Day 1
At A Glance Author extolment Contact extolment@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Dave Studio Under The Skin Location Aldershot, England I woke up yesterday morning (that's July 27th to all you people who aren't me) with a distinct feeling of both freedom and readiness.
The day before had been my last day working at my local pharmacy, where facial piercings were forbidden. I had worked there for two years, and previous to that, at another place for a year. So, for roughly three years I had been under the thumb of "the industry". For roughly three years, I had wanted my lip pierced.
I know this sounds silly, but my first real experience of lip piercings was on the lead singer of Linkin Park, a band I used to worship. After seeing Chester's piercing, I knew it was for me. It looked beautiful, and completely accentuated the symmetry of the human face, and also the fullness of his lips. Since my lips are quite full too, I was pretty confident that this piercing would suit me, but just to make sure I put a BCR without the ball onto my lip - it looked wonderful. I couldn't wait to get my piercing! However, I would have to wait three long years.
I already have three piercings; an industrial, my anti-tragus and a cartilage one. I'd got them all done at one of the two piercing studios in town, Under The Skin, and had been happy with the service and results. However, others had not been so satisfied. My friend Toby had recently had his lip re-pierced there, and it had been really wonky and had healed awfully. Various other people had warned me against Under The Skin too, so I went into town and headed for Sekond Skin, the other piercer in Aldershot. I got into town, completely psyched and ready for a great experience. Sekond Skin was closed, with no opening hours posted anywhere. "No biggie," I thought. "I'll come back tomorrow!"
Tomorrow is today. I woke up feeling ready to be pierced, and it being past 10am I assumed Sekond Skin would be open. I phoned them; no answer. So I decided to walk into town anyway, having business to take care of. After doing everything I had to do I checked Sekond Skin again; it was still closed. So I went against everyone's advice and headed up to see the guys at Under The Skin. I met Dave, the owner, at the top of the stairs and followed him down. He asked me what I was having done and I filled out all the regular forms, and then waited. For all my ear piercings I had been pierced by Gordon, but he was checking out a guy waiting to be tattooed, so I got the slightly scarier experience of being pierced by Dave. I say slightly scarier; being a small girl and sitting in a chair being examined by a huge bald guy with tattoos aplenty, as opposed to a marginally less huge guy with marginally less tattoos, glasses, and no bald; I was worried. I soon got over that, however, Dave was lovely and really put me at ease. He applied a spray to the inside of my lip and left me for a few minutes while the feeling of numbness spread through my whole mouth, then returned and sprayed the outside of my mouth to help numb that too. I'm willing to bet that I dribbled everywhere. Dave then put on a fresh pair of gloves and removed the needle I was to be pierced with from its packaging, confirmed the placement with me and WHAM! Ow. I wasn't expecting it to hurt at all; being naive as I was and having had pain-free ear piercings. The pain was obvious from the look on my face, but as I sat with the needle through my lip, I knew that the worst was over. Dave put the ring in, let me have a look (barely any bleeding, and I'm a bleeder!), gave me some water, and I was out of there!
I wandered down to see a friend, and then headed home, eager to give my piercing a bit of a soak to reduce the pain a little. I managed to eat some soup, and then headed out to a gig. Big mistake. All the talking and drinking did my lip no good, and it swelled. Lots. Who needs botox when you've just had your lip pierced? It put a lot of pressure on the ring, which was digging into my lip, and caused me a fair bit of pain. As soon as I got home I put some ice on it, then did another salt soak and took some paracetamol, then collapsed into bed and, luckily for me, fell asleep quickly despite the pain.
Day 2
Waking up this morning, I actually forgot about my piercing for a second. Just a second though, because after that it started to hurt again. I got up and looked in my bedroom mirror and my bottom lip was so swollen I looked like Leslie Ash with her 'fish lips'. Upon taking a look at the inside of my piercing, there was some white stuff which appeared to be skin around the piercing itself, which was very sore. I spent the rest of the day taking paracetamol (Infant Paracetamol, to be precise) to help the pain, and doing things to take my mind off it. However, I was very ill in the day (I'd accidentally ODed on baby medicine, and I worked in a pharmacy! Oh the shame), which didn't help the pain or my mood. I was close to wanting to take it out, but didn't succumb, because I knew that would be just as much pain and could invite in infection.
