I've been interested in piercings and tattoos for a good long while, but had always been a bit apprehensive about getting them myself. I have been an off and on visitor to BME for almost 4 years now, and my interest only increased with time. I have piercings on my ears, and have stretched my lobes a bit, even pierced my ears a few times by myself, but I've always wanted a piercing that is a bit...unconventional.
At A Glance Author beopposed Contact beopposed@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Ryan Studio Marlowe Ink Location Fairfax, VA My friend Kat (IAM: PhenoBarbiDoll) told me she was taking a trip to Fairfax to possibly get a new piercing, or speak to an artist about a new tattoo, and I jumped at the chance. After seeing all her work and hearing her stories of how great the guys at Marlowe Ink had taken care of her, I decided that this was my chance. We sat up until some ungodly hour of the morning on BME trying to decide which piercings we wanted. It was a difficult decision for me, since there were and still are so many piercings I want. I finally narrowed it down to a vertical labret, since I liked the look of it, and I wanted some sort of lip piercing.
We went there and sat for a while, talking to the apprentice piercer, Ryan. At this point, I was pretty set on a vertical labret, but after going over the things Ryan could do, I decided to just get my lip pierced on the right side. It had been one of the other piercings I had wanted in addition to the vertical labret. It was still a lip piercing, and it still looked pretty awesome, so what the hell.
The whole process took a while, because Kat had to talk to the tattoo artist about the work she wanted done. She had brought in a picture of what she wanted to ask about, but wasn't sure if she was actually going to get a tattoo. At this point, I began to get a bit jittery, but it wasn't too bad. It was more excitement than apprehension.
Finally, after Kat spoke to one of the artists and decided against getting a new tattoo, the moment came. I signed all the paperwork I needed to sign, and Kat and I scissor, paper, rock'd to see who would go first. Kat ended up winning (she had settled for a cartilage piercing), so she went first, and then it was my turn.
I sat up on the table as Ryan got the needle and labret. I rinsed with Listerine, and he cleaned me off with some disinfectant. He dotted me where he was going to pierce my lip. I agreed to the placement, and he pulled out my lip to pierce it. The preparation part of the process seemed to take forever to me, even though all of it is necessary. It was interesting to note all of the procedures a piercer goes through before they actually stick the needle in you. I had never known it was so complicated. Needless to say, I was nervous at this point. You could probably dance a jig to my heartbeat at this point.
"Take a deep breath," he said, "and exhale." He pushed the needle through my lip. I felt a slight stinging as the needle first penetrated my skin, but other than that, no additional pain. I noticed that I didn't do anything he had told me to do. Everything had just gone so fast, I didn't even have a chance to take a deep breath. Whoops.
The whole car ride home, I admired my new piercing. I was really pleased with the placement of the piercing. It didn't even swell at all the first day, but the next few days after that it swelled up like a balloon. It was actually so swollen, the ball unscrewed on my labret and I lost it. Good thing I had a backup captive bead ring (thank you, Kat).
Since I didn't have sea salt for the first day, I used a half listerine half water mixture until I got some sea salt. Overall, I wouldn't recommend using listerine on a new piercing, since mine became very irritated. After that, I used the sea salt soak on it and tried not to play with it too much, and it healed in about a week.
I only had a couple of mishaps while eating with a labret in -- I accidentally bit the inner part of the labret, and, consequentley, my lip, and just about screamed bloody murder. A bit of dramatization on my part, most likely, but I remember hating life for a couple hours after that. It's much, much easier to eat with a ring in, so I definitely recommend a larger diameter ring on a new piercing for the sake of eating. I say larger diameter, since mine swelled quite a bit.
Overall, I'm really thrilled with my piercing, and I absolutely love the guys at Marlowe Ink. I couldn't have asked for a better experience.