So, My parents took me to Portugal a week ago for 4 days and it decided to pour down with rain everyday. So me being a piercing/tattooing freak found the local tattooist.
At A Glance Author Anna Contact dreama_no1@hotmail.com When A week ago Artist Gary - Josh helped Studio Positive Vibrations Location Portugal At first my parents weren't too sure about getting something done in a different country but after we talked to the owner of the place and the guys who worked there (who were all english) they decided to get tattoo's and let me get my lip pierced again.
The last time I had it pierced they did it WAY too low and it wore my gums away so I had to take it out so I have a nasty scar from that one.
So we booked an appointment for 7 o'clock on the last night we were there, i was so hyper about getting it done again that I had forgotten to eat all day, so he made me go get a mars bar. Jim (the EXTREMELY good looking tattooist!) got me to fill a form in. It didn't miss anything out, it was an A4 piece of paper with both sides written on in small print so there was a LOT to read. After I filled that out I went into the back piercing room and I could see my mum in pain getting a tattoo on her bum so they shut the blinds and Gary and Josh were sorting everything out, it was all sterile and packaged. They both washed their hands and put gloves on (even though josh wern't going to be working on me, he just wanted to be sterile and ready in case anything went wrong, which it did a little!). They made me wash my mouth out three times with some nice minty stuff, then gave me a bib in case I dribbled everywhere (which I did :) ). Gary took about 5 minutes making sure my lip was ma rked just right whereas last time I got it done they just shoved the needle in (and yes, it was off-centre) The mark was a lot higher this time because it was in the actual right place! After he marked me he changed his gloves again.
Gary got Josh to check that the marks were straight too!, so here I am sitting there scared because I couldn't remember the pain from the last time I had it done, so I was oblivious!
Gary talked me all the way through the procedure, telling me exactly what he was doing and what he was going to do next. He undid the needle package and the labret stud then got a new pair of clamps out. He clamped my lip and took a few minutes to make sure they were in the right place so the needle would get on the marks properly! He then sprayed some stuff on my lip, which was supposed to numb it, but did it numb it.... HELL NO!
After he did this he grabbed the needle and lined it up with the marks, then he realised that he had the wrong gauge needle so he got Josh to grab him a new one. Luckily he already had gloves on to do this because I was kind of scared at this point. So he undid that needle and lined it up once again on my lip, by this time my hands were firmly clenched to the side of the bed thing. As he pushed the needle through I felt it go through EVERY layer of skin (I shudder at the thought of it Hehe) this was when my eyes started watering and I started to dribble. He pulled the needle out and left the receiving tube still in my lip, he cut the top off of that and made sure that I was feeling OK, I was feeling a bit woozy but that was from the adrenaline rush. He then got the labret stud and put it through the tube and took the tube out, I was bleeding a bit and he had a bit of trouble getting the ball on, but on about his 4th attempt he did it!
He made me wash my mouth out again and he cleaned the blood up with a mediswab.
He went through all the cleaning methods with me and gave me some sea salt to use (since I had none at the hotel), which looked like cocaine because it was in a little plastic pouch, so I had to explain that at customs on the way home! He also gave me a few mediswabs to clean the outside with because I was flying home the next day and didn't have anything to clean it with. I think I had an information overload here as I felt very woozy and my eyesight and hearing went for a while so he made me lay down on the bed for a few minutes.
I was feeling OK by then so I got up and walked out of the piercing room, saw the blood on my mums bum and my dads leg and got woozy again so Jim took me back to the piercing room. I sat down and had a glass of water, which felt weird because my lip had swollen up quite a lot but after the drink I felt fine. I went and looked in the mirror and I thought it was way too high but that was because I was used to it being so low down. Everybody said it looked great there, there was some dried blood around the bar which was hurting a little so I cleaned that off and it was OK. After my parents were finished I paid and thanked them and took some pictures.
I have cleaned it every day with warm salt water and washed my mouth out with that too and it is virtually healed now. No more crusties or anything, so I'm going to put a shorter bar in as soon as I can get one (I have a 12mm in at the moment).
I'm happy that I got it done out there, on my birthday (June 1st) I'm going to get my nipple pierced and when I go back out to Portugal in the summer I'm getting a tattoo so its all good.
If you're going to get pierced abroad just make sure you check the place out thoroughly and if you go to Praia de Rocha (?) in Portugal I recommend positive vibrations!
Thank you for reading my experience, I hope it makes you go out and get pierced!