| At A Glance | |
| Author | Karli Penney |
| Contact | karlibites@tmail.com |
| When | A week ago |
| Artist | Kat |
| Studio | HTC Body Piercing |
| Location | Tempe, AZ |
My mother said that I could never get it pierced again because of "How much pain I went through when it was infected!!" although I wasn't in pain, she made me take it out. Anyways, after much begging, she caved and said that I could, and this was the last time until I was 18. Ecstatic, I started planning for that coming weekend, and my best friend Whitney was going to come with me. The ghetto place was the only place we could find to do minors, so I planned on going there. Whitney recommended this place called HTC Body Piercing. She said it was completely sterile, gave a variety of jewelry, actually gave you AFTERCARE INSTRUCTIONS, and was an all around NICE place. All of which the ghetto place lacked. Basically, the other place shoved the needle through and sent me on my way. Needless to say, we chose HTC.
Whitney came over on Saturday, April 14th, and my mom announced that we wouldn't go until the next day. I was frustrated, but accepted the plight. Whitney and I layed down to sleep at 10, but immediately hopped up because we were just too excited. We didn't fall asleep until 5am, causing us to be weary the next day. We were exhilarated, though, after we took showers and realized it was the day, D-Day. My mom was at work and she left instructions to call her work and say that I was sick and needed her home at around eleven o' clock, or noon. Of course I called at like 10:59, she came home, and we were on our way.
I was completely psyching myself out, imagining the needle as I remembered it, as this huge inch diameter spear that they were going to plunge through my lip. When we got there, my mom stood outside for a smoke, and Whitney and I went in. We were overwhelmed by the cleanliness of the place, and the huge variety of jewelry to choose from. There were actual piercing rooms, instead of one big room like the other place. The counter-person, CJ, greeted us, and I was surprised at his huge lobe and cartilage gauges. His lobe ones were big enough to put two soda cans through, I swear. His lip plate and nose gauge looked threatening, but his niceness made me comfortable. I informed him of my business and he said that when my mom came in, he'd talk to us about it.
When my mom came in, CJ showed us the forms and talked to us a little bit. I filled out the form, you know the drill, have you eaten, are you pregnant, do you smoke or drink, etc etc. He took out a plexiglass block with studs on it from the display case, since my mom was completely against a CBR which I really wanted, and I took 20 minutes to pick a color. When I decided, a girl walked in named Kat. CJ introduced her to me as the girl who was going to shove a sharp thing through my lip. She had like 6 bottom lip rings, large lobe gauges, dimples, and a plethora of other piercings covering her. She smiled and took us into the piercing room, where she had me sit on the dentist chair resembling seat. She gave me antimicrobial mouthwash to swish around for "30 Mississippis" as she put it. Finally it came time for her to put the dot on my lip. I was satisfied, but she said that it'd look better higher up, so I agreed and she made another dot. I nodded my approval and she instructed me to lay down, so I did. She walked me through what she was going to do, you know, breath in breath out, etc. She saw that I had braces and said that a ring is better for braces. That made me jump up and I told my mom that I wanted a ring because I didn't want to hurt my braces. It was a lie and she knew it, but Kat convinced her nonetheless. She got a 16G Stainless Steel CBR and I layed down again, very antsy. Kat lined up the needle with the dot and my eyes wandered to Whitney, and I burst out laughing. I told Whitney to leave the room, and then I relaxed and breathed in, and on the breath out, Kat put the needle through my lip. No pop, and very little pain. She slipped the CBR through, and my mom was like "So, how long will this take?" and I lifted my head and looked at her and she looked astonished at how it was already done. It took literally 10 seconds from her putting the needle through and the CBR slipping through. She popped on the metal bead with little difficulty, and I got up and looked at it. I smiled and my self esteem points went way up. I bounced out of the room and Whitney laughed at me, making me laugh and sending a jolt of pain to my lip, which for some reason, made me laugh even more. CJ was all "are you light headed??" and kept asking over and over because I was laughing idiotically. I went back to the room and remembered the tips, and pointed to the tip jar in front of my mom. She was like OH and gave me $2. I was HORRIFIED because that is a fucking horrible tip but my mom doesn't know any better. I kept feeling really guilty for the crappy tip so I told my mom that $10 is like the minimum. She just gave me $5 and I gave it to Kat, still I felt bad. I really feel like going back just to give her a tip but yeah too late.
Anyway they went over aftercare for about 15 minutes, gave me some mouthwash and sea salt, and we were off. With everything, it came to $46, which in my opinion, is a GREAT deal. I was so happy with the whole experience and would DEFINITELY recommend HTC Body Piercing to anyone. They solely do piercings which made me even more comfortable. I got the piercing yesterday and my lip has swelled huge and there is redness, but it doesn't hurt much and I'm happy with it. People at school today made mean comments, but it still makes me feel better about myself. I love everything about it, even with the swelling and redness.
Feel free to email me about my piercing, convincing parents, etc etc.
Happy piercing! :)
BTW here's a pic of me with the piercing, I dunno if you're allowed to do this but whatever.
