My experience starts about 2 years ago. I was a typical teenager. I hung out with my friends, went to the movies, went to shows, etc., as I still do. However, to date, I'm not as "typical" as most would say (but who needs labels, right?). Through these two years, I have done every single piercing I have ever had by myself, with no supervision. However, for one of my lip piercings, my best friend Patrick was there to accompany me to watch the process.
At A Glance Author Andrew When Two years ago Artist Myself
On a cold, boredom-stricken February 2005 night, I got the idea to pierce my lip. I had never had a piercing in my life before the experience (aside from a time I pierced my left nipple for a day, which was removed due to an extreme infection). I knew nothing about the process, or management and care of a piercing, so I decided to hit the internet for some help. I found various sites and pictures explaining the process, which proved very helpful to me. So, after overcoming my extreme fear of needles, I began to numb my lip with a typical piece of ice.
While I had the piece of ice on the inside of my mouth, against my bottom lip, I began sterilizing the needle I would be using with some hydrogen peroxide. I would be using a generic 18-gauge needle to pierce with, and a 16-gauge captive ring I had found around my house to place in the piercing after I was done.
After gathering my materials, numbing, and sterilizing my lip, I marked the entry of the piercing with a pen. I sat the pen down, and picked up my needle once more. I raised it to my lip, with trembling hands, not knowing what to expect. I gently touched the outside of my lip to get a small feel for what it would be like. After I noticed that it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, I lined up the needle with the pen dot on my lip, and began to press.
Starting from the outside of my lip, moving the needle inside, I was greeted with a sharp pain throughout my lip, and a massive amount of saliva rushed to the front of my tongue. I pressed hard against the needle, trying to rush the thing through my lip, and quickly get the process over with. After some minor pain, excessive drool, and abundant pushing, I began to see the needle from the inside of my lip. A feeling of joy came over me, and I jabbed just a little harder, and felt a pop as the needle punctured the red gum of my lip. I let the needle rest for about 20 minutes, and went back to the bathroom where I had performed the ritual to try to get the captive through.
After comparing the gauge of the needle to the gauge of the ring, I knew I wasn't in for a very easy process. I lubricated the captive with a small amount of petroleum jelly, and pulled the needle from my lip. I started to push the ring through, but no matter how much pain and suffering I endured, I simply could not get the ring through my lip. I ran back upstairs, and began rummaging through my brother's things, looking for a stud. I found one, 16-gauge,and ran back downstairs to the bathroom. I tried to get the stud in, but it was too late. The piercing had already closed, and I would have to repeat the process all over again.
After getting the needle through, once more, I had this time let the needle rest for an hour, insuring it would be easier to get the needle through. I once again lubricated my stud, and removed the needle. At first, the stud was disagreeing with the piercing, and my lip did not want to gauge up after such torment. after some heavy force from my finger, I finally managed to get the stud to the thick, red gum on the inside of my mouth.
After searching for the small hole on the inside of my lip, I could not find it. I picked up the needle and began scratching the surface of my lip where the stud would come through. I pushed against the stud with the needle, trying to create a pathway for it to enter through the gum. After doing this for about 10 minutes, I finally got the stud through. I screwed on the ball to the other side of my lip, and called over some of my friends to show them what I had just done.
The next morning, I woke up to an incredibly swollen lip. Comparing it to some pictures I have seen, it also looked badly infected. I got my friend to drive me to a local tattoo parlor, and had the man look at it for me. He told me it was infected, and that I needed to get the stud out, otherwise it would pull through the swollen part of my lip, and make for a nasty hole. He told me he would put in a larger captive for free; a very nice gesture. He also showed me some spray to apply to my lip. He also told me that if I did not want to but the spray, to gargle salt water, and put some salt water into a shot glass, and hold it against my lip for about 5-10 minutes. I bought a can of the spray, and went home. After about a week, the swelling had gone down drastically, and much of the after-pain I was experiencing was gone.
To this day, I have 4 lip piercings, or double snakebites, all in my bottom lip. I performed each piercing about 3-5 months apart from the last piercing, to insure that the previous piercing had FULLY healed. Currently, I do not want anymore lip piercings, and I am currently contemplating removing the inside set of snakebites, as my lip looks somewhat cluttered.
To the newbies of piercing:
A lot of the steps I had taken were very wrong. First off, I did not sterilize the needle or the ring properly. Doing so probably would have reduced the chances of me getting an infected piercing, something that none of us like. However, I ALWAYS suggest getting your piercings done professionally, especially any piercings that deal with the mouth. Otherwise, you run a risk of seriously damaging or even parallelizing your entire mouth (a tongue piercing gone array can cause this). Always consult a professional before getting any piercing, and always take proper care of your piercing. Your body is your workshop, but don't trash it with infections, please.