Some background:
At A Glance Author .A.D. Contact .A.D.@bme.anon When Five years ago Artist Unknown Studio Metal Morphosis Location Soho, London This all happened about five years ago while I was in the second year of university and about 20 years old. At the time I was heavily in to the hardcore / metal scene in London. I spent a lot of time at shows, clubs and bars hanging out with friends and fooling around. A lot of friends and acquaintances were heavily tattooed and pierced and I found myself itching to get something done.
One of my mates (who's known as Nipples Pete!) had his nipples pierced and was forever going on about getting some more piercings. I'd been thinking about what I wanted for aaages and decided it was either going to be my lip or my ears. Pete on the other hand decided he'd be macho and go for a PA!
So, we talked about when we should head down but couldn't agree. Then one Wednesday we were sitting through a boring lecture and something clicked in my head. As soon as it finished we hopped on the tube and headed down to Soho. I was pretty apprehensive when we got there, to be honest I'd never been in to a piercing shop and the closest I'd been to it was my grandfather piercing my sisters ears with his gun (he was a jeweller) so I didn't know what to expect.
Anyway, we wandered in through the front door and asked about how long the wait was. Luckily there was a space available so i was fitted in within 15 minutes. To be honest I really can't remember much about the decor, apart from that it was quite industrial, very similar to Cold Steel in Camden. The place smelt sterile though, one of those disinfectant type odours. So, I paid my money, filled out my forms and then sat down.
My stomach was turning - I never eat breakfast and I felt a little queasy. Then a friendly face popped around the corner and called my name. I got up and followed down to the studio and Pete stayed outside to "book his piercing". I sat down on a plastic covered bench while the piercer sorted out his equipment. He turned around and asked me where I wanted to have it.
I'd decided I wanted a nice big ball as low down as possible, so we spent a little time working out how low down my lip he could pierce and agreed on a spot. Once it was marked up the clamp went on. To be honest I think clamping is probably the most painful part of the experience for me! I felt like a bit of an idiot having it hang off my lip, but it was only for a couple of seconds.
After that went on I felt a bit scared. It was the point of no return. Luckily there was nowt to be worried about. After the clamp was on it was only a couple of seconds before the needle was being lined up to my lip. I was told to take a deep breath and hold it. Then, as I breathed out the needle slid straight through my lip.
I was convinced it would be painful, but in all honesty it felt about as bad as a nettle sting. The cannula was slipped in and then the jewellery followed a second later. A nice big ball on the end sealed it all up and I was ready to go!
I went straight upstairs and then in to the pub for a quick coke and to catch my breath. Pete had decided a PA wasn't for him after all so I took the mickey out of him the rest of the day!
Weirdest thing was when I went back to lectures in the afternoon hardly anyone noticed I'd had it done! It healed really quickly and settled in nicely. I did find some irritation with it being so low - I kept catching the flat back of the jewellery on the little lip of my gums beneath my teeth. As i'm a vegetarian I eat a lot of dairy, which I hadn't been warned about. Luckily I didn't develop any kind of reaction to eating dairy over the first week, but i did stop until it was properly healed (And I'd found out it could cause problems of course!) Thats the one downside to my experience - I wasn't really given much after care advice.
If you are going to have ANY kind of piercing that involves your mouth then its a really good idea to avoid dairy for a while afterwards. Trust me, this is a good piece of advice! I'd also recommend not playing with it - it causes a lot of irritation in the first couple of weeks if you do.
I really liked that piercing but in the end I had to take it out before I got a job after university. Its a shame but I've learned to live with less visible piercings now....!
I guess its just one of those sacrifices you have to make if you want to be able to work in certain environments. People WILL judge you by them, no matter what they say. I know I certainly make judgements about people based on appearance; piercings, tattoos and other modifications are just enhancements to appearance after all eh?
ADx