A couple weeks ago I had plans to hang out with my friend Jon and after he picked me up we went over to J and Eash's place to hang out for a little while. While we were there, I found out that Seth was going to be coming over sometime soon and he was going to be doing a few piercings. I was invited to come, and I of course, said yes.
At A Glance Author Lyndsay Contact xhotdogcorex@aol.com IAM babyspike6 When It just happened Artist Seth Studio J's Apartment Location Harrison Township, MI Seth and I had spoken about doing a vertical labret and I figured this would be the ideal time to do it. It would be a lot easier with him not being in Bay City to get it done, because there was no way my grandma was going to drive way out there just so I could get a piercing. I takes enough hard work just to get her to say yes to these types of things as it is, and I can't get anything of this nature without her. So, I decided to do it. I also decided to get my helix dermal punched, but I'll save that for another story.
We both really liked the idea of this piercing because, hey, no gum erosion. Which is always great. I also really wanted to get it done because I think it's a damn sexy piercing. There isn't much that I think could go that wrong with this piercing. Other than maybe a fork getting caught on it. I didn't actually think about the fact that I play saxophone until today. Oh well, I won't have to play it until at least the end of October, perhaps even later than that. Which is good because today is only June 23rd and I just got this last night, (it hasn't even been 24 hours yet.) So, that gives me at least a good 3 months to heal some.
I was pretty excited all day yesterday. This was the first time I was ever nervous about a piercing. I don't really know why I was, but I was. I've never been overly excited about any piercing before and this one shouldn't have been that much different. I should have been more nervous about getting my tongue piercing than this. Eh, go figure.
I had gotten an IM from Jon saying they would be here at around 8ish. I should have guessed they would get lost. But, here I was, still sitting on my couch around 9:40, wondering where everybody was at. From about 8 until that time I kept jumping online and then getting back off quickly (in case somebody called) to check to see if I had any instant messages or if anybody was online but I had nothing and nobody was on. Finally I got on at about quarter to 10 and checked one last time and just as I was getting onto my iam page I hear a knock at the door. Finally. So I ran out, grabbed the consent slip that Seth had faxed Jeremiah, ran back in, had my grandma sign it while I grabbed my wallet and the copy of my birth certificate, and was out the door. It turns out that they (of course) got lost, and, couldn't call me because Jon didn't remember my number. Which he realized was in his cell phone. It also turns out he did have it memorized. (It's really not that hard of a number to remember.)
"Isn't it like ***-****?"
"Uh, yeah Jon, that would be it."
"Oh, um, oopsie."
*Sigh* "Good job."
On the way there, I'm told that they had to drive all over the damn place to find jewelry because the stuff Seth had ordered, hadn't come in when it was supposed to. When it finally did come in, he wasn't going to be able to go and get it due to prior arrangements. Oh well, everything worked out in the end. Everybody that wanted to get pierced got to and we all had a hell of a fun time doing it. We also got a call that we needed to hurry up because Reva (Seth's woman) had to pee. So of course we started hitting red lights.
We finally got there and let Reva in to run to the potty, (from where I was standing it looked like she did kinda run which was funny.) So when we got in and got settled a bit we had a few conversations about tattoos and piercings and all that sort of thing which was nice because we had a tattoo artist and a piercer there. Questions were asked by all and it was a very fun and informative night, (especially for me.)
Now, as I said I wasn't the only one getting pierced. Elisha's aunt was getting her "junk" I mean, hood pierced, Jeremiah got both ears pierced (helix,) and Jon got the labret he has wanted for so long. I went last because the vertical labret was going to be a little more difficult to do (I was his first!) and I was going to bleed a little more with my helix because I was getting a dermal punch. In between each piercing Seth took a break and we all talked some more which was nice. It's good to be comfortable with your piercer and be able to talk to them. Seth is my friend as well so I'm very comfortable with him piercing me. Also, even though he's my friend he is still very professional about it. He made sure that I had permission first and that I hadn't forged a signature or anything even though he knows that I wouldn't do it anyway. He changes his gloves a lot, sterilized the table after each piercing, and laid down a new (for lack of a better term because I don't know wha t they're actually called) dentist bib thingy.
So finally we got to me, and we decided that we were going to do my helix first. Well, that didn't work out so well because he needed to reshape the jewelry to fit my ear right. No big deal, we can do the labret first. It didn't really matter to me. He just wanted to do my ear so we could deal with the blood and mess of that one first. So he marked my lip, top and bottom, and told me to go check the mirror to make sure I liked where everything was going to sit. I went, looked, came back and asked him to lower the bottom mark a hair and he did. I went back, checked it, came back in and told him I liked where everything was at. So I sat down and he put the forceps on. It took a few attempts because when he went to look to make sure that they were placed right they would start to slip off if he moved them. Well, he got it to work, he just, didn't move them. Only now, he was just going to have to do it sort of, blind. I trust him though, and I knew he would do a good job, (which he did.) All right, so he has the placement marked, the forceps on, the jewelry set out, and needle in hand.
"Do you want a warning or do you just want me to do it?"
"It doesn't matter." Dumb answer on my part, I knew he was going to make me choose. "Uh, warning is fine."
I'd already had Jon's hand with my right one, and I reached out for Elisha's hand with my left, and tried my best to look as pretty as possible for J's camera. (I failed at this, and as a matter of fact, I look like crap in all of the pictures he got of me. Although Jon looks stoned, so I guess it's not so bad.)
"Ok, I want you to breath in and then on the count of 3 let it out."
*muffled ok*
"All right, 1... 2... 3..."
*hand squeeze of both of my friends hands and flashing of the camera as the needle slid through the top of my lip and out the spot Seth had marked on the bottom*
*Sigh of relief* "Ahhhh..."
"All right, now, I'm going to slide the jewelry through and it may be a little uncomfortable."
So out went the needle and in went the jewelry after it. Seth screwed on the ball, cleaned off my face a little and I was done. With that piercing anyhow. (I was advised to save my dermal punching experience for its own story, and I agree. It's going to be kind of hard to write about that, now that I got out basically everything that happened yesterday in this story. I'll figure it out. If you're reading this and happen to be interested in getting your helix dermal punched you can always just email me if you don't find enough info from any of the stories you read about it. I'll say this though, you're pretty much guaranteed to bleed.)
It feels pretty good right now. I'm not in any pain at all. Actually, the only time it really hurt was for a few seconds when I was getting pierced and earlier when I bit my lip. It's a bit hard to drink without using a straw but that's just me. Besides that, I just don't want to mess with it right now. As for cleaning, I use saline to get the little crusties and whatnot off and I do sea salt soaks. Make sure to rinse off the salty water because it will dry and then you'll have to get that off as well. Not fun. Getting anything in a fresh piercing like a crusty or dried salt has got to be one of the worst feelings in the world. It just plain hurts. I'm not kidding about this, ask anyone. Do not let this happen to you. Clean it well.