Being only a few months from turning 18, the itch for new ink or a new piercing had been burning furiously, so I decided to scratch.
At A Glance Author j-FWACK!-y Contact j-FWACK!-y@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Moi! Studio The Loo Before I ever found the gorgeous world of body modification, I saw a friend of a friend with this crazy, shiny object dangling in his mouth whenever he smiled. After interrogating him, he said it was a Smiley; from that moment on, I was hooked. A few months, a tattoo, a lip piercing, 10g septum, and 5/8' ears later, I decided I needed something new and was desperately craving a smiley.
I needed something that could be easily hidden, but could be viewed by those who wanted to see without flashing and of course the smiley, what I originally wanted, was the perfect plan. Now the mum isn't too keen on modification, so I knew I would do the labor at the expense of my own hands. I decided to resort to the ever useful BME on DIY-smileys seeing as I wouldn't be visiting a parlor anytime soon. The stories helped immensely and were the last umph of motivation that I needed.
After a few hours of random preparation and making sure the parents were asleep, I sat in my bathroom and was surrounded by a 16g needle (your standard sewing needle for harder fabrics works just as well), a barbell, alcohol, and mouthwash (using salt water works too).
After I had mouth washed, washed the hands,sterilized everything and brushed, flossed the teeth, and mouth washed again , I was ready. Lifting my top lip, I tested the waters by teasing and barely pushing the skin a little with the needle to get a feelsie of what it was like. I remembered when I got my septum, the aligning was more painful than the procedure so I thought 'why the hell not?' Couldn't feel a thing, so I proceeded to breathe in and shove it through while exhaling. I had heard there were to be to pops indicating the infiltration of each layer of skin and that my eyes would water. Neither occurred so don't be spooked if it doesn't happen to you either. I honestly didn't feel a thing, but silly me, I squinted my eyes while shoving and pierced a good half inch of skin on the upside of my lip on the other side of the frenulum. I gave it a second to recoup and thought 'It should be fine, this is what it's supposed to look like!' Wrong. I pulled the needle out with it putting up a good fight the entire time and tried to stick the barbell through. Yet again, Wrong. While I was trying to shove the barbell in the incorrect spot, I realized I was probably agitating my lip and would screw up any other chances of getting it right. So I ended up just pulling it out all together. Re-sterilized everything and gave another swish of mouthwash and took a deep breath for take two.
I found the original hole, managed to align it correctly (near the back of the frenulum of skin so as to give a better chance of no migration), and shoved through to the correct area. Once again and this time to my surprise, there was no pain at all. The needle felt much better this time so I let it sit there for a moment to breathe. Pulling out the needle and quickly inserting the barbell in, it felt brilliant! Not an ounce of pain!! Trying to put on the other ball was the tricky part, it was quite slippery and my hands kept shaking because I couldn't believe I had actually done it! I tried to angle the barbell downward making the un-balled(?) end face my chin. I was getting frustrated, so I chilled out for a second and let my lip rest. Afraid that the barbell would fall out, I immediately began trying again. Alas, after a few minutes of trying, I succeeded and did the Rocky pose, hands out stretched to the sky in happiness of my triumph.
I had originally wanted a curved barbell just because it seemed to make much more sense than a straight one, but at the moment being completely broke was my forte.
Once I was done, the smiling would not cease for a good five minutes. Having done it less than 20 minutes ago, I can say there is very little pressure, but nothing too dramatic. The sneezing has commenced as well! I can guarantee, you will sneeze at some point in this process. I would highly suggest not doing it yourself and going to a professional piercer for clear and obvious reasons. ::hem hem:: But if you're a numbskull and love the metal like the rest of us, it's a great starter for self-piercing!