It was only about a year ago that I first found an interest in lip piercings, and decided pretty much, that, I wanted one. The huge drawback for me was that my body heals over piercings within hours of having the jewellery out, and my damned nickel allergy - I'd had 4 attempts at having my earlobes pierced in the past, and although that was partially due to the cheap 9 carat gold used, I was still wary.
At A Glance Author Depressed Shadows When A month ago Studio The Electric Chair Location Cornwall Still, I now had some successful lobe piercings with titanium, and thus I approached the local tattooing parlour, the Electric Chair in hopes of finally having my lip pierced. Initially, I will admit, I chickened out, and opted instead for a simple helix. But, 4 months down the line, this was healing up pretty nicely, and eventually, one Saturday, I ventured into town with the determination to have my lip done.
The place, a wonderfully clean and hygienic studio, which has the best standards that I've seen in any studio in our area, wasn't that busy, and almost at once I was called down to have it done, with butterflies in my stomach. The piercer I had was lovely, enquiring what I was having done and first of all checking what size labret I wanted. Opting for a smaller 1.2mm, (I now do regret this a little and wish I'd had a 1.6mm) I stressed that I definitely wanted it so I could have a ring later on.
When he was all set up, he carefully marked on where he would pierce it, and gave me a moment to check it out in the mirror. I was a little sceptical of the placement, (it seemed too low to me) but I trusted him to know what he was doing. Satisfied, he produced the clamp and clamped my wobbly lip into place, before making sure I was 100% ready for the needle to go through. I hardly recall the needle going through, I was convinced it would be incredibly painful, but it hurt, and bled, less than my helix! The labret going through was a little tender, but my lip had numbed itself up and thus for at least 5 minutes I was unable to feel much at all in it.
After some simple aftercare, I was thanking my piercer, who would be doing many more piercings for me in the future, and wandered back up to the reception to pay. In all, it came to £25 plus cleaning solution, not bad.
For the first day or so, my lip was hardly painful at all, but swelled up quite a bit, I had numerous ice lollies to help take it down. It did get a little tender, but otherwise has been very low on the pain scale for me throughout the healing process. I also followed the aftercare diligently, cleaning it twice a day and doing a weekly sea salt soak.
The problem came when I went about 2 weeks later to have my labret changed to a shorter one. I was fiddling with the ball earlier that night, and must of unscrewed it, because one minute I was eating chips and the next I was chewing on metal!! At around 10pm at night and no ball, I was screwed. The hole would be healed over by the next morning if I left the labret out overnight. On a last resort, I took out the belly bar in my right ear, soaked it thoroughly to disinfect it as much as possible, and shoved that in to keep the hole open. (However I do not recommend EVER doing this, buy some spare jewellery with your new holes, just in case!) In theory, I could of just left the labret in with no ball on the end...but I could have swallowed it, so I guess my belly bar resort was of some use.
Thankfully, my lip didn't get infected or close over overnight, and I was able to get a new ball the next day.
Since then I've had my labret changed to a ring, and yes, the hole is in absolutely perfect placement for it!! Sadly this ring was too small for my lip, and caused me quite a bit of pain and indentation in my lip until I removed it because of the pain. Fortunately I still had my original labret, and having learnt how to actually put it on by then, I was safe from my healing over fears.
I've now had the ring changed to a larger one, and I'm now happy with my beloved lip ring. It's taken a bit to get used to, having a ring of metal in your lip, but I'm absolutely delighted with it now, and so pleased that although I'm allergic to nickel and have sensitive skin, yes I CAN have piercings!!