When I was slacking off in college and doing pretty much whatever the hell I wanted, I got bored one day. Imagine that. So my boyfriend/fiancée convinced me that I should get my lower lip pierced because I had "lips like Angelie Jolie", so we researched for almost four to six months and decided that I should get it pierced. Well my fiancée also convinced me that he, being the one that started stretching his ears in the seventh grade, should be the professional piercer for my first ever "real" piercing. I had done my eyebrow before and my tongue but really everyone in my small town had done those and they were pretty much all whores. So to be at least a little different I felt that I was obliged to get my lip pierced.
At A Glance Author anonymous When Two years ago Artist Spouse Studio Apartment Kitchen, classy Location Wacko, Texas My professional piercer and love of my life, Tom, went to several different tattoo/piercing shops to delegate what the normal needle and placement would be, plus what kind of jewelry to use. We decided that since both of us had started stretching our ears out at a 10 gauge that it was more than easy to start out a piercing at that gauge. We found a shop in our rural town that would sell us needles, jewelry, and give us free incense for free home made wine. Which my fiancée also convinced me would be a thrill to do ourselves.
So, on one random night at my grandmother's house while we were there checking it since my grandparents were on vacation somewhere, we went through with our plan. We sterilized the needle with alcohol and a lighter usually used for lighting up Marlboro reds, set up a station of cotton balls for blood spillage, the sterilized needle, sterilized jewelry, and a lip piercing kit we bought off ebay. The kit included a pair of rubber gloves, a set of plastic tongs, one, and only one, alcohol swab, and, get this, instructions! The kit we ordered was my idea, because I didn't trust a guy who grew up in Crawford, Texas and somehow did not convince his fellow citizens that Bush was not in fact a good candidate for President.
Anyways, we started by me sitting down and making sure Tom washed his hands with antibacterial soap and drying them with paper towels, not a bath towel, those carry germs. He put on the cheap rubber gloves and started to eye my lip, pulling it down and up as if he really did know what he was doing. Finally I had him dot my lip with a green sharpie and put on the tongs. I even went to the mirror to make sure I knew what I was doing , lol, and showed him where it should technically come through if he started from the outside. I ended up hesitating for almost fifteen minutes then I let him proceed. Tom positioned the needle on the front of my lip where we dotted it with green. He even pushed it a little so I knew it wasn't going to just push through and bust my teeth. I took one last big heave of a breath and he let his countdown begin. On three I distinctly remember hearing and feeling the sound of flesh ripping.
I actually reached up like a dumbass and tried to feel the needle while it was still in my lip. It even took Tom a few minutes to realize that he really did push a goddamn needle through my lip. Right then I just had to see it. It didn't hurt, the only thing that bothered me was the weird sensation that I got from the needle going through flesh. So I go back to the mirror in my grandma's house to see it. It is the most bizarre thing to see a needle sitting in your lip. After about what I thought was an hour of shock and staring at my lip, turns out it was only maybe two minutes, I had to sit down from dizziness. Tom took the ring we picked out and try to gently pull the needle down while pushing in the ring. That was the worst part. It felt like my lip had swelled around the needle making it harder to get out. But it finally went through and the ring was in my lip. My future husband kind of stared at me while I tried to talk. I had a bad lisp when I asked how it looked. He still thought it was hot after the blood stopped dripping down my chin.
It drained a lot for about two weeks, mainly I believe is because I had it done with a ring instead of a stud. It hurt like hell to clean because it kept getting stuck and instead of just a back and forth motion to get it loose I had to turn it. I also changed it too much for the first 3 months. I'm too impatient. I took it out after a few months because of the upkeep and lack of jewelry, but my boyfriend did do one hell of a job!