At A Glance
Author	Stacey
Contact	Stacey@bme.anon
IAM	Scottish Princess
When	Two years ago
Artist	Lammie
Studio	The Comedian Tattooist
Location	Bathgate, Scotland

This experience begins as most others do; The endless trawling of BME piercing galleries trying to find something to cure that "itch" for a new piercing.

After a few days of that restless searching, I found it in the "Madonnas and Medusas" Gallery. Madonnas were very cute, but they were rather too common for my liking and I associated them with the local "Chavs", which is a group of people that no one really wants to be associated with.
I spotted the Medusa piercing and immediately I was in love. I've always had small lips, but my Philtrum was rather longer than I thought normal and so a little labret bar would fit in there perfectly. It was also a piercing that would remind me of a very good friend of mine, which made it all the more special.
(Although of course, me being muggins had to go get it first to find out what it felt like!)

So a few days later, off I go (on my own!) to see my lovely piercer. I'd been pierced in this particular shop for a few years now and trusted the piercer there completely. However, the evening I went in, it wasn't my regular piercer who saw me as, much to my horror, he was tattooing. He greeted me and asked what he could do for me. I mentioned the medusa and he said that he would be probably another hour or so finishing said tattoo, so if I wanted, I could wait around or I could get the other piercer to do it for me. I liked the other piercer and had spoken to him a few times, but was still gutted that my regular piercer couldn't see me.
Whenever I hang around the shop I always feel that i'm making it a bit untidy, and if Jim (my regular piercer) trusted the other piercer, then that was enough for me and off into the little room I went with Lammie, the other piercer, with parting words from Jim that Lammie should "Treat me with extra special care as i'm a good customer"

He asked me to hop onto the little bed and asked what he could do for me. I told him, very nervously, my Medusa and pointed like a dummy to my Philtrum. He said no problem and put on gloves as he measured my rather large top lip for the bar he would be putting in. We made general small talk, punctuated with nervous giggling on my part as i'd heard this particular piercing nipped a bit and i'd never been to get pierced on my own, I always had "Hand holding" support with me.

Still, as I sat there very nervous, Lammie managed to put me to ease with random stupid jokes and stories as he put on got out a 10mm x 1.2mm labret bar with a 3mm (I think) ball, as i'd stated I wanted it to look delicate and feminine. He left it in the little bag as he got out the needle and wiped the outside of my lip with the sterile wipe. This is the part where I got very nervous, especially as I didn't have a hand to hold.
Lammie then got the little bar from it's bag, unscrewed the ball and laid it on the kitchen paper so it was ready to easily insert once I was pierced.
I'm sure he changed gloves more than once during this, but nerves mean I was concentrating more on the needle than on the piercer.

And then, we began properly!

I stopped speaking much as he marked my lip, asked me to check it and then when I was happy, asked me to sit back up. I gripped the edge of the bed as he clamped my lip lightly and got the needle ready.
He asked if I wanted to be counted in or if he should just pierce. I always prefer to brace myself, so asked him to count me in.

3 - He lined the needle up, 2 - I felt it pointing into my skin, 1 - I squeezed my eyes shut and bam! It felt like someone had head butted my lip into my teeth and like i'd bitten myself all at once. I'm sure I made a rather inaudible "UCKIN HELL!"

It STUNG! Wow. When I opened my rather watery eyes again, the needle was out leaving the cannula in and lammie was unclamping me, just reaching round to get the jewellery.
I braced myself for the slight pinch as the cannula was removed leaving the jewellery in and I was done!
Lammie had barely managed to screw the ball on and I was jumping off of the bed to go see my new love. It was amazing! Absolutely beyond perfect, I was so relieved! I grinned as gently as I could and thanked him very much. He told me to calm my jets and jump back onto the bed as he cleaned of the bit of blood that was beginning to swell around the ball.

When he'd done, I got my stuff together and hopped out of the room happy as could be. I practically bounced over to Jim, who had apparently taken a break to let the client have a breather and pouted at him, which made him laugh.
I paid my money and left on a high.

Walking to my bus was less than pleasant as it was November and VERY nippy outside. If I remember correctly, it was also raining.
Once I was on the bus, I started to take pictures of my brand new piercing with my camera phone (the wonders of modern technology) and sent one to the aforementioned good friend, telling her it wasn't so bad and that she should still get it done when I visited her in February.

Healing was uneventful but I found the bar dug into the back of my lip a lot when healed, so I had it changed to a 12mm bar.

Today, more than 18 months after I had it pierced, I am more than in love with it. It's a subtle piercing that you don't notice right away, it's very feminine and I couldn't imagine my lip without it. To anyone thinking of getting one, i'd recommend it as it's so subtle and just adds that bit extra charm to your face, even if people don't notice right away.