At A Glance Author Valeana Contact Valeana@bme.anon When Five years ago Artist Charles Studio Nemesis Piercing Location FT. MYERS FLORIDA
When I first started out with my body modification adventure I was overwhelmed at the amount of ideas that seem to poor out of my head and the heads of my peers as well. I surely did not want to get ahead of myself and get a tattoo and have it removed a year later or a piercing I might get and take out before it heals. ( I am known to do that) So, I sort of released a lot of tensions about what I wanted, where I wanted it and how I wanted it, through drawing and sketching out detailed piercing and tattoo schemes for my body. Eventually, mixing and matching different pre-sketched schemes with newer ones. Whether or not I would even considered a scheme did not matter to me, it was mostly about getting out all these creative ideas out. So I was 17 and five mods strong when I decided at the time to get my 'smiley' pierced or also know as the alleged scrumper. Which in some parts of Florida, where I lived was known as a 'sexual romp' with an individual. I preferred to call it a smiley, besides that was so much cuter to call it.
Since I luckily had at the time, two different jobs at two really different styles of tattoo parlors, I was able decided who I deemed best to do the work for free! I went in self-assured and confident that the piercer at the time who confidently enough was my boss and head piercer of Nemesis Piercing Inc. On Ft. Myers Beach. Able-bodied and ready to do it up we set a date. Beforehand, I had a little experience in the bathroom mirror with a safety pin and sewing needles trying to simulate the pressure of the piercing and the expected pain. Due to my worries at that point about the amount of nerves in that general area I was a little sketched out about whether I could take it. I was worried that I might fidget at the wrong time and the needle go through my throat or something. Although, much to the dismay of my paranoia those worries subsided as I got closer to the date I had made to go through with the piercing.
When I had finished working a double that day at both stores that day after closing up shop and checking inventory, and all the necessary steps one follows in closing a retail store, I took a quick break for a smoke, and then went in for the procedure. I hopped up on to the chair and there I was with Charles in charge of me ( like the TV show). He reclined the chair all the way down so that he could see directly into my mouth and he began to examine it. He did tell me the space between my lip and gum was a bit small but that he could manage to fit a 16 gauge needle through and fashion me with an 18 gauge curved barbell to go home with.
I was so excited! Finally I thought, this piercing was really interesting and ignited a sense of creativity and individuality which nowadays seems scarce to me. Craving the many days of mouth fun! ( playing piece of jewelry with my tongue and such...) That soon came to follow , I envisioned how great it was going to look! After examining the prospective spot he had me wash my mouth out for about 30 seconds with some special dentist-type mouthwash and then he cotton swabbed it down with some solution I forget what ,I think alcohol. Then he applied small clamps and asked me to take a deep breathe to release any lingering tension. After I took a breathe, he shot that darn needle straight through!
Guess what, when it was over, I didn't feel a thing! The whole time before the piercing I thought I was in for it, that piercing is going to hurt so bad I am going to mess it up and the needles going to go through my lip, but to my surprise the whole thing went smoothly. I got a nice little piece of surgical steel internally threaded jewelry and that was that. After that experience I got a vertical medusa which on the other hand, did hurt!. I kept my jewelry clean and it healed in about 4 or 5 days. Not even any swelling occurred. I am not sure about every person but I know I enjoyed that piece for a while I had it for about 3 years! Eventually though it got to swell way to much because I couldn't stop tugging on it with my tongue, I'm nuts though. If you have more control with mouth jewelry I definitely recommend the smiley because it looks cute and it makes people smile when they see something that totally catches them off guard.