At A Glance
Author	aniorange
Contact	ani0range@wmconnect.com
IAM	aniorange
When	Two years ago
Artist	Do not know
Studio	Coolsvile, I think
Location	Oklahoma City.

By this time in life I was somewhat of a regular to BME. I had come and gone. I looked at pictures and would dream about the ones that I did not have. As time went on, more and more, shall we say, interesting piercings where coming to the surface. When I first came to BME I had heard of nose, septum, lip, eyebrow and tongue piercings. Then of course were the endless possibilities of the ear although I had not yet seen things like industrials yet. One of the first new (new to me) piercings that caught my eye was the smiley or scrumper piercing. I had flirted with that one for a while having had it pierced several times. Later another piercing caught my eye, and in a big way.

As I clicked though BME I ran across this thing called a vertical labret. It looked incredible. Why had I not thought about this? Never mind that question. I said I would one day have that piercing. I was closer than I thought.

I had recently gotten a lip ring on the left side of my lip. My plan was to get venom piercings, but being the cheapskate that I am only had one done for now. I was supposed to get the other side of my lip pierced next. Plans changed rather quickly. You see, I was at a friend's house and rather bored. We wanted to go do something, but what. I mentioned something about how I should go get pierced.

There was a piercing shop that my friend, Heather, told me about. It was just down the street from my favorite haunt. I had never noticed it. She said she had known people to go there and they had no problem. To add to that the shop did piercings for twenty bucks. I was feeling rather spontaneous and told Heather I wanted to get pierced. I do not remember who convinced who that we should go to this new (new to me) shop and give them a try.

We immediately hopped into my car and drove into town. I was excited. Very soon I was to be pierced again. It took about 15 minutes to get there but I do not remember the trip at all. When we got there my first impression was how small the place was. If more than three people where to come in wanting to be pierced, the rest would have to stand outside. There were two counters with jewelry in them. Most of the jewelry was for navel piercings. It is a matter of opinion what that says about the shop. Behind the counter was a separate room with a rather small doorway. This other room was just as small if not smaller. There was a barbershop type chair in there and a small counter. It was quite different that what I am accustom to.

I did not see anything however that worried me. There was just one lady there, and she came out after a minute or so. There was an awkward moment where I was waiting for her to say something along the lines of hello, can I help you. I guess she was waiting for me to just state my wishes. I did speak up and state that I wanted a vertical labret. In the back of my mind I was waiting for her to show confusion, as if she did not know what that was. She did know however. I think she was confused about who was getting pierced. I told her it was just me. She took me into the back, short walk, and sat me down. She got out sterile jewelry and tools. She got out a marker of some sort and made marks, top and bottom. She asked me to look and see if I liked it. I looked in the mirror and right away, to me, they looked crooked and off center. I asked Heather for her opinion and she full heartedly agreed. The marks where not centered. I asked her to move it over a tad. She remade the marks. I told myself if she has that much trouble getting it centered I was out of there. She got it perfect the second time though.

I gave her the go ahead and she got her forceps. For some reason I was not expecting forceps. I do not know why. It seemed to take her some time to get an acceptable grip on my lip. She stopped at one point and pulled the forceps off and started again. I do not believe myself to have big lips at all. She managed however, and the needle was ready. One rather quick sharp pinch later the deed was done. She slid the jewelry in and tightened the ball. She seemed to make an extra effort to tighten the ball. That is not such a bad thing. I do not remember any blood, which is usual for me. I paid my twenty dollars and we headed out the door.

Heather and I decided to go eat Chinese after that. We hopped on the highway and headed to the south side of Oklahoma City for one of our favorite places to eat Chinese. I was very hyped up. I was quite antsy and vocal. It was quite a satisfying piercing high. Heather expressed some concern with me not being able to eat, but I was not worried. I ate just fine for the most part. The piercing had yet had time to swell and achieve full aching potential. The one funny thing I do remember is catching the jewelry between my fork as I was shoveling in some sesame chicken. I told Heather to look, as best I could with a fork stuck in my mouth and we just laughed.

It was a fun night. Healing was a very unique experience. I kept it clean with provon soap. It was not inside my mouth really so I could not really use mouthwash. Saline soaks and cleaning with provon soap was a risky proposition as far as my taste buds where concerned. There was more than one occasion I received a taste of soap. No one likes that, or do they? At any rate, it healed pretty well. Taking bites the first couple of days was somewhat challenging. I was probably more afraid that it would hurt than it actually did hurt. I did eventually get brave and realized it could handle the abuse of normal biting.

I loved the look of my vertical labret. I do have rather thin lips so it looked a tad odd but I did not care. The first few days my lips felt so weird. It felt as if I could not close my lips. I could, at least I could close them around the jewelry. It was not like anything leaked back out as I was eating, but it felt like it might. I got used to it after a while. After a few weeks I noticed a small round indention on the top of my lip. The ball on top was causing it. It was only noticeable if I pushed the jewelry up and out of the small crater. Some times when I woke up the jewelry would be more or less stuck in that crater. I guess I drool a little in my sleep. I also noticed that the jewelry stuck out just a tad and I thought a few times about getting a shorter bar but I never did. I had a pretty small curved barbell in there as it was. I played with larger and smaller sized balls on the upper part (between my lips). I ended up settling back with what I had to begin with. I also experimented with spikes and such on the other end.

I was pretty much always aware of the piercing. It never really got in the way, but it sometimes became a little irritated from time to time. I eventually removed it after several months. I used the excuse that it stayed somewhat irritated. Actually it was just a move to make it easier to hide piercings for a job. It was easier to just take that one out. I hate it when I lie to myself. I miss it so much now. It was weird not wearing it for the first day or two. My lips felt weird again. Something was missing.