At A Glance Author Russian Bebe Dog Contact thexgreatxdisappointment@yahoo.ca When Three months ago Artist Steve Studio X-tremities Location Mississauga, Ontario Is It Supposed To Look Like That? So, it's no secret that when it comes to piercings, I've got an oral fixation. For a while, I had my frowney, smiley, tongue web, vertical labret, monroe, and tongue pierced and stretched to a 4 gauge. That, for me, was ideal. But, of course, nothing lasts forever. My tongue web split, and I was forced to retire my frowney and labret.
I'm the type that if it can go wrong, it probably will. I tore my tongue within the first few days of having it pierced, it took me months longer than it should have to heal my vertical labret, and I've managed to maintain excessive scarring on almost everything imaginable (navel, and septum included). However, I don't think anything will ever quite compare to healing my frowney...
My piercer, Steve, has been piercing for a while. In March '04 when I asked him to pierce my tongue web, he took a quick look in my mouth, and told me no for the time being. He said he'd only ever done a few of them, and mine was extremely small. Not impossible, but small. He had a few lined up for that month, and told me to come back. So I got it done that May. Then, the following December, I asked him to pierce my smiley. He complied with no problems, saying although it was really small, too, he could manage. When I went back to him last June, asking him to do a double eyebrow piercing, I asked him about the frowney. Truth be told, I wasn't expecting much, because out of the three webs in my mouth, it was the smallest. Steve told me that because of the way I heal things, he wanted to do the eyebrow piercings separately. Fair enough. He then added, "and as for your frowney, I've never done one before. I'm sure I can, I'm confident that I can do it. But you'll be my first." I agreed, having full confidence that if anyone could do it, Steve could, and we decided that I'd have it done at the same time as my second eyebrow piercing.
I went back a month later, not really sure what to expect, but excited no less. Steve pierced my eyebrow, and after excessive bleeding, I got in the chair to have my frowney done. He tried to clamp it, but it was too small, and so it sucked. We decided that was a no-go soon after. So he decided to do it freehand.
The actual piercing process itself wasn't so bad. It wasn't any different than my smiley or tongue web. He put a tiny bar in it, and we were both thrilled with the result. It wasn't visible unless I pulled my lip down, and I loved it.
The pain factor was minimal, and it only stung slightly when I pulled on it (unintentionally, of course) while pronouncing certain words. The next morning, however, it hurt like you wouldn't believe. I more or less lived at my best friend's house for the summer, so he got the majority of my complaining and whining. Poor guy. He dealt with it well though. As the only person I know who's more modified than myself, he told me to stick it out, and if it got worse, we'd go see Steve again.
Long story short, my poor frowney got much worse, really quickly. I've got an incredibly small mouth, and I attribute (blame) most of my troubles to that. The balls on the end of the bar had worn holes into the base of my lip on the inside of my mouth.
So, back to X-tremities I trekked, best friend in tow. (I think I may have gotten my second nostril pierced while there) Steve said that maybe I just needed a longer bar, because the area was too cramped, so he changed it for me, and told me to give that a shot.
For the most part, that seemed to work well for me. Except that the shorter bar had caused so much trauma, that the longer one could slip in and out of the hole without me unscrewing anything. I turned to the minimal supply of jewelry I had at the time, positive that I would lose my precious frowney if I left the longer bar in overnight. So I put a 14gauge bar I had from a retired eyebrow piercing in it (don't worry, I cleaned it first!), but unfortunately, the only balls I had that would fir the bar were from a tongue ring, and far too big for my mouth.
But they sure as anything weren't going anywhere... So I figured that for the night, they'd do. Hindsight being 20/20, that was probably a mistake. The huge balls I had in my mouth (yes, yes. Very funny) had worn dents into my gums under my teeth. In just a few hours, too! And when I say 'dents', we're talking craters. I dragged myself to a store in the mall closest to me, and my best friend – who happened to work there at the time – fitted me for a ring, and we decided to give that a shot. To be honest, I had a hell of a time snapping the bead in the CBR and he had to do it for me, but the point is, it felt much better once it was in.
By this time, my poor mouth was so sore, that I was having trouble deciding whether or not it was all worth it. At the time, I was dealing with two irritated eyebrow rings, a rook and a daith that just did not want to heal, a brand new nostril piercing, and stretched lobes that refused to comply. Throw on a sore mouth on top of that, and it almost seemed more in my interest to remove it.
But I stuck it out. I had come that far, I wasn't about to turn back. The healing process was long, strenuous, and overall annoying. The bars had managed to tear the hole, giving my wonderful little piercing the appearance of a squid. Tentacles and all. It often earned me questions like "is it supposed to look like that?" But I persisted, still, determined to heal this sucker.
And that's exactly what I did. I've already got good oral hygiene (borderline on compulsive...) so that was definitely a plus, and I just kept it clean. Eventually, the "tentacles" went away, and healed without a hitch. Well, without another hitch, anyway. Out of all the piercings I've healed, I think I was most proud of that one, just because of how badly I struggled with it, initially.
So I'm sure you can imagine how mad I was when it started to reject... But that's another story, entirely.
♥