I had just moved to Philadelphia, PA for my freshman year of college and decided to cement my new friendship with a girl who is basically my long-lost doppelganger by getting our lips pierced together. I had always wanted a centered lip ring; the snug little captive bead ring just looked so attractive to me, so that's what I decided on getting. My friend suggested getting pierced at by Kevin at Infinite on 4th and South, so that's where we went.
At A Glance Author chr!st!na When Six months ago Artist Kevin Jump Studio Infinite Location Philadelphia, PA First of all, Kevin is one of the nicest guys ever, and he's my favorite person to get pierced by, just because he makes you feel so comfortable. We went back to the room and I told him that I wanted it centered on my lip, and we figured out exactly where I wanted it with a Sharpie. Every time he marked where he thought it should go he let me check in the mirror, which I really appreciated, because I ended up changing my mind a few times. But, eventually we figured it out.
So I sat back while Kevin clamped my lip and got the needle and jewelry. I pinched my arm, expecting the worst, since I had only gotten ear piercings up to that point. But, surprisingly, it was probably the least painful out of every piercing I've ever gotten. He slid the ring in and we were done.
I have always taken really good care of my piercings so I didn't go anywhere without a bottle of Biotene and a little container of Softsoap, so it healed wonderfully.
I did have one problem a few weeks into my piercing. Some friends and I were smoking and after one hit my lip blew up like a blowfish. It filled the entirety of the piercing ring's diameter, which was huge. I grabbed a cotton ball and some sea salt, and it went down after a while, but it was still a pretty frightening experience.
After a while I was a touch bothered by the diameter of the ring, which was large enough to accommodate the initial swelling and healing, as it should be, but after the swelling had gone down, it seemed huge on my face. So I resolved that as soon as the 8-10 week healing time was done I would run to get one of those snug little rings I so desired.
I counted down the days and then finally jogged down South Street to get my ring changed to a smaller diameter. "I want it to be snug," were my exact words. So, I had my rings switched and began to notice and love the little groove forming on my lip.
It wasn't until it became painful to eat or even give my boyfriend a kiss that I start to think anything was wrong. Thinking my piercing was just a bit pissed off at me I started taking care of it like it was still fresh again. But, it didn't really help any. I mentioned it to my boyfriend, who took a look at the inside of my lip and gasped at the slit that was basically cutting my lip in half from the inside. We immediately hopped on the subway to South Street.
My boyfriend had told me of a previous experience where his lip ring had migrated and had to be taken out, so of course I was really upset. The last thing I wanted to do was part with it! So we went in to see Kevin, and he assured me that switching to a labret stud would fix it.
I kept the stud in for about six weeks, and the inside of my lip healed up pretty well, although I did begin to notice a slight erosion of the gums below my bottom front teeth. As soon as I noticed this, I switched back to my ring as soon as I could. Because I switched back so fast my gums are all right, but I shudder to think of what would have happened if I hadn't caught it.
A piece of advice for anyone who wears labret studs: if you notice that more of your teeth are showing through your gums, you should immediately switch to a ring or get a shorter post! Brushing your teeth more often won't fix this problem; it's purely the metal rubbing away your gums. Gum erosion doesn't just fix itself, and teeth are pretty important, so don't ruin your pearly whites just because you're too lazy to get a shorter stud.
Anyway, I had my post in long enough that my piercing healed nicely, and so wearing my tight little captive bead ring is no problem. I recently got another lip piercing to the right side, but this time I pierced it with a ring, but after a week I switched in a friend's old piercing stud because the large diameter of the ring, although good for the initial swelling, was so big that it irritated my new piercing just because it flopped around so much.
It's been healing for a few months with a stud, so I'm going to be switching to a ring in about a week. So, even if you do plan on wearing a ring, getting pierced with a stud makes it much easier to take care of, and allows you to put in a close-fitting captive bead ring with worrying about migration.