For many years I have been a large enthusiast of piercings and tattoos, even now in the days where its become ridiculously large, and I feel less unique by having them done, even so the experience I had last week was the most interesting I have probably ever come by. I had had my lip pierced before but last week I had my lip pierced professionally for the first time. So here is my little story about my experience with lip piercings and the difference of self-piercing vs. professional/licensed piercing.
At A Glance Author Kiyo Contact Kiyo@bme.anon When A week ago Artist I forget Studio Extreme Tattoo Location Ajax When I was young I was fascinated with the idea of getting my lip pierced, at an early age of, well nine-ish, I fell in love with pictures of North American artists like Bif Naked and Chester Bennington, especially with lip piercings in particular, and after two years I finally decided to get one. Being a big city kid with not a huge deal of money I actually decided to do it myself.
I started hanging around at a tattoo parlour and it didn't look that complicated, "in one way, out other, replace with piercing." Simple, I thought. I quickly learned that it was not as easy as I thought; it is probably not the best idea to start doing such peircings at such an early age. Though I must admit if it weren't for that experience I probably would have never got a part-time job at that very same tattoo parlour, under the table more or less. Though this had not been my first piercing, it was my first non-ear located piercing. It hurt for a while, and became extremely swollen; I imagined that my lip was almost as big as the scene in the Nutty Professor movie where Eddy Murphy's lip exploded on screen. Of course this wasn't that big in reality. I loved having my lip pierced being that young I really stood out, and other than some discomforting staring, I loved it.
In the next few years I did many different peircings along my lip and redoing old ones I had taken out. In total I had 9 different locations pierced, all self-done, not including the re-peircings. Each time was a new and different experience; none really hurt that much, and depending how I felt they took different amounts of time to do. Which allowed me to have a lot more control in terms of what was going on but then again there was always uncertainty when performing the task. The results were always the same but I always felt a lot more accomplished when doing a piercing myself, though the result was a lot more pleasing when having it done professionally.
Last week after much consideration I decided to get my lip re-pierced after about a year and a half of not having it in. I went to a local tattoo parlour. When I went into the parlour, like most people do I looked around somewhat dumbfounded. Then eventually upon meeting the guy who was to pierce my lip I felt a little more comforted, he looked rather pierced so I figured he knew what was going on. After introductions he brought me into the back room and I sat down. I felt uneasy doing this. Sitting in a relatively small room waiting for some dude to come back and put a small steel rod through my lip. A suggestion when doing this, unless you're a serious and common Body Modifier, go with someone not just yourself, I went with my ex-girlfriend and her older brother, which was great since it gave me the opportunity to get the piercing for free since he is a hell's angel and they own the parlour. Though despite this fact he and my ex were very supportive since they knew how nervous I was.
But anyways it was quite different from when I did it myself. After being told what would occur, he marked my lip and rubbed the outside of it with some disinfectant. After that he clamped my lip and a few minutes later came the needle. Having it done professionally was a lot faster than any of the times I had done it myself I think, probably because he didn't feel what I felt, though I suppose in some ways it was better faster because it was over faster, though unlike when I did it myself, it felt a lot differently. I "felt" it a lot more then when I had done it myself. It hurt a lot more afterward and I was really glad I had people with me at the time as I almost felt like biting my lip due to the pain, which obviously wouldn't have been a smart idea to do. However after it was done I felt a lot more satisfied with it then I ever had when I did it myself.
In my experience, if you have the money I suggest you do it professionally, but if you don't, but still want it done, do it yourself, you may find it easier to do, just make sure you take care when doing it. Also don't do it yourself at such an early age.