So everything started a couple of weeks ago. I started talking about getting my lip pierced to my friend Tina. She said that she'd take me if I really wanted to get it done, offered to take me to where she's gotten all her piercings. so about two weeks ago we were out and about on a jaunt and had to go to a place that was about four or five places down from where the piercer was so we decided why not just swing in. we checked prices on studs and hoops and i checked out all the pretty colored hoops he had and got all into it. so i ended up a little more closer to the piercing. we talked to the piercer, he had a real attitude. but not that cocky kind, the kind that makes you go, 'oh fuck you' and then laugh. so we left and i kept thinking the idea over. (not to mention the piercing apprentice is hott.)
At A Glance Author Ellie Contact pseudo__psyche@hotmail.com When Three months ago Artist Russel Studio Scissors Location Antioch, CA We went back the next week and looked around again, kind of poked our noses about so I could get comfortable with the piercer and the thought of having a hollow needle stabbed through my lip. So we talked to the piercer again and I ended up making the appointment for that Thursday (it was like Wednesday when I made the appointment). Made it for 2:30 PM so I could get off work and sorta relax for an hour on the way to get the piercing. Well, I got all amped up and excited only to wake up to my cell phone ringing and then the voicemail of "My fucking brakes went out on my car, they might be done by the end of the day, so maybe we can still go. Call Russell and tell him what's up." So Russell ended up calling me during work that day and I explained to him what happened. He said cool deal he'd accidentally written me down for the next Thursday, but he'd be there until 6pm that night. So .. I didn't end up going.
So I had all that time to churn. My friend told me we could get it done Tuesday, then called me Monday night and told me she couldn't take me, she'd been scheduled to work. Bummer. So Wednesday she had school and I had to work, but she called me and asked me if my Mom would pick her up because her car STILL wasn't fixed. By the time we picked her up my Mom had to go to the doctor so we rode along. Only to realize the piercing parlor was a (what we thought was short). short walking distance. We walked there, talked with the apprentice because the piercer had gone out for some lunch. He had started to get stuff ready to pierce me and I was like "no no! Tomorrow!" because my Mom was coming to pick me up in like forty minutes. So we all chatted for a while and I made my appointment for 2:30 PM the next day (Thursday) which is where I was already written down the week previous on accident. Coincidence? ha. Then after standing there for about thirty minutes I'd actually decided, w hy not now. Either way I'm going to get in trouble. Well, as we walked back inside my Mom called and asked where we were. Busted. So she picked us up and we kept giggling knowing we were going the next day anyway.
Thursday morning rolled around and I got the butterflies before work because I knew soon as I got off work I was going to get my lip pierced. I managed through the day, ate a bit and had a candy bar. All ready.
We got to the parlor at around 2:15. Just so I could sit and relax for fifteen minutes before it happened. Well, USPS came with a shipment for Russell and he was investigating all the stuff that came, making me nervous because I could see all the stuff. So finally he had me sit down in the piercing room so I could actually just chill out to some music he had playing, all the while he's playing and investigating his new instruments of destruction. So I finally get myself calmed down by reading the comics he's got up on the walls, the piercing jokes, looking at various pieces of his memorabilia, talking about Christina Aguilera getting her belly button done there. (hey. I'm sort of shocked about that.) So I'm all relaxed, singing, and he blows up a plastic bag that something of his came in and pops it, nearly made me jump so bad I almost fell off the table. I laughed and swore at him numerous times and he swore right back. Well, after getting everything ready, the gloves every thing set up he started marking my lip and it took him about ten minutes just to get the markings the way he wanted. Then came the clamping which took him five minutes, then he decided no, and we started remarking everything. (I'm typing this as I turn my head so my grandma still won't know I have this hole in my lip.) Then proceeded to clamp my lip again, which took us what seemed another good ten minutes. I finally had to put my hands on my hips and he stood back and goes "Are you getting impatient with me?" and I shook my head and mumbled that I had too much spit in my mouth and I wanted to swallow it. (This happened after numerous times of being told "no talking," "stop moving," "no giggling damnit." and various other similar things.) So finally about four more minutes he held the needle up and I kept looking up and around then over at my friend who was grinning all wide. She was way more excited then I was. He poked at my lip and I remember thinking "Wow, that's all?" Then he goes, "breathe in slow, then out slow," and so I did and he po ked a little harder and I thought, "all right it's over." And he goes, "Okay maybe just one more time." So I did so then I felt the actual needle go through my lip and out the other side. I kind of winced and squinted, but didn't close my eyes. I didn't end up closing my eyes until he was turning the jewelry in my lip. Then when I opened them I felt like my vision was fucked up but it passed quickly, he played with it a little more and I licked my lip and looked down. No blood, I squealed. I got my purse and hopped up and he goes "Woah where you going?" and I looked over and laughed. I'd been so eager to move around that I wanted to gogogo. So I sat back down and started reading the paper he gave me and then I hear him go, "well are you coming or not dumbass?" and I looked up and they were walking out of the room. So I paid and kept licking the inside of my lip and still tasted no blood. Though I did have that lingering aftertaste of whatever horrible stuff he had me rinse m y mouth out with before he pierced. My friend kept giggling and squealing and bouncing. I still need to go back and tip him, but I'd run out of money paying for the piercing. So I said I'd go back Saturday. Though I'm a bit late on that so I'll have to go and do it this week. Either way I'm all excited for my healing time to pass so I can start changing jewelry. I already bought two hoops and I'm all excited.
--added in as I enter this to BME on August 4th, 2003
Five weeks after the piercing I got far too eager for my own good and switched Jewelry to a nice black hoop with a red ball. (damn I'm too over zealous). After a few hours it started hurting because there was this little tiny fleck of white flesh I kept moving that was in the edge of my piercing. So I waited until the next day to see if it passed. But since my hoop would turn in my lip if I caught the ball on anything it was hurting worse. So I took a trip down to the piercer (my Mom took me, yay! She likes it now.) and asked him what it was, he said it was a piece of skin that had been smooshed and had no blood flow to it, after another day it should be fine and he was right. So I kept the hoop in figuring, 'what the hey.' A week later we had corn on the cob for dinner, that was a no go for me since I couldn't eat it with the hoop. I grabbed my trusty dusty (hey I washed it before I tried to put it in my lip) stud I'd had it pierced with. Got the hoop out after a moment, but the stud wouldn't go back through, seemed as if the lip had healed more with the hoop in it. Yay, another trip to see Russell!
I showed up at his parlor the next day at roughly 2pm, I was running late for something, I can't remember what now. I sat on the table, he popped the ring out of my lip (I had put it back in with no problem.) Cleaned my stud a little, and pulled my lip out and pushed it through. I closed my eyes and yelped and pouted because it had hurt worse than anything else I'd done to my lip yet. I promised not to change it or play with jewelry for a long time. And I still haven't, the ugly little stud is still in my lip, screaming for a vacation.
So when your piercer says, "Don't change it for.." They mean it, having a stud pushed back through your lip, does not feel dandy.