I had wanted a lip ring for years and years, but I never even brought it up around my parents because I knew they would disapprove. I had gotten into the punk scene during my freshman year in high school, and immediately found tattoos and piercings fascinating. During my junior year, I even wore a fake lip ring around sometimes to freak people out and see where I liked it best. Lame yes, but it did help me out a little in the long run.
At A Glance Author Sara Contact silentalibis@yahoo.com When Six months ago Artist Tiffany Studio Tat-2-Theil's Location Jacksonville, FL About a month before my eighteenth birthday, I started getting really giddy. I was off at college and was just so close to finally getting pierced. When the clock struck midnight on October twenty-sixth, we started drinking. Not the greatest idea if you're going to get pierced, but I ended up with about fifteen hours to sober up. After only going to an hour's worth of class, instead of the usual four (my calculus teacher actually let me skip as long as they got to sing happy birthday first), we headed off to a tattoo shop our friends had told us about. After seeing Jeremy and Daniel's tattoos and hearing about the place, we figured it would be our best bet. Probably should've done a little more research, but it worked out just fine.
Upon arrival at Tat-2-Theil's, we were immediately greeted with a bunch of friendly faces. I expected it to be dark and a little intimidating like a lot of tattoo shops I had driven by over the years, but not this place. It was really bright, really clean, and filled with really cheerful and friendly artists. Since it was a Wednesday afternoon, the shop was completely empty. After Selina, one of the tattoo artists, asked what we were here for, she went and got Tiffany from the back to talk to me. I told her that I wanted a lip ring and an industrial (part two of this story). She told me the two would cost one hundred dollars. The industrial would be seventy and the lip ring would be thirty, fifteen less than she normally charged because I was getting them done together. Having never been there before, I did not think I would be getting any discounts, so that was pretty cool.
After paying, I made my way into the piercing room. It slightly reminded me of a doctor or dentist office, which amused me a little. By now, I was pretty nervous. My two friends had had a tough time getting me out of the car from my nerves. Looking back, I really don't know why I was so nervous for something I had wanted to get done for over five years.
As I sat on the piercing table, I watched as Tiffany pulled on some sterile gloves and put on a doctor mask. She talked me through everything as she prepared the needle, jewelry, and clamp. All three of us got to watch her take everything out of brand new packages. After I rinsed my mouth out with some heavy-duty mouthwash (which I was told would probably be hard to rinse for thirty seconds with, but I myself had no problem), Tiffany asked where I wanted the piercing placed. I told her I wanted it on the left, and she made a mark with her pen. I looked in the mirror to find it a little too far to the left for my liking and asked if she could move it just a smidgen to the center, and she did so without a second thought.
Once I was completely happy with the placement, she had me lie back, for she found it easiest to pierce lips that way. Tiffany told me everything she was doing right before she did it. I had closed my eyes at this point, but definitely felt her clamp my lip. Although it didn't hurt like some people told me it would, it was quite uncomfortable. Tiffany then told me to "take a deep breathe in, let it out, deep breathe in" and then the needle was through my lip. A second or two later, she told me she was inserting the jewelry and I remember thinking to myself, "Wait? When did the needle go through?" From the mixture of nerves and adrenaline, I did not feel the needle at all. Many people don't believe me, but I swear I didn't even feel it. There was a small amount of discomfort as she fought the ball into the CBR, but that was probably because my lip had already started swelling.
From there we went straight into the industrial, but I'll skip fast forward through that onto the aftercare. Tiffany explained that I was to use non-alcoholic mouthwash after any time I ate, drank, or smoked if at all possible. If I couldn't find any alcohol free mouthwash, I would have to dilute regular mouthwash with water. She also suggested H2Ocean to clean the outside of the piercing two or three times a day, but I could also use unscented dial. I opted for the H2Ocean and found some Crest mouthwash that was alcohol free.
My lip swelled up almost immediately and was sore for the first three or four days. Nothing I couldn't handle. The hardest thing to get used to was having to flip the ring over in order to drink, since our cafeteria did not offer straws. Anything I wouldn't normally eat with a fork and knife, such as a sandwich or a burger, proved to be a little strange for the first day or two, but within days I was completely used to that piece of metal being in my lip. I rinsed religiously for the first month or so, but soon found myself slacking. And I cleaned the outside of my lip with the H2Ocean as directed.
I loved my lip ring from the moment I saw it in the mirror at Tat-2-Theil's. My friend had gotten a tattoo right after my piercings, and I couldn't help but glance up at the mirror every other minute to look at the lip ring. I couldn't help it. The piercing was easy to heal, and gave me no problems at all (unless you include the not-so-happy reactions from my parents). It was healed by New Year's, and I was successfully able to switch the ring for a stud by February without a problem. Now, almost nine months later, I still haven't had a problem. With my summer job, I switch between a ring, a stud, and a retainer almost daily, but it hasn't gotten irritated at all. I figured it might not be happy with the constant change of jewelry, but I was definitely wrong. I even have my days where I forget that my lip is pierced, because I'm so used to it. Some of my friends don't understand how I could possibly forget, but it has become part of my body. Plus, I can't really see it unless I'm looking.
For my first piercing (I don't consider my first earlobes to count because I was six and they were gunned), I assumed things would be so much worse. I am so happy with my lip ring and still stunned at how easy it was too heal. And I would definitely recommend Tat-2-Theil's to anyone in northeastern Florida, especially the Jacksonville area.