This is supposed to be a story about my labret piercing, but before I can go into that I must say a few words on my history and my other piercings. I grew up in a very conservative house hold where my grandmother would say things like "Oh my!" when something "dirty" came on T.V. , and my grandfather would not let me ride by bicycle any further than just in front of the house until I was over twelve years old.
At A Glance Author Siren Songstress Contact Siren Songstress@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Adrian Studio Skincraft Location Cincinnati, Ohio I spent a lot of time in their house growing up because my mother was always working. Still when it came to the important things , she always knew best. She always wanted the best for me is a better phrase to use perhaps. She always just wanted me to be "normal" and fit in. Fat chance of that happening any time soon.
For as long as I can remember I've felt very different from everyone else around me. I know that sounds a little cliché, but it's true. The so called "stranger" or "Darker" side of beauty has always appealed to me. I use quotations around those terms because who's to say what exactly is strange. For some people, it's having more pierced than just your ears and for others it's having anything pierced at all.
My mother believed I crossed the line with getting more than one set of earlobe piercings. She begrudgingly let me get my second set when I was seventeen. Soon after I turned eighteen I began researching into other piercings. I had a friend pierce my lobe two more times on one side and pierce the upper cartilage of the other.
I had begun stretching my ears at eighteen and have been at what some call a puny little 6 gauge for about three years now.
When I had the inner conch of my ear and the left side of nose pierced, my mother, though I no longer lived with her, threw an absolute fit. She eventually shrugged it off figuring I'd get tired of it and take them out sooner or later. She could not have been less prepared for what I did next.
The same friend who had pierced my ears and my nose had been doing research into becoming a professional piercer. I know that all piercings should be done by a certified professional and not by some kid in your living room. With this knowledge I did what any person trying to save money when putting another hole through their body would do. I ordered a bunch of piercing needles and some forceps off of e-bay and let her pierce me. We used the best methods of sterilization we could for a living room. And my friend was wearing gloves.
We originally wanted to do my septum but I am a wuss and I kept complaining that the clamps hurt too much. It felt like she was pulling down too far on the little stretchy piece of cartilage in the middle. I was determined to have something pierced so we decided on my labret. She made a mark on my face and asked me if it was straight. We spent ten minutes arguing over it and remarking.
She lined up the clamps and told me to hold on to them while she pushed the needle through. It was painful, I won't lie, but not as bad as you might think.
What happened next was worse. She was pissed about me arguing with her so she handed me the ball and told me "You screw it on" and left. I screwed on the ball and went to go look in the mirror.
I thought it looked slightly off center but it wasn't noticeable. A little while later I looked at it again and realized that the ball had come off.
We had pierced it at a sixteen gauge and I didn't have another sixteen laying around to take the ball off and put on that one. I did have a fourteen gauge labret stud in my jewelry box from my random jewelry buying exploits. I figured if I do it quick enough I can take the sixteen out and shove the fourteen through without the hole closing up. It would hurt a little to stretch that fast but it could be done, right? I wanted to go up to a fourteen eventually anyway I just thought it looked like too big of a hole for an initial piercing.
I was never more wrong in my life. Since the jewelry we had used to pierce me with was threaded on the post, when I pulled it out the threads ripped through my skin like a cheese grater. This caused the wound which up until now had been swollen but not bleeding to begin bleeding like a !@#$%. I ran it under the faucet with cold water and wiped the blood up with a paper towel. By this time the hole had closed and I could not get anything back through. I was left with a small mark on that part of my face for some time, and was quite disappointed.
About a month later that "friend" and I are no longer talking due to reasons I would rather not say in public for fear of who may end up reading this. Being urged by some friends at work to just go for it, I took the remainder of my pay check and headed down to Skincraft to have it redone. I decided on having two piercings done that day. One being the labret and the other was as yet undecided about. I let the amount of money I had left figure it out for me.
I decided on my eyebrow.
When I walked in I told one of the guys at the front counter,
I never got his name, that I wanted my eyebrow and my "Labray" pierced. He was an ass about it and wrote it down with a y until one of the other workers said "I don't know if your trying to be funny but the spellings right there, dude". He then smiled and just casually corrected me, no ill will intended, that the correct pronunciation is (with the "T") Labret.
They checked my I.D. and handed me some forms to fill out my name, address and what-not, whether I had eaten in the last few hours and whether or not I had any diseases. Having read up a bit on piercings (thanks BME) I had known to eat ahead of time to keep my blood sugar from dropping. And I have no diseases so all was a go. One of the nicer guys from the counter was my piercer, his name was Adrian and he made me feel very comfortable with every thing that was happening. As I said earlier, I like piercings but I'm a wuss. Adrian remained very professional through the whole process even when I warned him I might scream.
