Morning after. Pretty disappointed with myself. My lip is a little numb :)
At A Glance Author anonymous IAM SEVEN26 When It just happened Artist me Studio at home Location san francisco I have been planning to pierce myself for a while now... maybe a little over a month or so. I thought I be a good experience or at least an experience I would enjoy. Being in control, the adrenaline rush, and satisfaction of a job well done seemed right up my ally. I thought about it and bought all the supplies I needed in order to emulate the pros. I had been reading a bunch of the DIY stories on BME. I never found a step by step procedural write up or anything like that but thought I understood the process well enough. I even foolishly prided myself for having done the research and buying the right material (short of buying an autoclave :).
Supply List:
Gentian violet
Toothpicks
5 tri-bevel 14g sterilized needles
Slotted Pennington forceps (sterilized)
Paper towels
Cookie sheet
Bleach (to clean room I chose to pierce myself in)
Disinfecting wipes (same)
Gloves
Vaseline
For jewelry I originally ordered black 14 gauge niobium seamless rings; however I ordered the wrong diameter (3/8 ... I was thinking of the length for studs. my original choice). I chose rings because I wanted to pierce myself from the outside in (so towards myself). I felt more comfortable doing it this way as I thought it would assure that I hit my mark. I was planning on doing two off center labret/lip piercings on the same side. (labret/lip piercing... the terminology seems to be widely miss used or unclear)
Piercing day... everything was going wrong.
I went to a piercing place here in san francisco. The piercer convinced me to buy studs. I thought to myself "well he does this for living..." bad idea. His studio was a little suspect and didn't carry a lot of high grade jewelry. On the walk home I was cursing myself because he overcharged me. In hind sight by convincing me he changed my original plan... at the moment I forgot why I chose rings to begin with. I was too angry with myself for letting him rip me off like that.
I get home, bleach the studs and then boil them for an hour. Prep the room. Mark my lip. and get the supplies out. As suggested by someone on the bme, I changed my gloves every time I touched something that was not sterile (like the exterior of a sterilized baggy).
Everything is ready, and getting the needle through my lip was pretty easy. I was pleased and thought that the hard part was just about over. Well I now realized that I had to get the stud in from the side the point of the needle was on due to the flat back. This wouldn't have been a problem with rings... Instantly I felt like an idiot. In the excitement of piercing myself I forgot the original plan. Well I couldn't get the stud to just follow through. the needle came out and I tried to force the stud through the fresh hole.. I guess 14gauge won't really allow that. so trying to force the stud through made me feel light headed...
I decided to give it another go. line everything up for the same hole. it entered the same hole but came out in a new spot about 1mm to the left... (ouch) now for the same game as before, to get the stud in. again no luck..
I decided to wrap it up and let my lip heal. trying to get the jewelry in the second time around made me feel rather faint.... I needed to sit down and I knew this method wasn't going to work.
That's my story. A little lame and disappointing. I'm either going to try to diy it again and go with rings like I originally planned or go my piercer in savannah. I should have had a little more confidence in myself and told the piercer I wanted the rings.
Moral of the story? Do not make any last minute changes to your original plan, by that point you should have everything laid out in your mind. I do not recommend DIY piercing to anyone. The pros make it seem easy but you can complicate things for yourself really fast. Think twice about a DIY lip piercings, it's really awkward if you want to pierce your lip from the inside out.
I would also advise against having people around you. Even if they step out of the room to let you do your thing. The reason why I say this is because I could hear my brother telling his friend on the phone that I was piercing myself. he made it out to be so much more then it really was, and said that i messed up but that were four more needles so "rock on". Of course I could hear everything he was saying, which made me really nervous and put me on edge. then when I was having trouble and decided to try and relax a little, he started asking all these questions... such as "well why can't you just do this? " or "I thought it would be like this?" that just put me more on edge... I got so angry I started yelling and cursing at him (he's a lot older than I am so i guess it's ok... I'm 20 by the way)
In the end, I have to say that I'm just disappointed.