My last piercing was about two years ago, so I guess I was about due for another. I can't remember for the life of me, what it was, but about a week ago I got this uncontrollable urge to have something done to my lip. My husband really didn't want me to get any facial piercings other than the tongue piercing I've had for a few years, but I finally convinced him that this one wouldn't be SO bad.
At A Glance Author bean Contact bean@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Mike Hare Studio Exotic Body Location Sacramento, CA www.exoticbody.com Looking through BME, I stumbled across the vertical labret section. I didn't want too much metal on my face since i have relatively thin lips, so I finally decided I wanted an inverse vertical labret...
Fast forward a week... I took a poll of people who were well versed in piercing and opted to go to Exotic Body. I walked in and no one was around but I immediately saw a large clear case with TONS of jewelry in it. Probably the coolest things in there were these black rubber-like models of noses, mouths, tongues, vaginas, penises, you name it... each one had jewelry in it as sort of an example. A guy walked up and asked me what I needed. I let him know what I was looking for and he said he'd grab Mike for me. Mike came out and I told him exactly what I wanted. At first he thought I was just asking for a regular vertical labret, so he thumbed through his book of pictures and found one. I told him about inverting it and he sort of tried to talk me out of it. He said that because it was just going through the soft tissue of the mouth, that it could rip out more easily than a regular vertical labret. Out of all my research on this particular piercing, that is one thing I hadn't thought of or even heard of. Gum recession is a big one, but supposedly, there's jewelry made of teflon that cut down on that.
I signed the release form and walked back into the piercing room. Mike had me sit on the table and had me swish with Tech 2000. He placed a dot at what would be the exit wound at the top of my bottom lip and then dried off the inside and placed a dot there. He placed the clamp around my lip and checked for placing and whatnot. When he was satisfied with it, he grabbed what I thought was lidocaine and asked me if I was ready. That caught me off guard because I saw a little plastic cup with yellowish gel in it and hadn't seen that he used it yet, but now that I think about it, it may have been something similar to EMLA cream. Anyway, I nodded that I was ready and he stuck it on through. In one way, it hurt like hell, but in another, it really wasn't that bad. Not unbearable in the least. I didn't even flinch or blink. He had already placed the curved 16ga barbell on the taper before we began, so he was pretty quick about getting it in there. The threading of the jew elry through my lip was uncomfortable. He secured the barbell with some needle nose plier type things and screwed on the ball. That was a nice touch since it keeps it still while they are fiddling with the ball. Other piercers have just held the barbell and done the same, but moved it around.
He asked me if i was okay and I said yes, then he asked me if I was sure... =)
I hopped up and looked at it and thought for a second that it was off center barely, so I told him that. Naturally he freaked out thinking that he'd completely screwed up my lip, but now that I have switched the side that the curved part lays on, it's perfect. I wasn't about to have him take it out and redo it if it was really crooked! It did hurt enough to not want to do again anytime soon. Since he didn't have any pictures of this procedure, he took 3 or 4 for his example book... just a little exciting that I had made "history" in that shop. Got my stuff, walked out to the front reception area and paid the man. He gave me Tech 2000 to rinse after everytime I eat or drink and a GlyOxide type product for cleaning twice a day exactly... no more, no less.
So here I am with my new piercing and I like it a lot. I'll probably love it once I can switch out this barbell with a much shorter one. I can already feel it "bruising" the gums in front of my lower teeth.
All in all, I'd say this piercing is worthwhile, however, I'll have to wait until it's at least not so sore and swollen to make a good judgement on that.