When I first decided to get my lip pierced it was one of those days where you just wake up and think, "Man... I want to get my lip pierced," and you go and get it done. I found it funny that my friend Chris thought the exact idea on the same day as me. I hadn't been planning on getting it pierced, ever. With my eyebrow ring, I had wanted one for a long time so it was just the timing of when to get it done.
At A Glance Author kramwell Contact mjsebastian.jr@gmail.com When Six months ago Artist He was an ass... Don't remember his name. Studio Too Cool Piercing Location Abilene Texas Chris and I, and two other friends, went to a piercing/tattoo studio called Too Cool Piercing/ Happy Dragon Tattoo to get it done since it was the "more known" piercing place in Abilene, Texas. I decided that I would get it done first and Chris didn't mind. I was a little weary at first because it didn't really look professional at all. The guy just wiped down a chair in the middle of a room, same room with all the other tattoo beds, put on some gloves and said he was ready to go. When I got my eyebrow pierced it was much more of a professional looking atmosphere. I had my own room for a piercing. The piercer was nice and wiped down everything put on gloves, then washed the gloves (even though they were brand new). So walking into Too Cool made me a little weary but I stayed on my set path to get it a piercing.
I said that I wanted my lip pierced. He didn't ask what size and just assumed 18g which annoyed the hell out of me once I realized it. I didn't want a little 18g I would have preferred a 14 or 12 gauge. He did the piercing nice and fast and it was done. I realized shortly after the piercing that I hadn't eaten anything all day because after getting up, which he didn't remind me not to for a little, I ended up fainting and hitting my chin on a counter and my head on a concrete floor. Waking up hurt.
That night in my sleep I must have rolled over on my face and knocked the ball out of the CBR ring. When I woke up that day my ball was missing and my lip ring was basically out of my lip. I quickly tried to put it back in and it went and then I went in search of the ball. After a little while I found it. Then I got some needle nose pliers and tried to put the ball in by myself for a first time. Let's just say I failed and bent the ring WAY too much. I figured I could just go get a new CBR bigger size and just force it in. And so I did. I got a 16 gauge from Hot Topic and put it in and it went in no problem. I got the ball in and it was fine. I kept cleaning it and it was healing nicely.
Then I thought... Well, the 16 gauge didn't hurt and since it's still healing I could probably put in a 14 gauge right now and not disturb anything. And so I did. And it didn't hurt or seem to disturb anything. Everything was fine. I had the size I wanted. It was healing. There didn't seem to be any problems.
After about 4 months went by I realized my lips started to feel funny. This was a couple days before Thanksgiving break. I didn't think anything of it. I thought it was from smoking or just that my lips were chapped or something. Couple more days and they started to hurt. I still thought chapped lips. I started using soft lips and it seemed to help a good amount.
The next day my lips felt like they were burning when I woke up so I added soft lips and it felt like I had poured burning water on my lips. I then went to look in the mirror and it seemed like I had a red ring around my entire lips and then where my piercing was VERY red. I talked to my girlfriend about it and her knowing more asked me about the ring that I had in my lip. I then realized that it was a Stainless Steel ring which is bad to put into piercings when they are still fresh because the combination is prone to getting irritated like mine had become. She told me to immediately take my ring out. So I did, though I didn't want to. Within two days the feeling had gone away and my lips were normal. I tried to put in a surgical steel ring but it was too late. The hole had already closed.
One thing though from gauging up so much early on is that there is scar tissue and you can easily see where my old piercing used to be. There is a bump of skin inside my lip.
Right now I'm in the process of saving up to get snake bites at the same time. Don't worry though. I won't gauge up until they are healed but I'm going to get them pierced at a 14 gauge and they won't be stainless steel.
Note: Implant grade stainless steel is perfectly acceptable to use in fresh piercings.