Day 4
We'll miss out day 3, because it was basically more pain, with even more nasty white skin goo. I'm starting this diary up again on what could be called day 5, so all that follows took place yesterday. I got my boyfriend to drive me into town, undecided as to who I should see. In the end, we decided to try the other piercing place in town, Sekond Skin. Thank God it was open! When I walked in I felt immediately at ease, far more at ease than I had done at Under The Skin. Behind the desk was a nice looking woman and a guy with piercings and tattoos galore, about my age. There was a guy with a mohican and tattoos chatting with them, pictures all over the walls, lots of tattoo magazines. It looked clean but still like these people had a real passion for what they did.
After a long discussion with the woman (the piercer) it transpired that my lip was still very swollen, and that if I was getting pain despite taking painkillers, then something was wrong. She told me that the inside of my mouth was being cut by the ring, which was too small to accommodate even the slightest swelling. Since I'm going on holiday to "the sticks" tomorrow, she gave me three options. I could either a) sit it out, and if it wasn't better when I got back then get it seen to, b) buy a new ring or a labret stud so I could change it if it got unbearable or, c) she could change it for me right there. Since I wasn't willing to risk a, and am far too squeamish to change my own jewelry at the moment, we went for option c. After warning me that yes, it would hurt, we went out to the back room.
Whoa! This was what piercing studios are supposed to be like! There were two dentists-type chairs in a long narrow room, the walls plastered in photos of tattoos and piercings. A man was being tattooed in the chair nearest the door, and I was ushered to the other chair. The piercer and the tattooist had a discussion about my piercing, to get a second opinion I guess, and both agreed that yes, it should be changed. I sat on the chair and the piercer washed her hands and put on some gloves.
Then the pliers appeared. She needed them to stretch the BCR over my swollen lip, which was a not entirely unpleasant experience. Pulling it out, however, was. It felt like being pierced backwards. Weird. I could feel a lot of resistance when she pulled from the tissue around the hoop; it was weird, but over quickly. She binned the ring, because I'd certainly never be able to use it again, and she also told me it was way too thin for a lip piercing, and the cheesewire effect was taking place on my lip, causing the cutting in there and the pain I'd been feeling. She then changed her gloves and took out a labret stud that was only a tiny bit larger than my ring, and had it autoclaved, something I'd never seen done at the other studio. However, when we tried to put the bar in, that was really bad. It hurt just when she poking around the area, and her attempt to push it through made me grit my teeth and put her off a lot! So, she brings out the numbing stuff (I wish I knew what it was called) and removed all feeling from my lip (and tongue!). Trying again hurt a lot less, and she managed to push it all the way through and push the ball on. It was immediate relief! It felt so much better. having something in the hole but without the awful pressure on my lip! Plus, I could eat! And kiss! Genius!
I paid £7 for the bar, and the piercer also threw in a BCR of the right thickness and size for when the piercing had healed up, which was very nice of her. I hung around town for a while, and had a pain-free day at last!
Day 5
Today will be my last entry into this. I woke up this morning minus the pressure and pain, just a nice feeling of having some metal in my mouth. The back of the stud occasionally catches on my teeth due to its position in my mouth, but it's getting more and more comfortable. I've also been following Sekond Skin's advice and quitting the salt soaks on my mouth, switching instead to Listerine and cotton buds. I can turn and move the bar easily, with no pain at all! I've been at a festival today, eating what I want, including ice cream and alcohol, and there have been no problems... aside from my wandering hands.
I was fiddling with the ball earlier and managed to lose it amongst the grass and blankets, and couldn't find it again. Having very little cash, I was lucky to find a stall selling jewelry with a nice woman who gave me a new ball for just £1. However, this also fell off repeatedly, even when I wasn't touching it, so she gave me another one completely free of charge! I also ran into the guy from Sekond Skin with the piercings, who enquired about how mine was doing. Shows you that 'the modified' look out for each other, and are often amongst the nicest people I've met! Everyone I've encountered on this piercing experience so far has been understanding, even if things have gone wrong. I'm very happy with how it's turned out.