I'd always been quite scared of body piercing I got my ears first pierced when I was 12 and that was a scary enough experience and I thought that's were my piercing days would end. But as I got older I started to be really interested in body piercing and peoples reactions to it. I liked the shock factor!
At A Glance Author Jennabell Contact Jennabell@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Cant remember! Studio images and ink Location andover When I was about 15 I started to notice lip piercings more than any other piercing I thought they looked really good and I thought people who got them were really brave as it looked painful and it was right their on your face for everyone to see. Me and my friend Nicola both thought they looked great and I always said we would get it done but it was always an 'I wish' sort of thing. After all I found getting injections at the doctor scary so how would I cope with getting my lip pierced!
Well I pretty much forgot about my fantasy of getting my lip pierced until I met my boyfriend Nick. He had 11 piercings including hip nose done twice, nipple, scaffold, flesh tunnel, top of ears and his lip. He encouraged me to get my lip done as he thinks they look really sexy on girls but it was still an 'I wish' not something that I would do.
A couple of months later my friend Laura phoned me one Saturday and said " Jenn I really wanna get my tongue pierced and I've got to do it today or I'll never do it",
"Oh wow cool!, your well brave, I well want my lip done but I'm too scared!" I said,
"Oh please get your lip done then it'll be less scary for me!",
"Umm maybe I dunno!".
I met Laura and had £40 in my wallet, just in case.
It was may and it was a really hot day and the piercing studio was a 40 minute walk up a hill and by the time I got there I was knackered! We got in and Laura didn't know if she wanted to go through with it. A man covered in piercings and tattoos approached us " what can I do for you girls? Bellybutton?"
"I want my lip pierced," I said, uh oh I'd said it now!
He got me to fill out my name, age address and what I wanted pierced in a book and led me to this room in the back and got me to sit on the bed. First he cleaned up my lip then got out a pen and put a dot on the skin just below my lip as he said if I wanted to wear a ring in it, it would be too high if it were on my lip. I looked in the mirror and decided to go ahead He showed me the jewellery and I chose just a normal silver ball labret, he put them as well as the clamp in a thing that looked like a microwave to sterilize them and then got out some spray and sprayed the outside of my lip and the inside to numb the are, it was quite embarrassing as if you've ever had you mouth numbed you end up dribbling!
He got the clamp and jewellery out of the 'microwave' and clamped my lip, the clamp looked like a pair of scissors with two round hoops on the end, then he took the needle out of the packet and pulled out my lip and pushed the needle up from below, it was a sort of quick stinging pain but not nearly as bad as I thought, he cut the needle of f the top of the tube to which it was attached and but the labret in it and pulled the tube down and then screwed on the ball, I looked in the mirror, there was a little of blood abut it stopped after about 20 seconds and there was no more. I looked in the mirror and I was really pleased with it! Laura then got her tongue pierced and then we left the studio. After the numbness wore off I didn't hurt but the scariest thing was when I caught the labret on my teeth so it was hooked over but I found this didn't actually hurt!
It took about 8 weeks to heal but I didn't look after it too well!(do look after it properly thought because you don't want any nasty infections!) I was meant to clean it about 4 times a day with salt water but I only ever managed about once or twice. It's completely fine now and doesn't hurt at all and is the funnest thing to play with! And the best trick is to take it out and squirt water through it but my work hates that! I usually wear a ring in it and I've had no problems with it! I recommend anyone to do it! It only hurts for a minute or so and no were near as bad as I thought it would be and I'm so glad I've got it done and don't regret it at all!