I've had my medusa done before and it hurt quite a bit. In fact, of all oral piercings, it was the one that hurt more, if you forget my scalpelled 0 ga tongue. I loved my medusa and really wanted to keep it.. well, for as long as I could. Unfortunately, 2 months into having it, it developed some sort of growth in the internal part of the hole that no sea salt soaks or crushed aspirine seemed to dissolve. I took it out, reluctantly and missed it like crazy.
At A Glance Author strawberry Contact strawberry@bme.anon IAM strawberry When A week ago More or less one week ago, I happened to be in London to take the final exam of the MA I'm working on. It was a very stressful time, where me and my friends were spending long hours at the library worrying about more or less everything we could worry about, and we got home tired and drained every night, having accomplished very little. The exam was set at 3 pm. On that day, I decided that I wanted to get something pierced, just to mark the event. I said to myself, if the exam doesn't go too well I will have something to cheer myself up with; if I do fine, I'll have something to celebrate with. At around 11 am, I left my books at the library where my friends were studying and made my way to the studio where I always get poked when I'm in town (I will not drop names because I'm not sure if they're comfortable with me writing about the experience and since I have no chance of asking them and still want to post my article, if you're still curious feel free to email me or send me an IM) and said that I wanted to get a piercing. It was not one of those days when you wake up and KNOW that you want a specific piercing; it was more the case of wanting the high of getting pierced and the happiness of a new mod. I discussed options with my friend, who's also the senior piercer and one thing lead to another and she just said that it was a shame I didn't have my medusa anymore, because it looked good on me and it wasn't too obvious, or flashy, so that it gave me trouble at school. I decided that that was as good a day as any to re-pierce it. I'd loved it so much and missed quite a bit, so why not. At the same time, with one degree more or less finished, and little school work left in the school where facial mods weren't really allowed, I thought, why not? Let's go for it.I scheduled my appointment at 6:30 that night, since my exam finished at 6 and I would leave London the following day.
Exam time came. We managed to do it. It was one long, painful, 3-hour written thing where your hand hurts so much from writing in a rush, but at 6 it was finished and although I was sure I'd forgotten bits that should have not be forgotten, I was confident I'd done alright. Not perfect, but something to be happy about.
I jumped out of the classroom and on to the bus, and arrived at the studio at 6:20. I had a chat with the piercers, bought a pair of plugs for my ears, just because, and my friend went upstairs to set up the piercing room, while I filled in the usual forms.
Usually, I always ask for extra-long jewerly since I am paranoid I'm going to swell a lot, but this time, thank goodness, I let my piercer had her way and we settled on a 12 mm, 14 ga surgical steel post, with a 4 mm ball. Just right, not too long and not too short. I was so tired and so exhausted from all the writing that I didn't even try to say no and ask for a longer post, like I usually do.
10 minutes later, I was sitting on the piercing room, which smelt of disinfectant, a smell that always makes me feel good, and my piercer was marking the placement.You could still see where my original medusa used to be, and since that was a good place, we decided to pierce a mm above it. We double checked it on the mirror and we were ready to go.I was asked to lay down, which I do prefer, since it's so much more relaxing than having sit, and to breathe in and relax. There was no count down, no disturbing 3-2-1 where you just have adrenaline pumped in and that anticipation of pain, but, instead, I was just focusing on relaxing and when I looked truly calm, I felt the needle go in. To be honest, I didn't even feel the clamp, but I'm sure one was used, and I'm glad about it, too, since clamping is always a pretty painful experience for me. Did it hurt? I'm not sure. It was over pretty quickly, the needle, the jewelry, and since they use blades, not canulas, there was very little fiddling and the whole thing only lasted about 5 seconds, or so it felt. I was feeling surprisingly high. All the stress, the tiredness, the feeling of being drained and heavy and sleepy, they'd all gone. I looked at my new piercing in the mirror and felt complete and very happy. That piercing belonged to me. If ever a piercing was made to be on my face, that was it. More than my snakebites, which I loved, more than my septum, my baby, the medusa suited me. I thanked my friend, paid, tipped her, said goodbye to everyone at the studio and left to go see my friends for a post-exam dinner.
On the way to the pub (where I didn't drink), I stopped to the chemist for arnica and Nurofen, the arnica because I want to feel healthy, the Nurofen because sometimes you need to go to sleep knowing you've taken something strong. At the studio I'd been given a bottle of Tech 2000 and I didn't need any other mouthwash.
Once I got to the pub I showed everyone my piercing and they said how cute it looked, and if you consider that these people are all non-modified and a bit on the conservative side, it says a lot. Or maybe it's just that they're my friends and accept me and love me no matter what... I don't know. But my medusa worked well on all fronts. It was a bit sore, and I avoided spicy foods (but gorged on a veggie burger and fries) and steered clear of alcohol, but apart from that eating was not impaired and I could talk, chew, laugh as normal (a refreshing change from the painful madonnas and annoying labrets, which always hurt for me because they're in areas that move constantly.. smiling with a madonna is pretty nasty).As for aftercare, I kept the piercing clean with sea salt and water and rinsed with Tech 2000 after meals. So far so good, and one week or so on, my new medusa is doing great, isn't sore anymore and, touching wood, there's no strange growth in sight.
It's a piercing I recommend for everyone who wants an oral piercing and likes symmetrical mods, and who doesn't want a labret but prefers something a bit different.
If you have any questions, please do feel free to ask.