When I was young I remember seeing a gentleman with a labret piercing at some point in my youth. The details of situation, time, or place escape me now but I found it so fascinating that the simple piece of metal sticking out of his lip stuck with me for about ten years before coming to fruition in a shoddily done "center" lip piercing. I was fairly young and uneducated about piercings, but I still liked it and kept it for just over a year.
At A Glance Author Ernest Contact Ernest@bme.anon IAM Ernest When A month ago Artist Jean-Pierre Studio Lucky Monkey Location Ann Arbor, MI At that point I chose to remove the poorly placed labret and give it plenty of time to close and settle so I could have it pierced again by someone more professional. Long story short, two attempts later I became fed up with the fact that both repiercings ended up off center.
Spending time on BME/IAM can open your eyes to a lot of options that may not have been apparent in the past. I had seen scalpelling procedures for ears quite a bit and even a few lips here and there but it never really clicked. At wits end, I contacted Jean-Pierre (IAM: Hardpee) about having my lip scalpelled to center it out. A handful of messages over the course of a few weeks, some pictures, and some calipers for stupidly precise measuring were enough to convince the both of us that scalpelling was an option for me.
We spent a fair amount of time going over measurements and details about my situation due to our geographic separation. I live in Cleveland, his shop is in Ann Arbor. This is one part that made for some frustration at times. Trying to plan such a procedure without being in person is difficult, and I generally wouldn't recommend it.
None the less, I collected the necessary funds, grabbed a friend, and headed to Ann Arbor. A few hours later we found a place to park and made our way into the shop. I'd met Pierre before during a short stop in Chicago last summer, and it was honestly good to see him again. He's a blast to hang around the shop with, which I did for a couple hours before the procedure to collect myself.
The Procedure:
Pierre collected all of the necessary goodies for the procedure and threw them in his statim to get all sterile and such. When everything was ready, I headed back into the piercing room and hopped on the seat/table/thing. Pierre got to work marking my face, finding center lines, drawing connections between holes and scars from the previous attempts and finally showed me to the mirror. I took some time to make certain I was perfectly happy with his plan and markings and okayed the placement.
The method for my procedure were broken into three main parts; a 14g dermal punch to remove scar tissue from my original labret piercing, a horizontal cut from the punch to the most recent piercing, and a short vertical cut to make sure everything was center.
I laid back on the padding and relaxed myself for what lay ahead.
Punch: a 14g dermal punch doesn't look that bad, honestly it's kind of cute. Pierre placed a tounge depressor behind my lip, lined up the dermal punch, then gave me the standard three breath treatment. Having been pierced in the same general area three times, I was fairly well prepared, and the punch was no worse than any piercing. Unfortunately, the first push didn't quite make it all the way through, he paused checked the situation, had me breath again and finished his way through. Some quick pressure and gauze went down on the punch to keep the bleeding down.
Horizontal cut: Pierre grabbed the first scalpel and got ready to cut. He was pretty frank with me and said "I can't really prepare you for this feeling" gave me the three breath talk and on the third he cut horizontally from the punch. The sensation was very surprising, a mix between an intense 'heat' and a paper cut. Now the bleeding really started. My mouth was quickly full of that wonderful bloody taste. Another round of gauze and pressure.
Vertical cut: In order to ensure center placement, Pierre decided to perform a small vertical cut vertically along the center line of my lip. He grabbed a second scalpel for this part, prepared me again and cut. This was easily the worst part of the procedure, the sensation of the scalpel was washed out by the 'tugging' on the two open corners of the horizontal cut.
After all the sharp parts of the procedure were complete, I fell into a very calm state. Pierre grabbed a taper, slid it in, turned to his prep table and returned with the glass jewelry, tapering and insertion was a breeze. I officially had a perfectly centered 4g labret.
A few moments later after a bit of a struggle, the o-ring was on and Pierre cleaned me up. I stayed laying for a few minutes, then stood up to inspect myself in the mirror. Aside from a swollen lip everything looked great! I was ecstatic. Pierre snapped a couple photographs and I headed out into the shop waiting area for another couple hours, then returned to Cleveland.
First week:
Blood crusting was pretty bad for the first three or four days, as was swelling. After the fourth night no more blood was accumulating. I gently washed the area around the jewelry with Satin in the mornings, brushed my teeth, and used an alcohol-free mouthwash two or three times a day. Besides that, I pretty much left it alone besides a warm sea-salt soak occasionally to soothe it.
Second and Third week:
Swelling began going down around day 10 and was completely unnoticeable by about the 14th day. Lymph began to appear heavily around day 7 and continued for about a week. By the end of the third week it was pretty much business as normal.
I did have a slight issue with irritation due to the backing of the jewelry during the second and third week. A stop in to see Denise (IAM: dindin), a local contact of Pierre's, gave me an all clear and a recommendation to keep water intake up and make sure I had impeccable oral hygiene. This was gone by the beginning of the fourth week.
One Month:
My lip had loosened a great deal by then, and I considered it mostly healed.
Overall, this was a completely rewarding experience. I'm absolutely happy with my labret as it is thanks to Pierre and I'd recommend him to anyone. It's so pleasing to finally have exactly what you desire, especially given such a high visibility area.