For my eighteenth birthday, I had my nipples pierced. These were my first piercings ever, before ears or anything, which gave me sort of an initiation by fire to the piercing world. Since then, I've had my ears done three times and my nose done, all of which were rather uneventful.
At A Glance Author Molly Contact mkmascow@umich.edu When A week ago Artist Wendi Studio Lucky Monkey Location Ann Arbor, MI However, it came to be a cold, dreary, February Monday, I was in a foul mood, and after my fourth or fifth snarky comment, my roommate kicked me out into the world to go work out my aggressions elsewhere. I stalked around town for a few hours, freezing off various extremities, hoping that somehow I'd be in a mood fit to interact with people before my next class. Finding no solace in the cold or window shopping, I found myself in front of the Lucky Monkey. Pockets full of birthday money and taken by a sudden whim, I walked into the shop. I'd been toying around with various ideas for piercings - I wanted either a nape, navel industrial, or vertical labret. I'd been leaning towards one of the first two, since I still depend on my parents for college money and wanted to avoid pissing them off, and a facial piercing is kind of hard to miss. However, thanks to my righteous rage and aggression, I decided that I wanted something visible that everyone would notice. Labret it was.
As I walked in, the two tattoo artists and the piercer were all gathered around the table looking at tattoo designs. I talked to the piercer, and told her I wanted a vertical labret. One of the tattoo artists had never heard of that specific piercing, but the piercer set him straight. it made me feel really confident that she had such an immediate knowledge of a rather unusual piercing.
After some wonderful forms and paperwork, I found myself in a small back room with disinfectant gel spread on my lips. After a minute of some tingling and a horrid taste in my mouth, (honestly, the most unpleasant part of this piercing.) the marking began. It took quite a while to get the marks straight.. apparently. I have a crooked smile. After five or six attempts, both Wendi and I were happy, and I sat back down on the table.
Up until this point, I had been perfectly calm, not a bit of adrenaline in me. As soon as my butt hit the table for the second time, however, the familiar surge of adrenaline hit my veins, my heart sped up, and my hands clenched the table. This is my favorite part of any piercing - that last minute, heart-pounding anticipation. I soaked in adrenaline for a few more seconds as Wendi checked the marks one last time, and then it was time for the piercing.
As I took a deep breath, I could feel the needle point on my skin, and as I breathed out, I felt the very distinct sensation of the needle almost popping through the skin on both ends of the piercing. This was very unusual for me, as my nipples were just sharp bursts of pain, and my ears and nose were just little pops. There wasn't much pain involved in the piercing - just the very sharp and separate feelings of the needle going through my skin. Definitely my favorite piercing to date.
I got a good glimpse of myself with a needle through my face - excellent image, and then the jewelry went through. This part hurt a bit, but, again, in comparison to my nipples, pain is a very relative thing. I got up to look in the mirror, and instantly fell in love. There they were, dead center, two pretty beads on either side of my lip. Wendi told me it looked great, the tattoo artist stopped in and told me it looked perfect, and, best of all, I felt all my aggression fade away. Wendi took a few snapshots for her portfolio, I paid my bill, and was on my way.
For the first few days, things were a it awkward with the combination of my lip being swollen and having a bead on top of it. Drinking out of glasses was hard, smoking cigarettes was a bit of a task, and salty foods were absolutely out of the question. Now, a little over a week later, The swelling has gone down, I can drink out of glasses just fine and smoke like a champ, and I've regained the ability to whistle. Salty foods are still a good idea to avoid, and things that require biting, like sandwiches and burritos make life a little difficult. Other than that though, life has returned to normal. The best part is even my mother admits that it's an attractive piercing.. although she still likes to tell me that it's ruining my pretty face.
All in all, a highly enjoyable piercing. Fun to get, fun to wear, and it just looks great. It saved me from a day of moping, too - who says piercing isn't therapeutic?