After a lot of thinking, and a lot of reading, I decided to get a double lip piercing. I asked around, and did some research on the whole procedure. When I felt I has enough info, I made an appointment at one of my local tattoo/piercing shops for the following week. The anticipation was almost too much, but I figured it would be better then doing in spur of the moment.
At A Glance Author Ashley Contact Ashley@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Ali Studio Dragon FX Location Edmonton AB Canada
On the day of the piercing, I asked one of my good friends to accompany me, and she agreed. Although she said that she would prefer to sit outside while I got it done, needles made her squeemish. That was fine with me, so we went on our way. We arrived at Dragon FX about thirty minutes earlier then needed, so I chatted with my tattoo artist to kill some time, and calm my nerves. I told him why I was there, and he said it was "Too extereme" for him. I laughed.
When it was finally my turn, Ali (my piercer) came out and greeted me with a huge smile. We talked as he took me to the room, and he made me feel instantly comfortable. He sat me down and told me about the whole after care process, and about how he was going to do the piercing. I had about one hundred questions, and he patiently answered them all. Once I felt more at ease, we started doing the markings for placement.
This process alone to quite a long time. I didn't want them to be too high up, or too close together. He would mark two dots, and I would walk over to the mirror and tell him how far up or down I wanted the dots to be moved. After a seemingly long while, we finally had them perfect. I apologized to Ali for being so picky, and he said he was happy that I really knew what I wanted, and that he liked clients like me. I'm just happy he didn't get fed up with how picky I was being. I only wanted it done once, and I wanted it to be right. This is, afterall, a very visible piercing.
We had decided on doing the piercing in a 12 guage, and selected the jewellery.
He began by putting the clamp on, and adjusting the tightness for the first piercing. This actually wasn't bad, and just felt like someone was pinching my bottom lip really hard. Pretty much just minor discomfort. He gave me a breathing excercise, and we did a few practice breaths to get me focused. I felt pretty relaxed, but when he started the count down, I lost track of my breathing. I hate it when they do count downs! When he finally got to the "three-two-one" part, I took a long exhale, and felt the needle go through my lip. At first it wasn't that bad, but after a quick second, the pain hit me. It felt almost like the needle had been heated before hand. Very weird feeling. He told me that he was going to put in the first ring, and instructed me to start my breathing again. We did the whole count down again, and in went the first ring. This wasn't so bad.
I asked if I could run to the mirror to take a quick look, and he said sure. My lip looked swolen already, but I was super happy with the piercing thus far. So far so good.
I sat back down, and got ready for the second piercing to begin. This time the clamp was a little bit more uncomfortable, being that my lip was swollen and freshly pierced. After some minor adjutments on his part, I started my "relaxing" breathing once again. I heard the "three-two-one" all over again, but when the actual needle went through, my slow exhale turned into a quick gasp. It hurt far more then the first one! I began to get dizzy, and Ali asked me if I was ok. I didn't really want to move my mouth while it a had a needle in it, so I just nodded yes.
The time between when the needle went in, up until when he said he wanted to put the jewellery went in were kind of blurry. Adrenaline was really high, and I just kind of sat there an enjoyed it while I waited. It seemed to take forever for him to tell me to start my breathing (which I was sick of) again. When the second ring went through, I could literally feel my lip swelling. It was great.
At this point, the dizzyness had hit me again. This time it was pretty bad. I told Ali, and he instructed me to lay down for a few minutes, and to just take it easy. So I layed on the table, as he cleaned up his materials. After a breif conversation, and a few cheesy jokes, I started to feel better, and decided to sit up. I felt far better then before.
Ali helped me to hop off the table, and walked me over to the mirror. I loved my new piercings! The placement was perfect, and other then the swelling, they looked great. I was very happy, and thanked him repeatedly.
The best part of this whole process was the look on my friends face when she saw my lip. She looked like she was going to pass out, and laugh all at the same time. I only wish I had brought my camera. After paying, and thanking Ali again, we went shopping.
That night at work, I had a lot of trouble talking to my customers (I'm a bartender). The swelling was painful, and at one point in time, the fish tail on the back of my labret got caught on one of my lip rings. Believe me, that was not a pleasant feeling.
I iced my lip, and cleaned it whenever it got crusty. The outer piercing healed nicely, but the one on the inside wouldn't seem to go down in swelling. I phone Ali, and he assured me that it was normal, but to come in and see him if I was really worried. It seemed to get better after a few weeks, but then it got really swollen, and hurt really badly.
After talking to another one of my piercer friends, I was told that I should take it out. It didn't look like it was going to heal right. So one sad Saturday morning, I took out my piercings. All of them. I figured it was time for a change, and that I wanted new piercings anyways.
Thinking back, I wish I would have went for two seperate sessions. The swelling probably wouldn't have been as bad, and maybe the outcome would have been better. Oh well though. I'm glad I at least got experience it. And I have no major regrets.