About a year ago I had decided I wanted to be badass and get my lip pierced but was hesitant because I knew I would have to lose it to become a police officer, which I am currently enrolled in college to become, not to mention my boss and parents would be totally against it, that and the fact that I am extremely sensitive to metal and cant even get away with wearing a watch, rings, or even having metal fillings in my teeth! Looking back I was being really impulsive; time passed and I kept thinking about it for a while until on some random Sunday I decided what the hell, I just don't care, I want it, I'm getting it and I guess I'll just have to deal with the repercussions later. I had a week off work so I figured I'd just get my lip pierced and take it out when I start next week right! Yea well it didn't really work out like that..
At A Glance Author Jessy Williams Contact j.williamsrancourt@gmail.com When Six months ago Artist Rawbie Studio Hardocore Location London, Ontario Apparently a lip right takes somewhere around 6 weeks to heal, apparently it gets very swollen for over a week, apparently if you take it out it closes within half an hour, apparently I was very naive..
Anyway, back to my story. I was walking down to Hardcore to get pierced and was really nervous. It was pretty late, somewhere around 9 when I got there. I had just quit smoking but I needed some excuse to not walk in their pretty intimidating studio so I bummed a cigarette off someone and tried to calm down, unknowingly outside next to me was my soon to be piercer Rawbie. When I was done my cigarette, I took a big breath and went it, paid my $30, signed some sheets that I didn't read and went in the back with Rawbie.
Rawbie was definitely heavy in the scene, he had just about everything pierced and tattooed and definitely looked like he knew what he doing so that took my anxiety level down a notch. Actually, he was a pretty cool guy.
Before I decided to get pierced, I did a little research and watched some YouTube videos; I was expecting something pretty extreme. It ended up that the whole experience took under around 2 or 3 minutes. Rawbie sat me down, took out a needle and said to take a deep breath and he was going to it. I just remember he was really fast. It didn't bleed at all and didn't hurt at all.
Rawbie gave me a photocopied handout and got me to swish some Listerine. Funny enough, my handout said not to use Listerine or anything with alcohol while Rawbie said to use it after every 5 smokes and after every time that I eat. Apparently alcohol dries out the piercing, but I have to side with Rawbie that that's a hell of a lot better than an infection.
After that I took the bus home, proud of what I had done and I got to say it looked damn mansexy (haha please don't steal my word). That is until my lip exploded, getting about twice as big as it was before to the extent that it was getting hard to talk and eat. It ended up that the swelling gradually went down over about a week.
Anyway I really had my eye on a black rip ling as opposed to the stainless steel one but I knew I was already pushing my luck considering my metal sensitivity.
When the time came to head back to work I had realized my lip ring wouldn't be able to come out so I just told by boss that I couldn't do anything about it for a week so instead of being on drive-through at Taco Bell I was making food so wouldn't disgrace the place.
That week, going against my piercer's advice, I bought the black CBR I wanted, got a pair of pliers and went to it. I also got a plastic retainer for work and was changing between the two multiple times a day without any problem.
Healing starts on the outside and works its way in. At first you will get some crusty stuff outside the hole, and it might be sore, but that goes away soon but that doesn't mean it's healed on the inside! I took keeping my piercing clean seriously and so should you! You should be cleaning it after every meal for at least a week because the last thing you want it to get that infected and avoid playing with/ changing jewellery right away; although I didn't exactly follow that and turned out ok :).
At first changing my CBR took about an hour with pliers, then I realized that all you have to do is close the ring just tight enough so that you can keep the ball in place, then you take the ball out easily without looking pretty much anywhere. My lip ring is comfortable and feels good in my mouth; it actually feels weird without it.
Oh, one more story. This one time at work I left my lip ring out for a few hours because I got overconfident and my lip ended up closing. I decided to repierce it is frustrating with my Taco Bell name tag and almost got fired for freaking out my coworkers. It took hours and it got really bloody and I learned my lesson; the moral of that story is that whether or not its a good thing or not, no matter how long you leave your lip ring out, it will close, I don't care if its a month, 6 months, or a year. A year into it now, I can probably get away with it for maybe 3 hours but you shouldn't risk it.
I've learned a lot from my lip ring and contemplated getting another, but I think I'm on to bigger and better things like stretching my earlobes, yay.
LOVE, Jessy aka Jdog