I've been thinking about getting my lip pierced for the last year or so at least, and have taken so many people to get so many different things pierced that I just about figured it was my turn. You know you should go and get it done if you've gone on about it to people so long that if you don't shut up they're going to do it for you.
At A Glance Author Hannah Contact Hannah@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Naomi Studio Blue Banana Location Coventry, England After several entirely useless attempts to find out how much it was going to hurt, after all everyone is different and has different pain thresholds, I bravely told myself it would be entirely painless and so set a day and convinced my boyfriend to come with me so I couldn't back out. After drinking way too much the night before in pure fear, I decided to go a day later and give a chance for the alcohol to get out of my system and the hangover to subside a little.
Being a bit of a deserter, I let everyone I'd ever met know that I was going to get it done so that I knew I would then have to choose between utter disappointment from people, or actually getting it done. This did mean warning my parents because despite being 21, they would still need their pre-piercing whinge, and they did exactly that but did remind me that it might knock out my front tooth that's been capped since I was little - incident involving a skipping rope and concrete.
I woke up with no intention of going to the piercer whatsoever and began to think of reasonable excuses to explain why I didn't get it done and had decided on 'they were shut' before going into town anyway on the off-chance I might find some backbone on the way in.
After smoking myself stupid and sitting in the pub (drinking coke because bleeding to death isn't the way I wanted to go) my boyfriend talked me into going to the piercer's just to look at jewellery and ask a few questions about how much it would cost, aftercare and other things. It took another two cigarettes to get me through the door.
A quick note - never underestimate the persuasive power of a nice looking bloke because after looking at the jewellery and deciding to go look at getting nice new earrings instead, I was signing forms before I had even realised I was doing it. I wasn't out of my mind to the point where I couldn't bargain myself enough time to get another quick cigarette before going upstairs to wait though. So I stood outside, little bag with my bar (1.2 x 11 according to my form), aftercare instructions and a little jar of tea tree oil in hand, trying to get as much nicotine in as possible.
Upstairs in this particular Blue Banana looks like a tired youth club with bright painted walls, which at least makes enough conversation to get your mind off what is going on, and after sitting up there for a couple of minutes, a really nice blonde girl came out to get my jewellery to stick it in to sterilise and told me it would be about five minutes.
When she came back, I went into the little white room with her and was asked to sit on the bed, which was straight out of a hospital examination room, and tried to convince me to have the piercing at the side instead of the middle because it would look much nicer, and offered to go and get me a different bar which wouldn't show up while it was in, but if I had to sit there much longer I would have been miles down the street before she got back. So I stuck with my original plan and she wiped my lip with antiseptic and drew a blue dot on it where the piercing would be and told me to be brutally honest about whether I liked it there or not. I asked for it a little to the right, and decided on it.
I sat back on the bed, she clamped my lip, which wasn't too bad at all despite being told that's the worst bit, and I looked up before I could see what else was going on. There was a sharp pain that lasted about four seconds, and it was a little sore while she tugged it about and put the bar all together. All over very quickly. After a quick chat about aftercare, it was straight back outside for another cigarette, one of the best I've ever had, despite having it lit for me because my hands were shaking too much.
My lip was sore for a while, and the skin on the outside stung for a bit, but that died down and most of the night it felt just a bit bruised until I tried to eat, forgot it was there and clamped down on the bar, wrenching it at an angle, and nearly breaking my tooth. Still, the worse that happened was that it was sore for quite a while. The aftercare isn't too bad so far, just cleaning the inside with rock salt and pre-boiled water, and the outside with tea tree oil (5%) and the salty water twice a day, swilling with tap water after smoking, eating and drinking.
It is very very weird having the back of the bar rub against my bottom gum and teeth, but you do get used to it, and that's coming from a girl who has a mortal weirdness about having metal in her mouth. Besides, only two weeks and I can go back and have the bar changed so that it's not as loose and it shouldn't rub. But for now, I'm sucking smash and jelly off the back of a plastic spoon!