I decided on a vertical labret long before I ever had a single piercing. It just was...amazing. But because of jobs, school, & a conservative family, I threw the idea away. Then, after my mom surprised me and bought my boyfriend and i tickets to Italy to stay for 2 months (I've always lived there 1/2 the year, but once i was on my own kind of figured i'd never go back) new possibilities popped in mind. I gave my two weeks notice to my job one day when i got off & drove to the tattoo studio to see my boyfriend (who was getting his stomach finished). After getting a little bored I decided to scan the portfolios & opened the piercers book [There's a picture of an old ear industrial project i had that i love to look at]. I flipped pages and slowed when I got to lip piercings, a pair of weird snakebites caught my eye, they were vertical & I fell...hard. I wanted them. Now. Bad. But because I still had two more weeks to work I had to wait.
At A Glance Author Angie Contact angiet9889@hotmail.com IAM AngiEstelle When A month ago Artist Peat Studio WEbber Street Studios (Vison Body Piercing) Location Sarasota Friday was my last day, I drove the 15 minutes to the shop right after work to get pierced. My boyfriend was there already (getting his knuckles touched up) and he told Peat that I wanted the piercing. On the way I decided that since i've always wanted a vert labret, i'd go with that, because, hopefully, long term thoughts bring less regret.
I walked in the shop & all the boys were in the lobby on the internet looking up tattoos and porn. I waited a bit, got a smoothie and went to talk to Peat. He looked at my lip & said "It's a little small, I can do it but 16g." That was exactly what I wanted so I agreed.
I sat in the piercing room while he got ready. He was piercing it at 14g and then moving to 16 when the swelling went down. He spent a while marking my lip, moving at different angles, backing up, getting it right. After I checked it in the mirror, I laid back. He told me to take a deep breath. Pinched my lip & moved from chin up. It was a little zing. Like biting your lip fast. Not bad at all. Then the threading (which I think is worse than the hole making) & tightening. That took a bit since Peat only uses internally threaded and it just takes a bit longer. "Ok, it's in" I went to sit up. "Yeah, you have blue pen all over your face, I can leave it or you can chill & i'll wipe it off" I sat back as my boyfriend came around the corner (he hates watching piercings). "Looks sweet!" (Boys) After being wiped down I asked permission to step down, Peat nodded turned around to throw the cloth & walked into the wall. [He had just switched shops and was used to a different setup so the smaller room throws him a curveball avery now and then] I laughed. That's when I noticed a huge ball on my lip. It made me talk awkwardly, I was almost afraid if I spoke normal it would roll off. I plopped off the table and we walked out to show Matt, one of the artists. I talked in a drunken slur no matter what. After some nods we decided we both needed food & left.
Healing: It was super sore the first few days, like the minute you bite you lip how it hurts awful for a split second then goes away (only it doesn't go away). Lots of Motrin. Ice. Sea-Salt. It would always be drier and sorer when I woke up and I hit it once or twice. But after changing to the shorter bar, it looked better. My only real problems with it have been 2. After I changed to the shorter bar, every now and then it would start randomly gushing blood for a minute or two, then clot and be fine (that doesn't happen anymore) & on the right side a build-up of dried or dead lip has kind of molded and pushed it to the left but I try to push it right when ever I can to avoid migration. He said 4-8 weeks & I can't wait. But it's still healing, time will tell.
I definitely recommend it. I love it & think its very pretty. It probably was one of the worst feeling healing piercings i've gotten thus far but worth it. I've gotten a lot of compliments from people, except my sister always tries to ping it off my lip (must be a family thing to think it'll roll off). My dad hates it, he hates facial piercings. My mom surprisingly loves it (yeah she pinged too). No one it Italy has seen it before, & all my friends are now convinced to get them. I'll probably come back next year and all the old fishermen & grandmas will have them...