Saturday, October 14th.
At A Glance Author Cyanide IAM Sugar in my Cyanide When It just happened Artist Shane Studio Body Language Tattoo and Piercing Location Murfreesboro, Tennessee For the past year or so I have been seriously contemplating getting my lip pierced. I knew I was going to get it one day, I just needed a way there...which is hard to find when you live at least 20 miles away from anybody you know. (Downside or country life.) Well, seeing as how my 19th birthday is approaching (October 18th), a lot faster than I thought it would, I decided that I am going to go through with it. So for about a week I have been deeply researching lip piercings. I wanted to know everything there was know. A general idea of pain, healing process, aftercare, procedure...everything. I think I probably read like 20 experiences posted here on BME and looked at about all of the pictures. Now all I had to do was figure it how I would get there.
Well, I'd been talking to a close friend of mine about getting it done, and she said she would love to take me because she thought I wasn't going to go through with it. So I called her up Saturday morning and asked if she was free and if she wanted to hang out. Well, Amber shows up about a 2 hours after our last conversation, and all of sudden, reality hit. I got so nervous...not like scared, just extremely excited and curious as to what it would feel like. Some people told me they didn't feel it, some people said it hurts like hell. Well after some shopping with Amber, Liza, Peggy, and Alex, Amber drove me over to Body Language. I got an adrenaline rush just from pulling into the parking lot. We all walked in and I talked to the girl at the counter about what I wanted and she told me I would have to wait because Shane, the piercer, had just left for a minute to get some food. I said that was alright and went over to the jewelry counter and bought a new eyebrow ring so I wouldn't look like an ass with a pink eyebrow ring and a silver lip ring. I then filled out all the paperwork, handed her my license, and went ahead and paid for everything. Then, all I had to do was wait.
Five minutes passed by, and I couldn't sit down. Then Shane comes out from the back and said are you ready? I followed him back and he told me to go the room on the right with the open door and sit down. This place had a great set-up, I think it might have been a doctor's office or dentist's office at one point in time, it even smelled like one. Well, I went and sat down in this brown dentist-like chair and waited. Shane came in with all kinds of sterile-packaged materials and told me to sit sideways on the chair and he put the armrest over my lap. After washing his hands and putting on his gloves, he asked me where I wanted my lip ring at and I told him the left side. Next, he rubbed some iodine on my chin and below my lip, and then used an alcohol pad to wipe it off. He then drew the mark on my chin and asked me if it was alright, and I told him I wanted it a little bit more to the left, so he drew another dot, and I was completely satisfied with the placement.
Then the piercing came. He changed his gloves again and then Shane picked up a clamp and placed a rubber band around the end so it would hold on to my lip tightly, after he got the rubber band where he wanted it, he told me to open my mouth and when I did he placed the clamp on my lip. After he clamped my lip, he reached over and opened up my lip ring and the needle and squeezed out either antibiotic suave or a lubricant of some sort, I am not sure. It really looked like antibiotic suave to me, but what do I know? Well, he then dipped the needle into it and turned back to me, found the dot, and pushed the needle through. I didn't expect it at all, which I think helped me not think about the pain...that and also he told me it would be extremely painful and since I expected it to be excruciating it wasn't that bad. It was more pressure than pain. You know how when you bite your cheeks or the inside of your lip? That's much more painful than the piercing...to me that is. I looked down and I saw a needle poking out of my lip but it didn't hurt, it was just heavy.
He made sure everything was perfect, and then placed a 14g CBR in my lip, which didn't hurt at all, I could feel it slide, but it felt kind of good, for lack of a better word. I then looked to my right in the mirror while he grabbed the ball and the ring closer things. I turned back around and he put the ball on and then looked and said don't move and left the room. I didn't understand, but I didn't move. He came back and told me the ball was too small and he had to change it. I didn't expect it to hurt or anything since the first ball didn't really hurt. The first one felt like he pinched me, but I was wrong about the second one not hurting. When he opened it back up and put the other ball on, it hurt worse than the piercing. I don't know why, but it did. While he was changing the ball I started to feel light-headed and somewhat nauseous. After he got through, I didn't even stand up, I said. "Shane I feel light-headed" and he turned the chair around, laid the back down, and turned a fan on me and helped me turn around and lay back so I didn't slide out the chair. I was sweating so bad, but that fan was the greatest thing I had ever felt in my life it seemed like.
While I laid there, Shane told me all the aftercare instructions. The sea salt soaks, and the 50/50 mouthwash-water rinse after I eat or smoke or anything of the sort. He said no oral sex or mouth kissing for a week and to soak it for 3 minutes 2 times a day. I got up and rinsed my mouth 3 times with some mouthwash and I followed him to probably the largest back of salt I will ever see. He filled a Ziploc bag with some salt and told me to eat some ice and drink cold stuff for a while because it would feel awesome. I then left, with the crazy, post-piercing glee upon my face showing in the form of an awkward smile because of the swelling and me not knowing how exactly to smile right with it yet. I bet I looked stupid. I walked out to the lobby to tell my friends I was ready to go and they all looked at me and made faces saying it looked painful and asking me all sorts of stupid questions. We got in the car and went to Sonic, seeing as how they have the best ice and I got a slushie and he was right, it did feel good. But how did he know? He didn't have any piercings...oh well.
Today is October 16th technically, but it's like 2 in the morning, it has probably been like a day and a half and I still haven't felt any "pain" other than the sporadic tingling and throbbing and occasionally a prick-like sensation when I move it to clean it. I'm still a little bit swollen, but it moves quite easily and I haven't had any crusty stuff yet either. I slept fine with it, and since I sleep on my stomach/side with the left side of my face crushed against the pillow, I figured I would have to change my position to the right, but I forgot it was there, even while I was laying on it. It feels really good when I slide it around and when I drink something it slides real easily and I get a cold sensation inside my lip which I love.
The only problem I am having is sometimes when it slips around, I think it is falling out and I get all freaked out and then I feel I feel it and I realize it is still there and I am okay. I haven't figured out the whole eating thing yet, but that is caused by the swelling since I can't open my mouth like I normally would. Other than a few small annoyances caused by being unfamiliar with it and some minor swelling, I love this piercing. I have very low self-esteem and since this piercing draws focus to my lips, which I love, it makes me feel more beautiful. I can't stop looking at, it is just simply stunning.
If any of you are not getting this piercing solely because you are scared of the pain, it's really not that bad. I seriously recommend this piercing to anyone who is interested in it. Just research it and read everything you can so you know what to expect and it won't be as bad as you think it is. You shouldn't ever not do something because you are afraid of the pain. Chances are you are worrying for nothing. Always remember, 90% of the things you stress over will never happen.