I suppose I did this because I could. I quit my job a few months ago and had desperately wanted to get another facial piercing besides my nostril. I suppose that looks and perhaps convenience are perfectly good reasons to do something. Not this time though.
At A Glance Author Crash Contact Crash@bme.anon When A week ago Artist James Studio Twisted Sol Location Denver Co Body modification is spiritual for me, first and foremost. If go created me in his image than altering that image will alter god, or perhaps my perceptions of him. The moment a needle goes into your skin and you don't jump away, you breathe in and out and let it pass, you are having a conversation with yourself that you don't often have. As a practicing buddhist the best meditation I ever have is when I am being pierced tattooed, hung, anything. This time it was therapy and the need for that meditation, that conversation with myself, that lead me to pierce my lip.
I was at the time going through some serious relationship problems and had been spending a couple of days with my roommates girlfriend at her place, just to get away. The idea of getting a piercing came up and she opted to pay. I was sold on that idea. I grabbed my trusty laptop and did that oh so familiar bmezine keystroke and started looking. I have had almost everything on my body pierced in some manner. I wasn't going to redo my nipples, I didn't want to redo my navel. My junk doesn't need a piercing yet. Nose already has two piercings ears I have bigger plans for. Aaaaah, the mouth. I am very intent on my appearance body modification wise and I try to avoid piercings that have a sever masculine or feminine vibe to them. I don't consider myself a specific gender naturally and I do my best to avoid statements of obvious masculinity or femininity. Always keep 'em guessing. This meant that most lip or mouth piercings, in my mind, were out. I was at this point going through the modblog backlog and I saw a medusa piercing on a lovely women(?) in black an white, white face, black hair, piercing. I was sold. I looked at my face, asked a few people. even put a few dots on to decide placement. Perfect. We were out the door in less than 5 minutes.
I was nervous. I hadn't been pierced in 7 months and then some. This is the longest I had ever gone since that fateful day not too long after my 18th birthday when I received my first piercing. On the way to Twisted Sol, the only place to get pierced in denver, I thought about the whole situation. Piercings are aesthetic statements of intent, provocations. What would this provoke, what was my intent. How would this affect my smile. How would this affect the way I kiss. None of these questions could really be answered at the time, save one. My intent was push all my problems into a small place on my lip, stab it open, and bleed them out. I kept this in mind the entire ride down, head pressed against the window of the passenger seat.
We arrived at Twisted Sol, were greeted, all that jazz. My friends had never been there so while they looked around I talked to James, their piercer, about what was about to happen. We decided on a 14g and I began paperwork. After about 20 minutes of waiting while he pierced someone else I walked into the piercing room, as I have come to know it, the happiest place on earth. I washed out my mouth and and he cleaned my lip with technicare .I sat down and was marked for about 5 minutes. His attention to detail has always been appreciated, I have seen him pull out a level and ruler to make sure a piercing is perfect. The mark sat right above my lip, dead center. The feeling of the table on my back and the smell of the soap under my nose brought me right back to where I needed to be for this. He asked me what the special occasion was, as I had no money and he saw someone else pay for me. I told him that I was being left for another man for the third time this year. He apologized and said I'd come to the right place. Saying it all out-loud brought it right back to the front of my mind and as he clamped my lip I started pushing all the negativity and confusion in my mind to spot that was clamped on my lips. I was told to breathe in and then out very slowly, I did this twice and on the second time he pushed the needle through. I could feel every glorious second of it. He Pierced me from the outside in, and then put the jewelry against the tip of the needle and pushed it back through. As I slowly sat up to look in the mirror I already started feeling better. The mantra I had been chanting through all this started in my head again. You worry too much kid, it's gonna be alright.
I could not be happier with this piercing. I've been cleaning it twice a day with salt soaks and chamomile tea, the usual regimen I've applied to all 30 or so piercings I've had. My situation has worked itself out, things are in fact alright. I now have a reminder of what it's like to be centered in times of chaos, to look at adversity and wink real hard like I'm in on the joke. The piercing hasn't changed my smile much. I'm doing that a lot more lately.