Hello, my name is David Valdovino and I am 14 teen years old. I currently have 16 piercings placed on different parts of my body. I believe that piercings should either be done strictly by a professional piercer or at least with the right equipment. I don't believe in unclean needles or anything of the sort. My parents basically don't like or understand the reason why I choose to modify my body the way I do. My mother kicked me out because of just one piercing, but my dad doesn't really mind and he takes me to get them done at shops. But I highly believe in defining your own sense of beauty and self. I also believe in modification because it is your own life, if you don't like something or whatever, you shouldn't have to be unhappy because of it. You should make it special, something that makes you happy to own it.
At A Glance Author Diva-D Contact Diva-D@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Andy or something Studio Bonehead Location Sacramento California This is the story of my Vertical Labret Snakebites. I had always loved pretty much all types of lip piercings, but I have always worried about the dental damage that those type of piercings can bring. I had always wanted standard snake bites, but then I saw center vertical labrets. They looked really cool to me, because it seemed to just center out the face. Plus, the jewelry never is actually in the mouth, so my teeth would be safe from damage. So a vertical labret always seemed just right for me. But while surfing BME, I came across a few pictures of a person with double vertical labrets. They were both perfectly vertical, and close to the center. I immediately took a liking to the piercings, and put them in a mental check list of piercings I wanted to get once I had the money.
About 1 month later, I ended up with about 90 dollars from saving and other various things I did. I decided a new piercing would be just the way to waste all the cash that was burning a hole in my pocket. Since I had 90 dollars, and the standard piercing costs about 40-50 dollars, I could probably get my dad to pay the remaining cost of 2 piercings. And thus, I was to get the vertical labrets.
I've been pierced at pretty much all the popular piercing shops around town, but I had been told by my friends that this shop called "Bonehead" was good. Since I had never gone, I thought it would be a good idea to see how good of piercings they could do.
I hustled my friend, father and self downtown and got into Bonehead. I went to the counter and talked with one of the guys behind the desk about wanting piercings, and he got the guy who would be actually performing the piercings on me. The piercer who I don't exactly remember's name, I think it was Andy or something. But anyway, Andy asked me what piercings I wanted. I replied that I wanted 2 vertical labrets. He say okay, and then asked me my age, and if I had my birth parent with me, and my birth certificate. I gave him my certificate and ID card, and my father gave him his drivers license. Andy then took it to be copied, and gave me a piercing form to fill out. While I did the boxes saying if I did drugs, etc etc, my dad walked around the shop and cringed at all the pictures of "freaks and losers" on the wall. Andy came back and took the form, and checked it out, and then called me to come follow him to the back of the shop. My friend Loki, followed me as we went back. We soon were in a pretty large but clean room. There was a standard doctor like table, and a bunch of tool cabinets, and so on. We discussed the lengths and so on, and I choose 14 gauge stainless steel curved barbells with tiny little beads. I don't remember the ball size or lengths of the barbells, but he said they were extra long to allow for swelling. Then he pulled out a bottle of gelatin violet and some tooth picks, and proceed to wipe my whole lip down with Iodine, which I might add, dried my lips out a whole lot. (My lips were already super chapped because I am Asian, and it was winter time.) But he marked my lips, and immediately I didn't like how they were placed. He made it so that the top balls would be where I wanted them, but the bottom balls were placed out, so that they would be at angles. He asked me if that was sorta where I would want them. So I told him that I wanted mine to be straight up and down, so there would be room on the sides to get standard snakebites later. He remarked a few times, and finally he got them just right.
With my friends approval, he pulled the jewelry out of the autoclave baggies, and the needles and all the appropriate tools onto the small little metal tray. All while he was doing this he changed gloves when he touched something dirty. Finally he pulled the needle and told me to lay down with my head near the edge of the table. He informed me that he was going to free hand it, and if I preferred clamps over freehand. I told him to do which ever was easier for him, so he decided to free hand them. He told me to relax and to not move, while he grabbed my lip and lined up the needle. He told me to take a deep breath in, and then exhale slowly. While I did this he pushed the needle in. He went from bottom up, and it didn't really hurt that much until the last layer of my actual lip. Then it sort of pinched real hard and it was done. My eyes started watering, but it wasn't because of the pain really. He asked if I was okay, and said he was going to proceed to screw on the ball and continue to the second. I nodded my approval, and he again held my lip as he lined up the needle. He told me to breath in and out, and again pushed the needle though my lip. I think it hurt a bit more the second time, like the pain was a bit more intense, but I was prepared for it, so it wasn't that horrific. Again, my eyes watered and Andy put in the jewelry. He said it looked kick ass, and my friend told me how cute they were. I looked in the mirror, and was ecstatic about my new piercings. He went over the aftercare, which I didn't need much learning, basically watered down 1/3 Listerine or Biotene after I eat, smoke, or do anything except for bottled water. Salt rinses if it was irritated, and the standard no touching and so on. I got the money from my dad and my wallet, and tipped and paid Andy while thanking him profusely. He said to come back in a few months to get a downsizing of the barbells.
Once my dad saw it, he said that they looked horrible and if he knew they were going to look like that, he wouldn't have let me get them. I told him whatever and that I loved them. The way home was a bit strange. Because at this point, my lips were extremely chapped and in need of some lip balm. I delicately applied some Burt's Bees All Natural Beeswax lip balm, which Andy approved of. It was weird, because I could feel the metal under my lips shift as I talked and smiled. When I got home, my lips were already swelling a bit, so I sucked on some ice cubes, and eat some chips. Eating and drinking wasn't actually bad at all. It was difficult to drink and so on at first, but with some practice, it didn't hurt unless I snagged it or moved my lips wrong. I mouth washed a few times, and brushed my teeth and went to bed.
The next morning, after cleaning the little bit of dried blood and crusties away from my lip, I went to my mirror to actually look at my verticals in detail. They looked great, but I noticed one slight imperfection. On my right vertical, the top hole was maybe a millimeter down lower. You couldn't really tell at all, unless you looked at the piercings and my lips for a bit, but it was one of those things that, as soon as I noticed, every time I would look at them, I would see the unevenness.
I kept the piercings for about 10 days, until my mother who at this point still didn't know about them told me that I had to go with her to the dentist. Now, if you don't know my mother, she would have had a complete shitfit, if she knew I had the verticals. My dad freaked out, because obviously, she would scream at him for letting me get them. So he told me to take them out. Of course I knew that if I was to take them out, they would close within a few hours. He said that he would pay for them to get redone, which I decided to just take them out. Because the unevenness really did bug me a lot, and I said that I would get the standard snakebites I wanted then get the verticals again later. So I took them out, and the next day they were closed. It turned out that my dentist appointment only lasted 3 minutes, because all they did was look in my mouth, and ask me if I had been brushing and flossing.
Later I got regular snakebites which is a different story completely. Overall, I actually did really like the look of the vertical labrets. I don't at all blame the piercer for the two vertical labrets being uneven. They are hard piercings to get perfect especially two of them. I don't exactly know if I want to get them redone at the moment, because now I want a Medusa and Septum.
These two labrets were the first piercings I have ever actually taken out other than my first eyebrow piercing. I didn't really miss them too much, because like I said, the unevenness bugged me. But I think they were fun to have for the short amount of time I actually did have them.