By this time I had more then felt the water when it comes to piercings. I dove in headfirst. I felt a little taller for all the jewelry hanging around on my face. However I did still feel like a work in progress. There were and still are a great many things I would like to have done. Taking things one step at a time however, I had to choose my next mod wisely.
At A Glance Author aniorange Contact aniorange@bme.anon IAM aniorange When Five years ago Artist Robert Studio Dogstar Tattoo Location Durham, N.C. Also by this time, I had found BME as well as other web sights, web rings and what not. I had stumbled across a "new" piercing that intrigued me. I think I first read about it on rec.arts.bodyarts. It was called the Scrumper or Smiley piercings. At the time there where not many pictures on BME for this type of piercing nor had anyone I talked to heard of it.
Well, when I had some money to burn I headed down to Ninth Street to see Robert at Dogstar Tattoo. I came in a bit early as I often did, not too long after they opened. I found Robert and told him what I wanted. I could clearly see his eyes light up. He seemed quite excited that I wanted such a piercing. At first he said, "Really, cool!" Then he told me, still with a hint of excitement, that he had never done one before and I would be his first. He followed that up with all I had to do was buy the jewelry and he would pierce it for free, basically for the experience. I didn't think about it long. This guy had never led me wrong. He had done a wonderful job on my piercings to date and they all healed great. Not to mention, you have to start somewhere, you can't gain experience if you don't get to try. I said sure, I'll go for it. Robert said he would order the jewelry.
I went home a little disappointed that I did not have my "fix" if you will. I was not pierced. But I did have the satisfaction that it was in my future, and to see Robert excited about it was great. Robert told me it would be about a week and he should have the jewelry. That worked ok for me because it would be easier for me to come back in a week when I had a couple of days off, rather than to get up in the middle of the day when I had to work all night.
I came back in a week with a fair amount of anticipation. I also had my fears. I had the usual what ifs. But they didn't bother me much anymore. I felt invincible and things were only going to get worse as far as my complex goes.
When I came in Robert told me he had not gotten the jewelry yet. He was rather upset about that and was apologetic. He said is should be soon. He told me to try back in a few days. I came back the next day just in case and he still didn't have it, so I waited another week.
It took some time and a few visits before the jewelry came in. Robert was very visibly irritated by the whole thing. He was talking about getting his jewelry from somewhere else from then on. He got everything autoclaved and prepared the room. Another artist in the shop who was not currently busy saw me and said to me, "So you're the one getting the piercing up in your lip." I replied, "But of course."
It wasn't long before Robert called me back to his room. He gave me some stuff to wash my mouth out with and spit into another cup. He had me lie down. He told me to relax my lips but keep my teeth shut just in case. These sounded like words of wisdom. He pulled my lip up and looked at things. Apparently however he was having some trouble holding the lip up and piercing at the same time. He asked the other artist to put on some gloves and come in to help. I started thinking, wow, this is going to be some big ordeal.
The other artist came in and held up my lip while Robert got to work piercing me. It took a minute or two to line things up. I believe he still asked me as usual if I was ready. I replied though clenched teeth, "Do it." I barely even felt the needle go though. I had psyched myself up to think this one is going to be tender but no. It was so very easy.
I then heard Robert struggling with something. I didn't feel much, maybe a little pressure. He was starting to get upset. He then started to cuss. I heard him say that he lost the hole. That didn't sound good. He made one last attempt and apparently could not get the jewelry in. Robert pulled of his gloves and cussed. The other guy let go of my lip and I sat up. Robert told me he was sorry. I could tell he tried his best but just ran into a problem. He told me to go home and let it heal for a week and come back if I still wanted to and we would try again. I told him I would I kind of felt bad.
A week passes. There is a part of me that is thinking, "Geez, this is taking a long time. I shouldn't have to put up with all this waiting." Then the rest of me replied telling me to shut it and Robert was a good piercer and he would not do me wrong. I headed back to Dogstar hoping not to be disappointed as I have been so far.
Robert seen me and knew what I was there for. He got everything clean and sterilized and invited me back to the same old room. Once again he asked for help from someone different this time. They put on gloves as well as Robert and held my lip up. Robert told me to keep my teeth shut. He never said why, but I knew why. I would hate to swallow anything. I felt a tad bit of pressure like I did before. Robert was pushing the needle though. I am again amazed at how it didn't hurt. It didn't hurt at all. I felt some more tugging and hear a snap. Tada! He got the jewelry in this time.
Robert was so excited. I was too. I had a new piercing. I had something that was a little off the beaten path even for the pierced at the time. It looked so cool too. Robert let me look in a mirror to check it out. I was so happy with what I saw. He also went to get his camera. Of course he wanted to document this. I ended up only paying about ten dollars for the jewelry and that was it. Robert told me to keep it clean the same way I did my tongue. He told me to use Listerine, half water, half Listerine.
I headed back to my car and made the trek home. I was feeling hyper like I usually do after a piercing. The feeling was even more intensified with this particular piercing because I was so excited. I felt even more invincible. I used the Listerine half diluted to clean it and keep it from getting infected. I took a small Listerine bottle with me to work. I had emptied it out and filled it back up with the diluted mixture from a bigger bottle to make it easily portable.
The next three days my upper lip all the way up to my septum was so sore. It ached. Eating was no big deal but if I missed a straw and it poked me above my lip, ouch. It went away and everything was great. The ring never got in my way. It was a bear to keep clean. I had to pay special attention to it every few days while brushing my teeth. I had to take extra time to kind of scrub the ring with my toothbrush.
After having it for a couple of months I noticed it was getting crooked, or so it looked that way. Sometimes when I smiled it looked great, but other times it seemed off to one side. I tried to correct it myself by pushing the ring to the other side and kind of holding it there as long as I could. I thought I might be able to coax it back straight. That never worked. I eventually because disgusted with the way it looked off center and took it out. That was a sad day indeed. I hoped to one day soon have it pierced again.