At A Glance
Author	Rissa
Contact	Rissa@bme.anon
When	A month ago
Artist	Me, then Vanessa
Studio	My Bedroom, then Primal Urge
Location	New Jersey, then New Hope, Pennsylvania

So I had always wanted to get a Monroe piercing. I thought they were very feminine and attractive, unfortunately, my mother's opinion differed, and she planned on making me wait until I no longer lived in her house.

Of course, I was not about to wait that long, so one day on a day off from school I woke up and decided to do it myself. I found some upholstery needles my mom had, and gathered some ice, tissues, and that throat spray that numbs your throat. I went upstairs, used the spray and ice to numb myself, and stuck the needle through. It took about ten minutes, and honestly was painless. Realizing what I just did, it suddenly hits me I do not have a labret to put in. To keep the hole, I put in a regular earring, which was a bit uncomfortable at first, but not too bad since it ended up swelling so much i had to take the back off.

So I go to the mall to get a labret. I get the labret and go home and to my dismay, it is too big a gauge [16]. So, I figure, if I re-pierce it with another even larger gauge needle, then it wont shrink up so much, and I can get the labret in. To make a long story short, I rep-pierced the hole two more times with even larger needles and STILL couldn't get the labret in. My aunt came over and saw it and loved it [and even wants to get it herself!(shes in her 20s)], and promised to talk to my mom about me keeping it.

So I put a regular earring in and went to work, when my mom saw it later that night when she came to my job, she was not very happy. However, when she saw it on me, she actually liked it, but was very upset I didn't get it done professionally, so I took it out and waited a week and got it done professionally.

At this proposition I was elated and could not wait to get it done the next weekend. I researched all week, watched YouTube videos of the piercing being performed and all that jazz. I pretty much needed to consider myself an expert before my mom went along with it. So I decided on getting it done at Primal Urge, because in NJ if you are under 18 the only piercings you can get are on the ears, and that is still with parental permission [sucks, I know.]

So finally Saturday arrives and we are driving to New Hope. The whole ride I explain to my mom what is going to happen and how she should know I will have a much longer labret because of swelling and whatnot, and she is very, well okay, but if you ever put a ring in it you have to take it out, I will not let you have a ring in the piercing ever. Fine, I do not plan on that anyway.

I did a lot of research on Primal Urge, and it is supposed to be extremely reputable, I have several friends who got their navels pierced there and whatnot, and so it seemed like a good place, they had a nice web page, and once I got there I saw why.

The two women in the store were very friendly. They asked what I wanted done, and gave us the appropriate paperwork to fill out. They talked to me about the different types of metals to get, and since I can wear even the cheap dollar store earrings, I went with surgical steel.

But of course, not a labret, because here at Primal Urge, they only pierce with captive rings [unless its a tongue piercing]. It was like in Psycho, the shower music "dun dun dun dun!!!". And everything after she said 'only captive rings' became slow motion, I looked over at my mom and she said, "Okay." But I could tell she was really annoyed.

Now honestly, I had no idea that they would use a captive ring, from everything I had researched, I didn't come across any other person who had a captive ring for their Monroe. But the woman explained why they did it, and how it was better for the piercing because it kept it cleaner and was easier to clean, I assumed, she is a professional, I will take her word for it.

We go upstairs to the piercing room, and I sit on a doctors table, she gets out this little device that measured where the piercing should be on my lip, and she stops. She goes, have you ever had this piercing before? [you could see the little mark from where I had done it myself] Of course I deny it and say I was picking that area before because I had had a pimple. "Oh," she says, "well, thats exactly where it is supposed to be." That made me quite happy, I was like, HA, yeah, I'm amazing, I knew where it should be-- yes! Ha, anyway, she marks it, looks good.

I lay down and I close my eyes and she puts the clamp on, tells me to hold my breath and breathe out and one two three, the huge needle is through my face. I open my eyes and look at the mirror in front of me and nearly die and the assortment of metal things poking out of my face. She gets the captive ring and asks whether I want the small black bead which I will be able to hide inside my lip, or the larger silver bead, I go for black since I am annoyed enough as it is to have the ring.

So far, the process is painless, the needle didn't hurt at all. Now, I have no idea how she put the ring in because I closed my eyes, but i did feel a slight pinch, but I don't know what it was from. It didn't actually hurt, but it startled me. So in all of five minutes, I had my Monroe. I sat up and looked in the mirror. And was honestly so disappointed because I hated that stupid captive ring.

However, I sucked it up and went on to thank the lady, pay, and leave. She went over after care and gave me alcohol free mouthwash, and this oral peroxide. My favorite part of the after care was "No open mouth kissing or unprotected oral sex for six weeks."

So I went on my way, and it didn't look too bad. It was nice, and only took a little while to get used the the loop around my upper lip. For a week I did all the after care, washing the ring with Dial Antibacterial soap, and whatnot. But the little bead inside my lip really started to bother me, it was very irritating, so I gave up and wore it on the outside.

It stopped being so swollen, but after almost two weeks, the piercing was still extremely red, and right above the piercing looked so irritated. There wasn't any puss or anything, but then it started to, and it would get so crusty, and was really sore all the time. I started doing what I had heard to do, like use Neosporin on it, and it did look better, but finally at three weeks, it really looked infected and bad, and I was getting so sick of hearing people tell me that.

"WOW that looks really infected!!" "REALLY? ITS ONLY ON MY FACE I WAS ACTUALLY COMPLETELY UNAWARE OF THAT! THANKS FOR TELLING ME!" seriously, some people are really flipping stupid.

So after like 25 days, my mom and I decide to try and get a labret to put in, because my mom says it probably was the ring making it be that way. We look in stores and can't find any, because for some unknown reason, my Monroe is 18 gauge. Which I had asked the piercing lady about and she was like, no thats the only gauge we do it.

I tried twice to get an 16 gauge labret in, but just couldn't, and got too stressed when I had to put the captive bead back in the ring.

After a lot of searching online, I found an 18 gauge labret for a reasonable price at www.bodyartforms.com. I ordered them and waited.

Two days later, my mom comes home with the package, and immediately, I run to the bathroom to do it. I take the bead out, and get out the longer labret and push through the ring, it took some maneuvering because I would not take the captive ring out and just put the other one in, I was nervous then that I wouldn't be able to get ANY back in and it would just be a total waste.

So i finally get the labret through and am extremely excited.

No lie, two days later, the piercing looks perfectly healed.

I have no idea exactly what made it so infected, we've come to the conclusion that the ring put too much stress on my lip and made it not heal or something like that.

Its been just over a month since I went through that ordeal, and I must say I love it. The only thing I would have wished was that the gauge was bigger because finding a labret in 18 gauge is difficult.

As for Primal Urge, it seemed reputable and everything, and none of my friends had a problem, so maybe it was just me and my piercing. I also don't recommend doing it yourself, I was kind of crazy to do that, but I guess it got my mom to let me get it done which did eventually work out for me.

However, if you plan on getting this done and you go somewhere and they want to do it in a way you don't want it done "18 gauge captive ring", I really say just go somewhere else. I have friends who have it done and they didn't have to get such a small gauge or a captive ring, and it really did upset me a lot because a ring just wasn't what that kind of piercing was about. So stick to your guns, know your stuff, and get things done the way YOU want them. Good Luck!