"We're going to have to pierce it again, it's not straight"
At A Glance Author Caroline Contact Caroline@bme.anon IAM Momentary_Seizure When It just happened Artist Pete Studio Kazbah Location Leicester, England This story begins like many others with the restless trawling through BME and members pages on IAM, yearning for something new and quirky. The big 1-6 was coming up and I felt that it should be remembered with a new piercing. No stranger to needles; I've got my lip and tongue web pierced as well as 6 other cartilage piercings so I felt that something else with a needle would be a walk in the park, so to speak. Some piercings were ruled out almost instantly: Eyebrow? I don't like the way it looks. Nostril? Too common for my liking. Septum? I don't know if I've got the right nose shape or femininity to pull it off. Tongue? Healing during term time would be hell.
This left me with something around my lips. Ever since I had my lip pierced I had wanted to turn them into snakebites. I think a lot of people get pierced to accentuate their favourite parts of themselves and I've been given nice full lips from my fathers side of the gene pool which was why I felt a lip piercing would be good for me. Something however, drew me away from making my snakebites as I thought that two rings would make my face look crowded (as I'm not prepared to change my ring to a stud just yet). The "Madonna and Medusa" section of the lip piercing photos intrigued me and I began to really like the idea of a medusa.
Skip forward a month or so and my decision was made. A medusa. I knew it would make my face look odd but I was never one for symmetry so it didn't bother me. A good friend of mine had got hers pierced and said it hurt less than a standard labret and it looked lovely on her.
Skip forward another month and cue a group of us standing outside of a closed "Plug" – which is where I had my lip and tongue web pierced – and feeling disheartened that it was shut. I'd recently had 3 cartilage piercings in another place called Kazbah so my friends and I made our way up there as I trusted Pete to do a good job in piercing it exactly where marked. We went into the shop downstairs and did the usual 'staring at the jewellery cases because we're too scared to go and asked to get pierced' ritual that I'm sure many people are familiar with. My friend gave me half of the £25 needed and I went to the counter and asked if I could get my medusa pierced. The lady behind the counter took my money and gave me a small yellow post-it note with "M" written on it. She called up to Pete and I went upstairs, one of my friends in tow.
The gloss black stairs sounded hollow as I trudged up them to a welcoming grin from Pete as I handed him the yellow sticker. The white room with the small TV playing the Q music channel hummed away in the background as I perched on the end of the bench and stared, as I normally do, at the jewellery drawers and boxes of different gauge needles while Pete put on some gloves and then removed them again with an irritated expression and asked my friend to go and ask for some small gloves from downstairs. Mindless chit chat was made as we awaited her return and then we 'got down to business' as the expression reads.
Pete walked over to the jewellery drawers and pulled out a 14g labret stud with a 4mm ball and asked me if I wanted it to be pierced at 14g. I nodded and smiled in agreement, not trusting my voice to speak out a "Yes, please". He opened the small clear and green auto-clave packet and unscrewed the ball and put them both on a silver tray covered with paper. He came towards me with the infamous purple marker and marked a dot on my philtrum. I was handed a mirror and frowned at the placement – it was the right distance between my nose and lip but it was a little too much to the right. He inspected it again and agreed with me and marked it again. This time I was more content, but still not happy as I knew what was to come.
Pete got out a 14g needle and broke open the packaging and put it on the tray to the side of him. He told me to keep my mouth open for 10 seconds and in this time he had rested the clamps on my lip, the cold metal resting on my top gums and was ready to pierce me. I gripped the bench underneath me and let out a huge "Aaaahhhh..." as the needle went in. The top few layers of my skin screamed as the needle pushed through but it was over almost instantaneously. Yes, it was painful but only on the top layers of my skin as I didn't even feel it go through into my mouth – I think the inside of my lips have taken a bit of a battering over the last few years as I'm a compulsive worrier, constantly biting at them. I must have had a pained expression on my face or maybe I was just louder than I had expected as both Pete and my friend looked at me and asked multiple times "Are you alright? Are you sure? Really?" Pete threaded the jewellery on the bottom of the needle casing and pulled it through and affixed the ball with ease. Tears rolled down my face, more from shock than pain and he handed me a piece of kitchen roll to tidy myself up a bit with. I glanced sideways at it in the mirror and he said "Oh wait, it's not straight, I'm going to have to pierce it again" My face dropped and he laughed and told me he was joking.
I stood and steadied myself and thanked him profusely as he roughly went over aftercare, knowing that I knew a lot about taking care of piercings already. I thanked him once again and made my way down the stairs with a piece of crumpled and eyeliner smudged kitchen roll and downstairs to staring eyes and compliments. The lady behind the desk asked if I was alright as I was still looking shaken and my friend and I dwelled downstairs calmly whilst my other friend went to get her nipples pierced. I inspected it in the mirror and wondered if I'd made a big mistake but told myself that I'd fall in love, much like I did with my lip ring.
The next morning I woke up feeling like I'd just gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson and looking not too dissimilar from Pete Burns. The day was pretty uneventful until I tried to clean it in the evening. It had swollen and I don't think the bar was long enough to accommodate for that but I struggled on nonetheless attempting to clean the back and front with salt water. It was a challenge but I managed it, somewhat unattractively.
Saturday night, vodka and apple Sourz was consumed which led to Sunday morning being even more horrific than the previous morning. I cleaned it thoroughly with salt water and again, the swelling went down and it felt a lot better. I cleaned it again in the evening and went to bed.
Monday, again, the bar was pretty tight on my lip in the morning but as I woke up properly and cleaned it gently, the swelling went down and in the afternoon it was barely noticeable.
I'm on the Tuesday afternoon now and the swelling this morning was noticeable but scarce. Today is the first day that I've managed to see a lot of the bar – if I rest the flat back at a certain point on my gums, I can push the ball forwards and so I'll be able to clean under the ball much easier now there is minimal swelling. The ball also sits perfectly flush to my lip which is also a bonus as I can't stand it when jewellery is ill-fitting. There's still a slight twinge of pain if I move it around too much and the inside of my lip is sore but after only 3 full days, it's to be expected. It's looking a lot better than I thought it would and I'm sure I'll be entirely happy with it once there is no swelling and I can buy a PTFE bar to wear so the back doesn't bash on my teeth or gums as much as it is doing at the moment.
I'd advise anyone considering it to get it done, much like a lot of piercing experience stories end. If you think it'll suit then it probably will – but also make sure that you go to a good piercer, one you trust to get it exactly where you want it. I've now noticed that it's slightly crooked when I push the bar out but it doesn't affect how it looks so I'm happy enough. Good luck.