So I've been wanting to get my lip pierced since about the middle of 8th grade, and after finally getting up the balls to ask, I got permission to get it done. I had just completed a rite of passage over the summer in the form of a vision quest for nine days in the desert(fasting and solo time included), and I figured that I deserved to have something to show for it. My dear old mother isn't one for things she considers extreme -- such as piercings. I told her that since many tribal cultures use piercing as a rite of passage, this would be the perfect little marker for it. She agreed on the condition that it would be small, relatively inexpensive, and pretty to look at. "None of that metal ball nonsense," so she said.
At A Glance Author muuzie Contact muuzie@gmail.com When Six months ago Artist Keri Studio Blue Lotus Piercing Location San Rafael, CA It was to be a birthday/Christmas present, so my she took me down to Blue Lotus piercing the weekend before my birthday. On the car ride down, I was getting the pre-piercing jitters pretty bad, but once we got down there, they were gone for the most part. My mom and I filled out all the necessary paperwork, then sat down and waited for about 3 hours. Normally it wouldn't have taken that long, but we were walk-ins. Half way through the wait, Keri decided to ring me up ahead of time & explain aftercare procedures. In addition to my jeweled labret & piercing costs, I got a small circular barbell -- the whole total adding up to $100.71. But I paid my mom the $30 for the barbell, and the rest was hers to take care of, seeing as it was her birthday/christmas present to me.
So anyway, after all of that was taken care of, we had to wait a little longer for them to prep the needles, violet ink, gloves, lube, cleaning solution, etc. Once that was done, it was my friend Tess's(who was there to get her nose done) turn to get pierced, so she, Lucy, and I walked into the back room. Keri pierced her, and then they left.
As my mom and I spent more time waiting, I was staring off into space and thinking about calling my friend Nathan so that I could get my other friend Jen's number. She's a regular at the shop and was thinking of coming with me to watch. So as I'm staring off into space, I hear "Peacock!" And speak of the devil, Jen walks in.
So she and I chilled while this other girl was getting her lip & nose pierced, and Jen was talking about possibly buying a building in Novato and setting up an alternative art gallery, which kicks ass, and will definitely get a lot of attention. Anyway, this is a story about piercing, not art galleries.
When the girl was done getting pierced, I went in, sat on the bench, and got cleaned & marked. I wanted it a little higher, but Keri and Christine noted that if it were higher, it'd look like it was coming out of the actual lip flesh and would look weird. I didn't happen to notice that it's a little off center to the right, though(my left). But not by much, so it still looks fine.
Anyway, Keri had me lay down on the bench, got a feel of my lip, and told me that I would take a deep breath in and out, and on the exhale, she'd do it.
So I breathed in. Breathed out. Needle in my lip. Breathe in, breathe out. Redirected the needle, the piercing was crooked. Breathe in, breathe out. Taper in, needle out. Breath in, breath out. Jewelry in, taper out.
Keri started threading the bead onto the jewelry but dropped it, since it was so small(& the jewelry was internally threaded). I felt it fall into my shirt, and told her, so she dug around and found it, and tried again. She dropped it in my shirt AGAIN, and had me move around a bit so she could find it, all the while she was holding onto my lip to make sure the jewelry didn't fall out. FINALLY she found it, and Christine came in. Keri told her what happened, so Christine got a little pair of pliers and fixed them onto my jewelry so she could properly screw on the bead.
And after ALL of that, no pain except for the needle and taper, I have a gorgeous little jewel right below my lip. Fuck yeah!!
If any of you are considering getting your lip pierced, I definitely recommend it. I was really nervous about it hurting a lot, but it's very quick and not very painful. Quite honestly, it hurts a lot less than getting your upper ear lobes done.