I have been reading experiences here on BME for a good two years now and have realized that most self-piercings are horror stories, be it that the people are drunk, unclean, or unknowledgeable things just never seem to work out. I am by no means a professional nor would I trust myself to pierce anyone with my level of knowledge out of my home but as a growth experience I decided that I wanted to pierce myself. I cannot stress enough that if you do not know what you are doing and you are not clean problems can and most likely will arise.
At A Glance Author Annie Contact Annie@bme.anon When Three months ago With that being said, I decided that I was going to pierce my lip since it was a fairly easy piercing with a long history of "primitive" cultures performing the modification. I went to my local piercing shop and purchased a 14ga captive bead ring, and a set of clamps each came in their own autoclave bag. The dates on the bags were within a week of my purchase date so I felt comfortable with the sterility. They would not sell me a piercing needle, as they were not sure of the legal implications, but they said if need be I could bring anything to them to be sterilized. I came to BME for the needle, it came pre-sterilized but I figured that it would not hurt to autoclave it once more. I figured that it is better safe then sorry.
I decided to wait for the next day to pierce myself, as it was my day off from work and school. In the morning, I woke up and made myself a nice big breakfast, cleaned my entire bathroom with bleach then took a nice shower. I was a little nervous not about what the piercing would feel like but what piercing my own flesh would feel like. After my shower, I got all my equipment ready and mentally prepared myself for the piercing. On a clean breakfast tray covered in a paper towel I laid out my clamps, needle, jewelry, bactine goo, a surgical marker, an eraser and a small box of latex gloves. I opened the box of gloves and put my first pair on. I bought these gloves at a grocery store so I know that they are not sterile but I am sure that they are more so then my hands are. With the gloves on, I opened the packages with my clamps, needle, and jewelry; I took the ball out of the CBR and then squeezed out a little bit of the bactine onto the paper towel then marked my lip with th e surgical marker. I switched my gloves to be sure that I did not cross contaminate anything. I clamped my lip let it click once, which did not feel good or bad it just kind of felt. My nerves hit me now; I sat staring at the sharp 14ga needle shining on the tray, took a few deep breaths then picked it up from the tray and lined it up with my pretty purple dot. I made sure that the needle was lined up perpendicular to my lip, took a few more deep breaths and pushed. It did not really hurt, but it was the most disgusting feeling I have ever felt. I cannot even put into words how gross it felt to push the needle through my flesh. Looking back, I guess it kind of felt like the first cut of a dissection in high school; strange, gross, and intriguing. The needle went in quickly, which I was glad for it took probably 3 seconds at the most, and hurt about the same as my other side did when I had it professionally done two years previous. I pushed an eraser onto the end of the nee dle, and grabbed the ring butted it up against the back of the needle and slowly pushed it through. I did this slowly to be sure that I did not miss the hole. I have never found the follow through to hurt and this was no exception. I could not get a good grip on the bead with the gloves on so I took them off and scrubbed my hands with some target brand antibacterial soap dried them with a clean towel and popped the bead into place.
As far as after care I am not a big fan of using antibacterial soap for cleaning my piercings as it is a little harsh for my skin so I used homemade oatmeal and coco butter soap to clean the skin around the piercing. After I ate or drank anything besides water I would brush my teeth and rinse my mouth with a warm sea salt solution followed by a warm fresh water rinse. My lip was swollen for the rest of that day and dry for about a week so I used Carmex brand lip conditioner. I followed this aftercare for about a month then went to washing it with the oatmeal soap in the shower and rinsing with sea salt in the morning and evening after I brush my teeth. My lip never became irritated, nor did it lymph or get crusty so I did not have to use the salt-water soaks on the outside of the lip.
I did not write this to glorify self-piercing, nor would I recommend it to anyone. I just wanted to include my experience as it was a good one that shows that it is possible to pierce ones self in a clean manner. It will only be a clean IF you take it upon yourself to educate yourself and plan out what you will be doing. I pierced myself in a clean room using sterile equipment but the room was not as clean as a reputable piercing studio. Any number of things could have gone wrong, I was lucky that nothing did. I have been pierced 20 times 19 of which were at a studio, all of my future piercings will be done at this same studio but this was an experience that I decided I needed to have and share.