| At A Glance | |
| Author | Girl |
| Contact | Girl@bme.anon |
| When | A week ago |
| Artist | Myself |
| Studio | My bedroom |
| Location | Some strange town, Ontario |
I have many other piercings, 22 to be exact. I read up a lot on this one, I heard there was a vein in that general area which could paralyze your face, so I searched the web, with google by my side, and found that it was further to the side of your mouth. I have done other piercings on myself, and had them turn out perfectly fine, I did one of my labrets, the one under my Madonna, and nothing went wrong, and it healed the same as my other labret, which was professionally pierced. I thought I had the "balls" to do it myself, which I suppose I did. I had a hollow needle still in its package, which I bought some time ago, but I didn't have proper jewelry. So I decided I was going to improvise, and use a nose ring, the one which was originally put in my nose, pfft good luck.
I put all of that on the backburner for a while, thought about it every once in a while, then one night, I decided it was time.
I set up a little station, took out the jewelry, put a little polysporin on it, obviously I wasn't thinking straight, I took out the 16ga needle, and wasn't going to open it until after I washed my hands, so I ran the bathroom and washed my hands, sloppily, then I ran back and was sure I was definitely ready to do it. I marked my face with a thin tip black permanent marker, and took out the needle. I knew the pain wasn't going to be that bad, as I had already tried to pierce this at the age of 13 with a sewing needle, smart move on my part. I was going to pierce it from the inside out since I knew it hurt less, and that's how my lip was pierced. I stretched out my lip and held it with my left hand. I lined the needle up with the dot on the other side, and began to push. It easily slid through my lip but was stopped briefly where my skin was so I had to push a bit harder, it popped and went through. So here I am sitting on my bed with a needle sticking through my lip. I looked at myself in the mirror, smiled and called myself a freak, then tried to put the jewelry in. Using the follow through method I tried, and, well, of course, it didn't work, I kept trying and trying from both ways, inside out, outside in, I could get the hook of the nose ring in, but it would just twirl around in my lip, probably screwing up a lot of stuff inside there, which may have caused the horrible aftermath. I kept trying till I thought the hole was closed.
Then, I pierced it again, through the same hole, same entry hole, and it came out the same on the outside. I repeated the same horrible process of trying to get the jewelry in, till again, I was sure the hole was closed, pierced it again, had the same result. Then I took out a 14ga needle I was planning to pierce the bottom of my belly button with, but had tried and found it too painful and gave up. I kept it for some strange reason, I'm not sure, but anyways, I attempted to stick this through the same hole, and got almost the entire way through, but would just not go through the layer of skin at the top, so I took it out, which proved to be harder then I thought it would be. I fiddled with jewelry some more, and gave up on that goddamn nose stud, and took out my 14ga labret stud, right from my lip and pushed it through. It, like the 14ga needle slid right through the soft tissue but was stopped at the skin, so, determined to make this work, I pushed the thing through, it hurt, it didn't bled at all, and I was shocked.
At this point it was around 2, my lip was really tender and a bit swollen, I took that as my cue to go get ice, but on my way up, I heard my mom or her boyfriend, I'm not sure who it was, up in the kitchen, and retreated back to my room. I was dead tired and had school the next morning, so I just decided to sleep.
I woke up in the morning, my lip was sore, and I could feel the ball, on the end, it felt like it was pushing a bit, I dragged myself to the bathroom turned on the lights, AND I saw in the mirror, my distorted face, my big fat swollen lip. I had very little to no room between my lip and the ball, and the back of the labret was digging into my lip and had made itself a crater, I ran back to bed, I didn't want my mom seeing my lip in this condition. I was planning on showing her, but only when it looked good. I fell back asleep until she left. When I woke up the second time, I cleaned my lip thoroughly with non-iodized sea salt, and warm water, I soaked my lip, and cleaned the ball, and attempted to find, and clean the back, which proved to be a very hard task. I could hardly see the back my lip was so swollen.
I got the swelling down a little bit, then decided to make my way to school. After school I was to see my ex-boyfriend, for the first time in a very long time, which was hard, especially with a fat lip, he joked about it, but said it wasn't that bad, we also got back together that day, so I wasn't that self conscious about it. When I got home I soaked it and cleaned it constantly, and managed to hide it from my mom.
The next morning I woke up to a phone call from my moms friend who works at a school, informing me that it was a snow day! Yay! I was glad, because when I went to the bathroom to check on my little friend, my lip hit its all time worst, It had swelled and engulfed half the ball on the outside, the back was completely embedded in my lip, so I cleaned it, grabbed some ice, and sucked on that for a little while, till it melted, then went back to bed. I refused to leave my house that day, because my lip was disgustingly swollen. Later on that day I decided I needed something longer in it, and quick. I made my way down the icy roads, to the dollar store, to find nothing, but short labrets, like the one I already had in my face. Disappointed I walked home, and searched for a longer 14ga one. I found one, but it was black plastic coated. I knew it wasn't the best thing to put in my lip, but at least it allowed some room for swelling. I took out the one I had in my lip and swished sea salt around the back in my mouth, it began to dribble out the hole, so I pushed and it began to stream through the hole, I was amazed. I put the longer jewelry in, and cleaned the area with sea salt. There was a huge crater in my lip where the ball was sucked into my lip. It was green, and it was gross.
I cleaned it regularly, but at night it would swell and the ball would push against my face. My mom finally saw it, when it was still a little swollen and pus filled. She was very worried about the scaring.
I was at my friends around the 5th day I had it, and she offered me a long 16ga stud, which was put in her lip when she got it pierced, since I was looking to buy a 16ga one to minimize scaring, I took it. I know your not supposed to use others jewelry, but I was desperate, and poor. It had been oozing and dripping pus, but when I put hers in, without the ball, because it was a little bit to short, it sort of dripped out a lot at night and somewhat slowed during the day.
A few days ago I went to a piercing studio in town, and asked them "What's wrong with my face?!" and they told me it was infected, it wasn't swollen anymore, but around the hole it was still larger, and red. He gave me some sort of zinc ointment, and told me it drains the pus out, which it has done, it's been 4 days now using that stuff, and it isn't dripping as much at all, and is definitely not as sore. I don't think the redness has gone down, but some say it has. I still haven't put a ball on the end of stud in fear that it will also get embedded in my face.
I like the placement of my Madonna, its lower, so I suppose that has some effect on how much it swells, that and I traumatized it trying to get the jewelry in, and re-piercing it so many times. All in all, I would probably do it again, but I'd do it properly, with more pre-planning, and proper equipment, like clamps for instance, that would have probably helped with the jewelry follow through. I also would have iced it sooner. I still can't wait to get rid of this infection though, I have a cold and throat infection or something I think, which may prolong it, I hope it doesn't last too long though. I want to be able to put a ball on and have it look good. Its aligned with my bottom labret, which I think was a smart move on my behalf, because it looks a lot better like that. I'm very glad the staff at Eyes of the wild, were willing to help me even though I was stupid enough to pierce it myself, and did such a crappy job too. I like my Madonna, and I hope it doesn't scar to bad.
Pictures of the swelling, and recent.
