At A Glance
Author	Sam
Contact	Sam@bme.anon
When	Three months ago
Artist	Myself
Location	Surrey,UK

I would like to say before you read my experience that I advise to not self pierce and please go and see a professional who knows what they are doing and who is working in a clean environment. At the moment I have 11 piercings now and with 6 of which I have done

myself. I was aware of the dangers of doing any piercing yourself but I have been on this site so often I have researched so much to obtain the knowledge of many piercings. With this piercing I did look at alot of photos to find the proper correct placing. I first decided I liked this piercing when I saw someone at a gig with it and decided to browse on this site to find out more about it. Well to be honest at first I was a bit iffy of this piercing as where the actual jewellery goes through is fairly thin bit of flesh so I was worried about any tearing if for any reason it may be caught.Like with all my piercings I have done myself or had done professionally I haven't actually cleaned them. When I had my tragus done about 3 weeks ago I haven't cleaned it at all and it has no crusties and within 2 days I was able to sleep on it without any pain! I found with my basic cartilage piercing the more i cleaned it the more prone it was to get any inflection. Causing to drag out the healing. With my navel piercing w hich I've had since April it still hasn't properly healed, as I believe I over cleaned it. (The views above on cleaning are my opinions. Please follow all aftercare you get to insure you achieve a healthy piercing. Everybody's bodies are different and if you don't clean your piercing it can lead to complications and dragging out healing time)

Now moving onto the actual 'do it yourself' bit. Like with my other self done piercings I got the standard safety pin, which I didn't clean (like I said earlier – I think the cleaner anything is, any slight bit of dirt will cause it to get infected - Please be aware these are MY opinions - Please follow all aftercare you get to insure you achieve a healthy piercing. I lifted up my top lip and pulled it out so the actual bit of skin I was piercing was tensed. This was kinda giving the same effect like the clamps would do.The next part I found it the hardest part. I found it very hard to push the needle through, as I wasn't equipped with clamps to keep it in one place. That's what you get when you do these things yourself! After about 5 minutes of pushing I finally got through to the other side. I have to say there was absolutely no pain at all and no bleeding either! (Everyone has different pain tolerance so with any piercing you have done the pain varies on every person) I have looked at some pictures of peo ple in the middle of it getting it done professionally and there was alot of blood. I can't see why there was that much blood to be honest! Continuing... Earlier in the week I went a bought a circular ball ring to have in there as jewellery. I found that the plain stainless steel ones looks the best.. as I think coloured ones make you look like some thing stuck in your teeth! I did however find it rather difficult to get the hoop through as the hole was slightly smaller (as I used a safety pin which I quite a bit thinner as to what they use in studios). Again after some fiddling around with and having to re pierce it a couple of times cause it took quite a while getting it all the way through I eventually got the hoop through and I popped the ball in place. As aftercare I just brushed my teeth as normal and I didn't touch/play with it all so I didn't irritate it. I got used to it within the first few days.. I actually forgot I had it there until someone pointed it out to me questioning it! I found when the p iercing was fresh the ball did sit dead centre in between my two front teeth.. and now (after having it for about 3 months now) the ball has slanted slightly to the left. I have read other peoples experiences about this piercing and they have found the same thing happening to them also =/ I have to say out of all my 11 piercings (I did have several more) the smiley/scrumper has to be the easiest piercing I have ever had.

There was absolutely no pain what so ever. The healing took no longer than 5/6 days and I have had absolutely no problems at all with it. Eating is no problem at all and there was no soreness either. It is also rather fun to play with my tongue! I do get strange looks when I talk/open my mouth and I have to replace the hoop with a plain bar for work. If anyone wants this piercing GO FOR IT! If your worried about pain.. seriously on a scale of 0-10 I have to say it is like a 1! (However this is my opinion - everyone has different pain tolerances)

I do not regret doing this piercing myself as it has turned out to be healthy and no hassle. But yet again I discourage anyone doing any piercing themselves, as it is extremely dangerous thing to do.