I think that I know more people who get tattooed/pierced over spring break than any other time of the year. I think that one of the reasons is that it is the first time that many of the people I know are going away with their friends, with no parents, during senior year of high school. There's a sense of freedom there, and I think that the experience of getting a tattoo or a piercing is a symbol of that feeling.
At A Glance Author Andrea Contact xNOxMERCYx@aol.com When A week ago Studio Elektrik Krayon Location Broward County, Florida So it's no surprise that this spring break brought a new piercing for me. I had recently lost three of my piercings due to surgery, and being forced to take out my nipple rings and my nose ring caused them both to close up. With this in mind, and the fact that I was with my cousins in Florida for a week, I decided it was time for a new piercing.
I was debating on getting either my nipples or my nose done again, but decided against both. My nipples were way too painful, and I didn't want to have to deal with taking care of both on my vacation. Also, I'd had my nose pierced since 8th grade (over three years), and so I felt it was time for something new. I had wanted to get my lip pierced for a long time, and so the only decision I needed to make was whether or not to get a labret stud or an actual ring.
While I debated the two, my cousin Lisa was making her own decision on whether to get her tongue or her belly button pierced. On the way to the tattoo shop she decided to just get both. She joked that she needed to catch up with me, as she is almost 10 years older than me and all she'd had was her ears pierced.
So we went to the Elektrik Krayon and were made to fill out forms and pick out jewelry. I chose a plain stainless steel stud, and my cousin chose a plain barbell for her tongue and a red jeweled barbell for her belly button. She asked me to go first, as she was nervous and wanted to enjoy the last cigarette she'd be able to smoke for a couple of weeks. So I went to the back room with the guy, and it's at this point I should say that I don't know if I was either too nervous to ask his name, or if I didn't hear him give it to me, but either way I don't remember.
I got to the room, in which there was a dentist-like chair, a sink, wall-to-wall mirror, and tons of cabinets. I sat in the chair, and was given Listerine to rinse with for about a minute while the guy got all of his needles and things together. At that point, I think because of nerves, I totally forgot to look and see if he was taking everything out of new packages. I kind of took it for granted that everyone else I'd been to before always had. But I'm not really worried since the place was very reputable and none of my cousin's friends said anything bad about it. I spit, and he pulled my lip out and placed a cork on the outside of my mouth. I thought it was kind of weird that he didn't use clamps but I didn't really mind that much.
So he placed the needle inside my lip. He didn't do the 3 count inhale/exhale that I usually notice that piercers do, but I did it anyways as, at least in my experience, it helps a little with the pain. The first split second wasn't bad at all, and I actually thought it was over. But then the needle went all the way through and it took everything I had to keep from flinching. It was over soon enough, though, so I didn't really mind. The worst part of the whole thing was the fact that the guy's hands were so big and the stud was so small, that he kept fumbling with it and kind of knocking the needle around my lip.
It was all said and done, and I went outside to show my cousin. The both of us agreed that the placement was perfect - instead of being lower, like a usual labret, it's more on my actual lip line. I preferred that anyway, since now I can put a ring in if I wanted to.
The guy told me to clean it with Listerine in the morning, before bed, after I eat, and after I have a cigarette. He also told me that every once in a while to rinse with salt water, as it would help it heal faster. I was surprised when he told me that I only had to wait a couple of hours to smoke, as in NY when I asked random piercers out of curiousity, they'd give me an answer in the range of 2 weeks to a month.
So now it's been about a week and it's fine. I had no swelling, no infection, not even that many crusty things in the morning. The only thing I noticed was that the barbell seemed a bit small, as I now have an indent where the flatback rests on my lip. It doesn't really matter to me, though, since the skin doesn't seem to be trying to heal over the flatback anyway.
All in all I think it was a really good decision. I wasn't sure at first how a labret would suit my face. I would fool around on Adobe Photoshop, adding little dots or rings on my pictures. But of course I couldn't actually tell unless I got the piercing done. I always reasoned that if I didn't like it, it would come out and that was the end of it. But I was surprised at how nice it actually looked. I guess that's all there is to say. I wanted it, I got it, and that's that.