I had been thinking about getting an invertical labret for a long time before I actually got it. I had seen a picture of it on a hair web site one lonely night. It is kind of like a normal vertical labret, but instead of the bottom ball coming out below the lip on the outside, it is on the inside of the mouth. So it looks like there is just one ball directly on the pink part of the lip. I thought it looked pretty cool. So I did some more research and found out that not a lot of piercers know how to do an invertical labret, which was very unfortunate. I decided that I should go to my local tattoo parlor and ask some questions about it.
At A Glance Author Kimberly When Three months ago Artist Brendan Studio Lone Wolf Nashville Location Nashville Tennessee When I arrived at Lone Wolf, Nashville the piercer was busy; so I decided to look through some of their photograph albums. Eventually Brendan, the piercer, came out to answer my questions, which were: how long does it take to heal, how much will it hurt, what would happen if my lip got infected, how much does it cost and so forth.He was very nice and thorough; however he didn't seem very excited about piercing my lip. I asked him why he was trying to talk me out of it, and he said that it's a very difficult piercing to do because if he got it even a little off center it would be extremely noticeable, since the back of the stud would come out inside of my mouth it would chip away at my teeth even more than a regular piercing, and that it would leave hard scar tissue on the center of my lip if I ever decided to take the stud out. So I decided to wait to get the invertical labret until I was absolutely sure I wanted it.
The next week, my boyfriend and I decided to take a break from each other and I decided I should do something radical to get over it. So I set an appointment with Brendan at Lone Wolf for the next day and I got myself prepared for pain. I didn't know if it would actually hurt or not since I'd never had a piercing on my lip before. I arrived at Lone Wolf around 8 the next night and Brendan was there waiting for me. He had an apprentice working with him that night so they both got set to stick a needle through my lip. I sat there for about half an hour while they put dot after dot on my lip and measured to make sure they would get the stud centered. I felt kind of like a science project laying on the table while they poked and prodded at my mouth, trying extremely hard not to laugh. They kept me happy and comfortable by telling jokes and talking about bands and movies.
Finally, they were ready to stab my lip with a needle. Brendan pulled my bottom lip out with his fingers and put the needle through the inside of my lip and it poked out through the center of my lip. He let it stay there for awhile while he prepared to put the stud in. The whole process lasted about five minutes and it did not hurt at all. That night my lip swelled a lot, but didn't bruise or hurt. It was a little hard to eat for about a week but that eventually got better. However, I've had the piercing for about three months and it still is not very fun to kiss. The stud gets in the way.
My lip was really easy to take care of and keep clean. All I had to do was fill up a Gatorade bottle with half Listerine and half water, swish my mouth with it after every time I ate or if I did not eat a lot, at least five times a day. My lip never got infected and I stopped swishing so regularly after a month or so. However I still do it every night when I brush my teeth, for dental health and to keep my lip clean. Soon I'm going to get a smaller stud for my lip so that every time I smile it does not stick out of my lip. All and all I like my piercing a lot. I would suggest it to anyone who does not like kissing a lot because you really cannot do anything fun with it in. Eventually I will probably take the stud out, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. I really like the way it looks on my lip, it really makes them look voluptuous. And I've also gotten really good reactions from everyone who's seen it because its something out of the norm.