At A Glance Author Starlet Contact Starlet@bme.anon IAM Starlet When A month ago Artist Mike French Studio Omega Red 2 Location Cedar Falls, IA I live in a college town in north-eastern Iowa, a place not well known for its abundance of quality piercing shops. Because of this, the hardest part about being pierced is almost always finding a decent artist to go to. I've patronized most of the local shops with poor results, and have heard enough nasty stories about the others to steer very clear of them. In an attempt to find a reliable place I've driven in excess of 3 hours, which is a giant pain in my ass. So when a good, local lead pops up, I'm more than willing to give it a shot.
This brings us to Omega Red 2. My original opinion of Omega Red wasn't all that great and I had no intention of ever getting any work done there. This was partially due to some poor publicity moves they had made several years ago, along with the general impression others had gotten from the staff while having work done. However, they had recently opened up a branch at the mall in an attempt to sway people from getting pierced at Claire's and the like. My boyfriend Ryan and I happened to be mall-ratting one night and decided to stop in to talk to the owner, Mike French, just to see what the place was like. We ended up chatting about various mod-related activities in the state of Iowa for about half an hour or 45 minutes. He had a copy of the new 2004 Industrial Strength catalog for me to ogle.
His on-hand stock of jewelry was pretty dismal, consisting mostly of low-quality thin gauge banana bells and tongue barbells. He said that despite the appearances of his current selection, he much preferred to work with high quality jewelry. It was just too hard to get the general public interested in paying the extra cash for implant-grade titanium. He said that he encouraged as many people as possible to special order better jewelry. I was fairly impressed with his knowledge of techniques and ideas that seem to evade most other artists, but what really made me consider the shop was how friendly and personable he was. I hate going in to a shop where I feel like I'm wasting the artist's valuable time. We finally left, and I said that I'd keep him in mind for the next time I was in the market for a piercing.
Now, I'd spent most of the summer craving a new piercing as it'd been since the end of December 2003 that I'd gotten my nipples pierced. I knew that my next piercing would be a vertical labret, as I liked the concept of having the visual appeal of a labret without the imminent threat of gum erosion, tooth shifting, or any of that other fun stuff. My anatomy isn't exactly suited to a standard labret, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before my poor teeth fell out. The only thing stopping me from running out and getting it done prior to this was the lack of an artist who had enough skill to successfully execute a trickier, more unusual piercing. I felt that Mike might be such a person, so I decided to investigate the matter a bit more.
I talked to some of my friends who had experience with his work, and was met with favorable reviews. With this in mind, I returned to Omega Red 2 to discuss the possibility of getting a vertical labret. Much to my delight, Mike said that he had successfully done a few in the past in addition to having one of his own, and that he'd be more than happy to give it a shot on my face as well. Then we talked gauge. I'm a strong proponent of the "bigger is better" philosophy, and had originally fantasized about getting pierced at a 10 gauge (about 2.5mm). He said that the highest he'd feel comfortable with would be a 12 (about 2mm). I was a little disappointed, but a smaller gauge would be easier to camouflage and the chances of finding another piercer so close with even half the credibility were practically nonexistent. All things considered, I figured this was a reasonable compromise. He went ahead and put a 3/8 inch titanium curved barbell on order. He said it'd be about a week to come in, and he'd call me when it did.
So I waited. And waited. And waited some more. I'm not very patient. About a week and a half later, I came home from work to the message that Mike had called to say that the jewelry had finally come in. My first opportunity to head down to the shop was the following Friday. I ate lunch and hauled Ryan down to the mall to bear witness to my fabulous piercing experience! Fortunately, we happened to meet another friend there, because Ryan got all woozy just thinking about needles and declined to come back and hold my hand while I got stabbed, so Nichelle stepped up and offered to help a poor girl out.
