even know it was there 99% of the time, and in this respect the piercing was a little disappointing. At times a fair amount of plaque formed around the ring, which was not ideal. However, after a mere 3 or 4 months, it became apparent to me that the piercing was starting to grow out, with the skin covering the ring shrinking. By this time I was in Adelaide and went to see one of the piercers at Punktured on Hindley Street. I was told that in the opinion of the piercer there my scrumper was not really suited to being pierced, hence the quick rejection, and I had the jewellery removed there.
Sadly I am probably not going to be able to enjoy the pleasure of another scrumper piercing. As advice for others, I would certainly say its an easy piercing to get and take care of. However, be warned, it is unlikely to be a long lasting piercing in most cases, and this is something to take on board. Also be very sure you trust your piercer, as it does seem that a lot of us are probably not suited to this piercing.