A few weeks or so ago, myself and a few of my friends all decided to go and get new piercings. We had only a few reasons, being that we all wanted them for a long time now, and the general sense of comradery of us all getting them together, in one single session.
At A Glance Author xkonundrumx Contact xkonundrumx@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Damien Studio Punktured @ Off Ya Tree Location Adelaide, Australia We walked in to 'Off Ya Tree', as I'd been pierced there before and was taken care of well, and were told to go right through after signing the usual liability forms, and waited while Damien set up the necessary gear, as I mouthed the words to a friends band that was playing on the CD player. When we were ready to go, Damien started by piercing Tara, and I asked questions about how long he had been doing this, some of the more interesting piercings he'd done, about body mods in general and of course, BME.
After watching my friends quite easily get eyebrow and navel piercings I felt pretty sure that Damien was a good piercer. He has a steady hand and works quickly. Just outside the procedure room, a small crowd was amassing, waiting to get pierced, and watching myself and my friends get our new additions.
I sat down, and started getting cleaned up for my labret to be re-pierced. I previously had it done at 14ga, but this time, went down to a 16ga for school reasons (Uniform policy says I'm not meant to have any piercings at all, but I figured they'd be more lenient if it was less noticeable.)
I was told to rinse my mouth out with mouthwash, and as I did so, I remembered how much it ached after it was pierced last time, and whether it was the effort of going through other people's ridiculous opinions on it all over again.
Swish...
..And spit....
Yeah, of course it's worth it!
Placement was easy, as the existing 14ga scar was still visible, so we just dotted on there. I gave my approval for it, and then we were good to go. I sat up bolt upright as Damien clamped my lip, and prepared the needle. Already, my breathing was getting more shallow with the anticipation of what was to come.
"And I'm piercing in three..."
Breath.
"Two..."
Breath.
"...One."
Oh.
As I felt the needle go through I clamped my hands instinctively, but oddly enough it didn't hurt.
At all.
In fact I managed to mumble an "Awesome" with the needle still jammed through my lip. From here, Damien produced a pair of sterile wrapped scissors. One problem. They were rusty. After my protestations about this, he threw them out and took out another pair. These ones were rustier. He assured me that they were just old and were still sterile. He cut back the needle, and pushed the stud through. After a brief cleanup, wiping the blood from my chin and lip, we were done. But this is where things got weird.
Because I'd been breathing so shallow, and also because I got so hyped up, I started going into shock. I felt really light and hot. Everything started to seem more pale, and everything was sounding tinny, like it was being played through a bad radio.
"Umm... Damien?" I mumbled "Can I have some water?"
Next thing I know, there's a plastic cup in my hand, and I sipped at it gingerly. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help too much. So I put the cup onto the materials table and laid myself down on the bed. A minute or so later, I sat up, feeling better, and noticed Damien mopping the floor up.
"Whoa... Did I bleed on the floor?"
"Uh, you dropped the cup."
I actually hallucinated (a word I struggled to remember for a few hours due to the rush of the piercing) that I put the cup on the table. In reality, Damien moved the table away about 15 seconds beforehand. I actually dropped the cup almost 6 inches short, onto the floor.
I apologised profusely, but he just laughed it off and said it was fine. I tipped him for doing a wonderful job with me and my friends, and being patient enough to put up with us for over an hour, and walked out of the store in no pain or discomfort whatsoever, grinning and still kinda dopey from the rush.
Afterwards, I've made sure I use an antiseptic mouthwash (Cepacol works just dandy) for the inside of my lip, and a salt soak on the outside. It's healed just fine so far, with no complications.
So, my labret has finally returned. It's been worth every single experience I've had with it so far, including school hassles (turns out 16ga is still quite noticeable to a teachers eye... Oh well, it stays.)
..In fact, it's been much more than worth it. I don't think I'd be without it now.