At A Glance
Author	spuget
When	Two years ago
Location	Lakewood, Washington

It was April or May or even earlier in the year when some of my friends and me were discussing body modifications. When the topic of smiley piercings came up, I was a fierce pro-scrumper fighter as the rest of them thought it was weird or gross. As the debate ended up, I was dared to pierce my own. I do not recommend self piercing in any location no matter how sanitary you think you're being. I am extremely lucky. Read on.

That night around midnight or so I sat down in front of my full-length mirror with 2 gauges of sewing needles that I had cleaned with rubbing alcohol and a match (once again: do NOT do this). I also had some jewelry (I believe it was a plain silver barbell, 12g). I examined my upper lip and figured it couldn't hurt too bad. I also decided that I wouldn't be able to put in the barbell immediately, so I grabbed a 20g earring (NO!!!). I pulled back my lip and took the thicker of the two needles (sorry, I don't know the gauge)and pushed it through the first layer of skin on my upper lip frenulum. The pain wasn't great but it was sharp; it was extremely difficult (for me at least) to push it through all the layers of skin (it felt like there were two...I could be wrong) at once, so I went one at a time. Once the adrenaline got higher I pushed the needle through the remaining skin and then realized I had to push it further as only the point had made it through. I didn't want to--I was tired, i t was past midnight (almost 1AM at this point) so I took out the needle and picked up the 20g earring...and shoved that through the hole in the direction I had pierced it. It went as far as the needle went through, barely penetrating the final layer(s) of skin. I pulled it out and went the other direction, the opposite way I had pierced and I got it through. I looked really silly with this dangley earring hanging from inside my upper lip but I was one happy girl. Imagine it: a beaded (purple) chandelier earring hanging from your inner upper lip. It looks odd. I pulled and tugged on the earring a little bit (never do this) to stretch out the newly pierced skin to shove in the barbell. Once that was "ready", I put in the barbell. Or, tried to put in the barbell, rather. It was quite a struggle because of the slippery small earring (my immense amounts of saliva at this point made things a further struggle...) and because the hole wasn't nearly large enough to house a 12g barbell. But of course, I was ver y persistent. I shoved the barbell as far as I could get it to go in the direction of piercing and it went as far as the dangley earring did initially--only penetrating the first layer(s) of skin. I tried the opposite direction and that didn't work either, so I tried the first direction again and it went through. Boy, was I happy...then it was time for the next struggle: twisting on the ball on the end. I tried with my fingers multiple times and failed. I sat there thinking and realized I had the perfect tool--tweezers. I took the tweezers and after a few attempts, I got the ball tightly screwed onto the end of the barbell. I loved my new piercing. I was so high on adrenaline that I could barely sleep until four in the morning, but that was ok. When I got to school I showed off my new very discreet smiley piercing to my friends. They were very impressed, and I was really happy with it. I used a barbell because it was more discreet and I only had to show it when I wanted to, which was perfect. Plus it didn't h
In the end I kept it only for a few months and ended up removing it because of fear of my orthodontist's anger and for other reasons. The removal wasn't as hard as putting in the jewelry, though unscrewing the ball was extremely difficult (my orthodontist says I produce more saliva than anyone he's ever seen--something I am oddly proud of). At one point I thought I'd have to get it removed professionally. I ended up using two pairs of tweezers. I was very sad to see the piercing go and my mouth felt empty for a while but I am extremely extremely lucky to have a perfectly healed upper lip with no trace of penetration AND no infection. I absolutely can't wait to get it done professionally in a few years. :)