When I was about 16 I was watching television with my younger sister, though not really paying that much attention because it was a commercial, and there was a quick close-up of a mouth with one of the most beautiful (and somehow visceral) piercings I had, at that point in my life, ever seen. There was a bar going vertically through this person's lip.
At A Glance Author eca Contact eca@bme.anon IAM eca When A year ago Studio Body Accents Location Red Wing, MN I hopped online and while searching for "vertical lip piercing" I stumbled across BME where I learned that this beautiful piercing was actually called a vertical labret. After browsing through pictures of vertical labrets here on BME, I knew that I had to have one. My mother was really anti-piercing though, and I decided to bide my time until I was old enough to get it done without her consent.
I waited a little over two years. I had just graduated high school and started college and felt that it was finally time to have it done. I got my friend to drive me the forty five minutes to Body Accents so that I could have it done by Rick.
I have this horrible habit, however, of not calling ahead of time to see if Rick is available to pierce me and this happened to be one of the times which he wasn't. He was out of town for the next two months. I was devastated that he wasn't around!
The guy who informed of this happened to be available to pierce the next day and told me I could come back then to have it done. I set up the appointment and was about to walk out the door and head back to Minneapolis, when my friend came in to get the tattoo of her on again/off again boyfriend's name covered up. She lived in Red Wing and offered to let me stay the night so that I wouldn't have to go all the way home and then make the same trip again the following day.
Fast forward to the morning of the appointment, my friend got called into work and as such, could not go with me. I had already been nervous about having a needle pass through that much tissue. Finding out I had to "go it alone" made my nervousness even worse as I'd never been pierced without at least one friend or family member present. She couldn't drive me either, which was good as I used the two and a half mile walk to mentally prepare myself.
I get to the shop, and checked in with my ID and all. I got marked up and the piercer (whose name I regrettably forget) got the placement perfect on the first attempt. I took that as a good omen and calmed down. Then, as he was preparing to pierce me, he handed me a plastic cup and said, "I need you to hold this under your lip."
My heart skipped a beat and I panicked briefly as I asked, "It's not for blood is it?" He told me it was just to catch the needle and I calmed down (although my heart was now racing).
I took a few deep breaths to center myself and he asked if I was ready. I boldly said yes and he clamped me, which felt weird but not uncomfortable, and pushed the needle through.
I have to say, I was anticipating A LOT more pain than there actually was. He then slid the jewelry in effortlessly with only some slight pain as he twisted the bead on. I thanked him and we walked out to the lobby so that I could pay.
As we got into the lobby I felt really dizzy and woozy. I'd forgotten to eat. I'm hypoglycemic so eating is definitely necessary before I get pierced. He walked me to the couch in the lobby and I laid down while he got me a glass of water. He told me he was going back to clean the studio and would check on me in a couple minutes.
After about five minutes, I felt well enough to get up. I walked to the counter, paid and tipped him. He then joined me outside for a cigarette, which was difficult to smoke because of the swelling.
I then went across the street to eat as I desperately needed to. I feel I need to make this clear, if you get this piercing done, don't eat curly fries twenty minutes later!
The healing process was relatively uneventful though I did find drinking from a glass nearly impossible until the swelling went down (about two weeks later) and drinking from a bottle was difficult as well because I wasn't used to having a bead on the top of my lip.
All in all, this was probably my favorite experience at Body Accents. I still find this piercing to be just as beautiful as I had when I first saw it in that commercial years ago.
If you're contemplating having this done, I say go for it as it is beyond a shadow of a doubt worth it!