We went in to the shop and my entourage established themselves on the waiting room couches while I discussed proper barbell ends with Mike. He pulled on a pair of gloves and took the jewelry out of its autoclave bag to show me the various ends he had that would fit. I decided on a 4mm half ball on the top side and a 3mm ball on the bottom in an effort to keep the jewelry as low profile as possible. I filled out and signed the consent form, went back to the piercing area, and sat on the exam table.
Mike put on a new pair of gloves and globbed some TechniCare or something similar all over my lower lip. It smelled horrible, and it tingled a bit. After letting it sit for about half a minute, he wiped it off and marked my lip with some ink on a toothpick. The bottom mark was perfect, but I thought the top mark needed to be a little bit higher, so he obliged. Perfect. He had me lie down on the exam table while he took the needle and receiving tube out of their autoclave pouches and explained the procedure. He mentioned that it was going to take a bit longer than most other piercings because of the position and the amount of tissue it needed to go through. I praised his distinct lack of clamps. As a quick afterthought, I asked him what it felt like when he got his done. "Excruciating," he said. Oh, great.
I closed my eyes and grabbed Nichelle's hand as he fiddled around with the needle, tube, and my lip. He said that he was ready whenever I was. I gave the go ahead, and he told me to take a couple deep breaths. I took a deep breath in. Let it all the way out. I could feel the tip of the needle poking the bottom of my lip, and had a huge surge of adrenaline as I started to anticipate the pain. Another breath in, and on the way out, I felt the needle start to slice in to my skin.
To be honest, the first half of the piercing wasn't too bad. I concentrated really hard on taking deep breaths to take my mind off the pain. As he pushed the needle through the tissue, though, the pain started to increase. I got tears in my eyes and groaned a little bit as the needle exited the top side of the piercing. It was the longest, most intense experience in all my 16 piercings. It felt like it took about half an hour to complete, though I sincerely doubt it took much more than a minute.
He slid the receiving tube off, and corked the end of the needle, setting the cork on my nose. I was seriously buzzing from the adrenaline at this point, and the concept of having a corked needle resting on my nose was highly amusing to me. I laughed. Nichelle gave me a look like I'd completely lost my mind. I tried to explain the humor to her, but having a needle complete with cork in your lower lip isn't exactly conducive to conversation.
I couldn't feel a thing when Mike inserted the jewelry. He screwed on the half ball and tried his best to clean up the extra ink and miscellaneous liquidy deposits left over from the procedure. When he was done, he said something about how it was perfect and gave me a mirror and said I could sit up whenever I felt ready. I felt like I could have danced a jig at that point, I was so wired. But I decided to play it safe and sit on the table for a while before trying the whole "walking" thing.
I picked up the mirror to observe my newly mutilated face. He was right; it was beautiful. The jewelry was centered and straight. And shiny. I was psyched beyond belief. I sat there for a couple minutes admiring my beautiful self before I finally had to get up and move for fear of exploding. We talked about my extensive practice with aftercare, so he promised not to bore me with the repetitive details. I paid him $40 for the piercing, plus a $10 tip and thanked him gratuitously for being such an excellent piercer. I bounded out of the shop with great exuberance, and smiled for three days straight.
The aftermath was pretty minimal. For comfort's sake, I found it easiest to drink with straws and cut everything I ate up into bite-sized pieces in the days immediately following. This meant that whatever I was ingesting wouldn't have to come into contact with my lip. I started out doing sea salt soaks twice a day, once after my morning shower, and once before bed. I also made sure to rinse the top hole with plain water after eating anything. And no kissing! Not like I really wanted to, anyway. Too much pain involved.
Within hours of getting pierced, my lip swelled up a lot, with the left side being bigger than the right. I retained a lop-sided, fish-like appearance for three or four days. This wasn't so bad in itself, but my lip got super dry and crackly. I tried to make a point of drinking more water than usual, but that just wasn't enough. I eventually gave in and ended up applying lip balm to my lower lip with a Q-Tip to keep my face from feeling like it was going to crack apart and fall off. I can't really find words to explain how desperately irritating the sensation was. