Well, to be fair to you, I have to say this piercing wasn't completely accidental. So if you were hoping for some fascinating story about how I trip and fell, and something got jammed through my mouth (although, given the placement of this piercing, I don't even see how that would work), sorry, but this isn't nearly as exiting.
At A Glance Author oopps Contact oopps@bme.anon IAM Oopps When A month ago Artist self done I had ordered some needles off the internet a few weeks earlier to pierce my navel again. The place I bought them from only sold them in lots of ten, so I had quite a few spare. I also had a few spare CBRs lying around, from goodness knows what (I think one of my friends may have bought them to use in play piercings, anyhow, not relevant). And I was bored. So, like any teenage girl in the same situation (unfortunately not true), I was looking around on the internet to see what else I could possibly pierce. Everything I was already planning to pierce was stuff I couldn't do myself (surface piercings mostly, which I tried once with curved barbells and decided to leave to professionals). I did want to pierce my nipples, but having been warned about the pain, and given my nipples aren't perfectly suited to it, I decided to leave that one until later as well.
Somewhere or other, I came across a picture of a scrumper in my searching. That looked interesting. I had been planning on adding more metal to my mouth (I currently have a 6ga tongue bar and a 14ga tongue web), and I like the idea of a piercing that only shows when you smile. My job has a strict no-piercing policy, so I had to make sure it was discrete
I browsed a few DIY experiences and had a quick look in an anatomy textbook to make sure there was nothing major to damage with this one and it all looked fine. What was slightly disturbing was the number of people who recounted piercing scrumpers with thumbtacks, safety pins, ear piercing studs, all kinda of junk. But then again, we've all been there (or I have anyway... I still remember learning nails and darning needles don't work so well for piercing...everyone makes mistakes).So I got out my needle and ring (already autoclaved), wiped down a bench in the bathroom with bleach and washed my hands.
Given that it would be rather hard to see even if I had marked it, I was just poking around with the needle trying to see how far up I could get it (I know these usually fall out within a year, so I wanted to make it last as long as possible), trying to find a placement. Then I looked in the mirror and realised the needle had gone through! I had felt nothing at all, no pain, no pressure... I had pierced myself without even noticing.
Fair enough, the placement looked fine and the needle was already through, so I decided to stick the ring in, which went easily. I was using a 14ga needle and an 18ga ring, so jewellery insertion was ridiculously simple. There was a tiny amount of blood as I pulled the needle out, but that stopped within a minute.
Getting the ball in was a little tricky, trying to hold my lip up and keep the ring still. At one point the ring even came out, and I was thinking I was going to have to repierce it (I knew it couldn't be this easy!), but the ring slid back in with no effort. I didn't even feel it go back through the whole.
There was never any pain or swelling with this one, and it only bled slightly when I did it. You could feel the ring in there afterward, but it wasn't at all unpleasant, just took some getting used to. Only thing I had to watch out for was not knocking it around too much while brushing my teeth. I followed the same aftercare as I had for my other oral piercings.
To me, at least, it seems this would be a great piercing if you were interested in trying self-piercing. But please, if you do self-pierce, use proper, sterilised equipment, wash your hands and try to keep things as sterile as possible, put in decent jewellery and dispose of supplies properly afterwards (anything that comes into contact with your body fluids is biohazard, and should be disposed of as such – particularly needles). BME has a great self-piercing FAQ, read through this first as well as doing other research on the piercing you want. Be safe and if you're not sure you can do it right yourself, go to a professional piercer or don't do it.
And for the record, my boss did spot it – rather interesting.
Boss: What's that in your mouth?
Me: (quickly closing mouth) Nothing.
Boss: New piercing, right?
Me: Yeah, but it only shows if I smile.
Boss: Don't smile. (and she was completely serious)
So now I have to watch it if I catch myself smiling... not such a big problem.