I am a bit of a wuss. I was 19 before my ears were pierced and I kinda freaked out about it a little bit. But I always loved the look of the labret, so I decided to bear the pain for the beauty! I read up on the piercing on BME (thanks guys!) so I knew what to expect in terms of healing etc.
At A Glance Author violent_violet Contact violent_violet@bme.anon When Two years ago Location brisbane, australia I went to a very popular piercing place in Brisbane (I wont say which one - if you got nothing nice to say, say nothing right?), and I was a nervous as hell. The waiting room had pictures of some extreme mods! And here was a girl who freaked about ear piercing! God! It was expensive - cost me like a hundred bucks. These days' piercings go so cheap, which is probably not a good thing. In some sense you do get what you pay for. But my boyfriend bought it for me as a birthday present.
I was pretty scared that it would hurt lots. Needle = pain right? And did I mention the wussiness? I fainted at blood tests!! But when it came down to it, it was over so quick I was surprised at how little it actually hurt. Don't get me wrong it hurt, but no where near the level I had built it up to be. I have found that with piercing in general, it is usually the aftercare that's a bitch. After a while, when getting piercings you don't even care about the pain. All you think about is how, when this is over, it will look good!
The jewellery they put in was a fish tail. I found the worst part of this piercing was getting used to having a bit of metal in your mouth - i.e. eating (just take it out). Plus the fishtail is very annoying, gets bent out of shape real easy, actually got so loose a couple of times it fell out!! (Don't let this happen get it re-bent as soon as the swelling goes down!). I know places now that just pierce straight up with a labret stud.
I have had discussions with different piercers about jewellery. Some swear by fishtails to prevent embedding (yeah studs do make a kind of a recess in your lip, but as long as the fit is right it should be ok) and gum erosion. Others will only use labret studs because the fishtail causes little ulcers (true can happen). Personally I prefer the stud. It has no probs for me 'cause I don't wear them constantly so gum erosion is minimised. Plus the fishtail always gets bent outta shape, I guess if you got it bent by the piercer every time it would be ok. But I get impatient and try and bend it myself! Bad idea.
This was a couple of years ago. Why am I writing this now? Well all those piercings my friends and family got only lasted like a few months but my labret is still here. Piercings can be with you for life. Well duh! But I think some people don't really consider them permanent like say, a tattoo. I know a lot of people that have been through labrets and eyebrow piercings, and have given up. They usually have to take it out for work or they get sick of the aftercare or (in the case of labrets) don't like the fishtail. But my labrets still here, I even left my labret without jewellery for 3 months last year and it did not close. Its such a cool piercing, 'cause now its healed I can just leave it without jewellery (for work) then stretch the hole open when I want to wear a stud.
I guess this is a story to remind anyone out there thinking of getting a labret and wondering about the long term of the piercing, to know that it's possible. Also, to watch for gum erosion. This has happened to me and is something I didn't really think about when I got it. It's not too bad, but I manage it by wearing jewellery that fits well and going for periods without any jewellery (can only be done if healed though).
I have since gotten a cartilage piercing and navel done; out of all of these the navel definitely hurt the worst. Funny 'cause this is one of the most popular piercings. Even little teenybopper girls get it done. But it hurt like hell. The needle 'caught' on my skin and was hard to push through. The cartilage piercing was not really painful, but trying to sleep without lying on that ear was annoying. So plan for loss of sleep for a week or so. That's it for piercings for now.... I'm moving on to tattoos!!
So go get pierced (or pierced some more!) XXXX violet