A few years ago, for my high school newspaper, I wrote a counterpoint article about the school's new ban on body piercings. I was opposed to the new rule, but, for extra leverage in my article, I stated that the idea of having something metallic shoved through any part of my body other than my earlobes didn't appeal to me. Little did I know that college would cause me to change my mind.
At A Glance Author Bean When Six months ago Studio Mind Altering Location Wisconsin Being an art major, many of my friends already had plenty of piercings. I had always liked the look of body art and piercings, but had never thought it would suit me. The more I was exposed to it, however, the more I began to realize that this art form did suit me. When I first decided to get something pierced it was not a very well thought out decision. I wanted something pierced for the sheer sake of having something pierced. I liked the way it looked, and aesthetic value was the only value I saw in my piercing. As a result, I asked some people, on various drunken occasions, what piercing they thought would look good on me. I finally was satisfied that I should get a nose stud, as that is what most people told me to do. I told my good friend who lived in the dorm across the hall from me of my plans and she told me that she wanted to get her lip pierced, but probably couldn't because of work. We made plans to go to the piercing place where she had gotten her tongue done after class one day.
When the day of the piercing finally arrived, I went to my friend's door to get her and give her some news. At the last minute, I had decided that I didn't want my nose pierced. I was an excessively, painfully shy person, who always relied on others for reassurance in my decision-making. Lately, as an expression of my frustrations at being a silent slave to my fears, a girl with safety pins piercing her lips closed had shown up in a lot of my artwork. Very uncharacteristically, being tired of being held back by shyness and a need for acceptance, I decided that I wanted my lip pierced instead. Not only had I not gotten any reassurance about how it would look on me, it also symbolized a sort of opening of the safety pins on my lips. I didn't explain my reasoning to my friend, just that I wanted my lip pierced.
So, we headed off. I originally had wanted to get it in the middle, but at the time, my hair had a blood red dyed streak on the right side and my friend, also an artist, said getting it on the left side would balance out my hair. So, I did that.
I went to the back. The guy asked me if I had anything pierced before. I said "just my ears," and he said, "That counts." He drew a dot where I said I wanted my piercing, then I looked into the mirror and told him that was right where I wanted it. The piercer handed me cup of Listerine and had me rinse out my mouth. Then he had me lie down while he cleaned the area. With gloves on and a new needle, he told me to take three deep breaths. I did. I waited to feel extreme pain. It didn't hurt at all. I thought I still had the needle sticking out of my lip when he said, "all done." He had already put the ring in, a huge one, in case it swelled.
I walked out into the lobby to show my friend. She noted how huge it was and I told her it was in case it swelled. She was relieved to know it wouldn't always be that big around. My friend had decided also, that she would get her nose pierced, since she figured her job wouldn't care as much about that as a lip ring. So, when we left the shop that day, we had the opposite piercings of what we were originally going to get and we were both very happy.
Healing was smooth. Salt water soaks morning and night, and diluted mouth wash rinses after eating. Nothing got infected, but I did end up with a little knot for a while, which went away. I changed the ring myself after two weeks. The only problem with that was that I couldn't get the ball back on. Two weeks after I changed the ring, and two weeks of trying myself, I went back to have the place put the ball back on for me. No charge. I did end up making out with somebody with two horse-shoe barbell lip rings at a party once and our lips got snagged. When we pulled away it really hurt, but we managed to get untangled. My lip was really sore for a few days after that. That person's party attire consisted of captive rings from then on.
The only other problem, so far, that I've had with my lip is with work. I found out I wouldn't be allowed to wear it at my job over the summer while I was staying at home, so I ordered a retainer online. Unfortunately, we were on vacation while it was due to arrive and my mom had the mail held. When I got back I didn't have the retainer in time for work. I had to go the first half of my first day on the job with nothing in my lip. Even though the piercing was over three months old at that point, when I took a break for lunch, only about 3 or 4 hours after starting work that day, and the retainer had arrived, I couldn't for the life of me get anything through my lip. After work, I had to go to a local piercing place and have a piercer shove the retainer through my halfway closed up lip. It hurt like all hell, ten million times more than getting it pierced, and it bled, unlike when I got it pierced. It healed up really quickly after that though, and now I change it back to the ring whenever I need to. But, I won't be leaving it out any time soon. I love my baby and I never want to lose her!