First we picked my jewelry. I wanted the labret done at a sixteen but he let me know that it's better to have it done at a fourteen or above, since smaller gauge wires have a tendency to pull into your lip. So we chose the fourteen instead. I got the standard sixteen for my eyebrow since they tend to look more feminine.
He led me in to a little room that looked like a doctors office.
And had me sit on a table that looks like the ones doctors examine you on. He and I talked a little bit about how nervous I was and if I was planning on having any more piercings in the future. I told him that yes I did intend on having a lot more piercings in my ears, but that I was holding off on the rest of the facial piercings that I want until I have a steady job that's excepting of piercings (the job I had at the time was a steady fulltime forty hour job and was very open to piercings and tattoos, you were just in danger of being fired every five minutes because the manger had a stick up where the sun doesn't shine). He got to setting up instruments and stuff and cleaning the area to be pierced. For my labret since the piercing goes inside your mouth he had me gargle with a mouthwash called Tech-2000.
While I was rinsing he washed his hands and explained the aftercare process. That I should rinse after eating and wash the outside with anti-bacterial soap. If I smoked or drank alcohol I should rinse after that as well. And not to have any physical contact with other peoples fluids near my piercings. He explained sea salt soaks for my eyebrow ring and how I should wash that with anti-bacterial soap as well. I was very polite and sat through all his explanations of after care even though I had read most of it on
various websites already any how.
I was really anxious for everything to be over with and finally after marking and agreeing on placement he asked which one I'd rather have done first . I told him the eyebrow since that was the one I was most apprehensive about. He had me lay down and told me to close my eyes. He was going to freehand it( not use clamps). He had me inhale and exhale a couple times and on the next exhale he pushed the needle through. That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Here comes the jewelry. That was probably the most interesting part . He had to turn the balls really tight to make sure they didn't fall off.
And know the moment we've all been waiting for. Adrian had me sit up to do the labret and he used clamps like my friend had done, only they don't need to be squeezed as tightly as you might think. We did the same exhale trick as on the eyebrow, but when he first pushed the needle through my lip I jumped. Before he got the jewelry in I was hyperventilating and he had to tell me to just breath and calm down. He got the jewelry in no problem and the ball screwed on tight.
He asked me if I was feeling alright several times throughout the procedure. Before I stood up he let me take a minute in case I got light headed. I had a look in the mirror and decided everything was wonderful so we headed back out to the front desk I paid for the piercings and bought some of the mouthwash to use for rinses during the healing period.
The first big challenge was eating. The post had to be long enough initially to allow for swelling and so I would often get it caught behind my teeth and bite down on it accidentally. I followed the rinsing process religiously for about two weeks although it should have been longer. I came back in, I think it was four weeks, to have the jewelry changed to a shorter barbell. The only time I could get in was just after work and was unable to call ahead.
When I got there I asked if Adrian was available again, being that he was the person who had done the piercing in the first place.
They said that he had left for the night only a while earlier but one of their other piercers could change the jewelry. I purchased a new shorter post and we went back into another one of the little doctors rooms. It was a lady this time I don't remember much about her only us talking a little bit about jobs and saying she has to take her gauges and other jewelry out for her other job she works in addition to being a piercer. She was a lot less gentle screwing the ball on the end of the jewelry than Adrian was.
I headed back out to the lobby and had a talk with one of the lead tattooists about possibly having some custom work done. When I left, retrieving my spazzing "I hate needles" boyfriend from the waiting area I felt a lot better with the shorter post. The labret looked a lot better too. I no longer had this thing sticking a mile out of my face. It wasn't rubbing on my gums as much and I've not bitten on the post since.
Several months later my eyebrow ring is being removed soon due to infection caused partially by my own neglect. The labret is still a thing of beauty though. I don't know if it's possible but I'd like to have the post changed down shorter still. I feel like it would fit closer to my face and it might cut down on the irritation to my gums I've noticed more recently. I get several comments/compliments/complaints about it a day. None the least of which is my mother who asked me why if I want to be a singer would I put something in the middle of my lip? Just to irk her but partially because its true, I said to draw emphasis to my mouth and
Make people listen to my words a little clearer, then they might realize I have something important to say.
I only hope that people do realize some day not only the important things that are being said right now, but the important things that will be said in the future, and that they have enough strength to recognize them as such. This piercing through my lip has taught me to pay close attention to what I say, for others may be paying attention as well.