I've always been a bit scared of piercings, because of something I was born with, RAS, but also piercings always intrigued me.
At A Glance Author Michelle When It just happened Artist Myself Studio Home Location San Antonio, Texas Well, first off: RAS stands for Reflex Anoxic Seizures. It's when instead of your blood pressure going up due to stress, anxiety, or pain- it goes extremely low. Then, oxygen begins to cut off to the brain and before you know it, you're having what looks like an epileptic seizure! It looks so identical to an epileptic seizure and being a bit rare usually goes unrecognized even by many doctors, that I was misdiagnosed with epilepsy for about 18 years!
So- being I tend to get my "seizures" due to pain (particularly needles!) I was very hesitant to ever get a piercing no matter how much I wanted one.
The last time I had given myself a lip piercing I got a seizure while puncturing and before I knew it, I woke back to consciousness while suddenly on the floor.
That alone scared me. I had taken out that piercing due to a lot of reasons. Reasons I didn't have now.
I missed my lip piercing so much that finally I got the courage to try piercing my lip again. Due to having gotten a seizure the last time, I was truly spooked as to if I'd be able to go through with it.
But, my boyfriend bought me a labret stud (thinking I was going to get it done professionally) and once he went off to work I immediately went to the bathroom to give it a try!
Well, my first problem was finding something to be the needle. I already knew what I was doing was extremely stupid, but I felt if I had a stranger do it, I'd feel even more at a loss of control and would DEFINATELY get a seizure. I wanted this piercing not just because I liked it, but also because it'd be a constant reminder that my RAS was NOT going to prevent me from living my life to the fullest. It had prohibited me from doing many things all my childhood and I'd be damned if it was going to continue on the rest of my life.
I knew I didn't want to do it with a safety pin, because it would be truly hard to get the 14g labret stud through something so tiny. So that possibility was out. I started to search around the apartment for something that could do the job then lo and behold, I remembered the nails we had in the pantry.
The plastic box which kept the nails even read, "16 gauge" on it, and 16g is faaar more close to a 14g than say, the size of a safety pin's needle!
So I took it to the bathroom, still in my nightgown, turned on some music, cleaned the nail not just with soap and water, but with anti-bacterial wipes then washed my hands and my face. Well, it took a mighty long time for the nail to even puncture skin due to the nail being not sharp enough (obviously because that's not what a nail's for.) so I had to go slowly.
Soon enough it was down to the last layer before coming out the inside of my mouth. This was by far the hardest part.
Everytime I felt close to getting a seizure, I took deep breaths, drank some Mountain Dew (the sugar helps) and paced back and forth for a while.
FINALLY, I took one last deep breath and forced that baby in. I thought that'd be the last of it, but of course the labret stud being 14g (bigger)I was going to meet some trouble making it go through the hole.
It alone took some time and quite some effort, but finely it punctured through the hole, however it felt practically like I had pierced myself twice.
Once it was in I looked at it in the mirror and was so proud, happy, excited- I couldn't believe I'd gone through with it, let alone with a bigger "needle" AND didn't even get a seizure!
It's been a few days since and so far so good. I've been doing the sea-salt soaks, mouthwash rinsing, and all around cleaning of it. Though I've had it get pulled on accident by my shirt once, which hurt like crazy, it's been doing pretty well.
My boyfriend wasn't too happy to find out that I did it myself, while alone, hovering the possibility I could've gotten a seizure, but he really likes it on me and now wants one for himself too! (I definately won't be piercing him though. :P)
I just ordered a bioplast labret, some cute beads, and a bioplast thread converter so I can truly admire it as a whole.
I know what I did was stupid and I know it probably would've gone a hell of a lot quicker had I gone to a professional, but quite frankly, I'm glad I did it because it was a battle between me and myself and I wanted only me to be in the fight, not a stranger as well.
Even if I take this lip piercing out later on, I'll always be able to look back and think, "Wow, I was able to pierce myself, with quite some pain, but got through it with no seizure just instead a lovely piercing."
For all that, it truly was worth it.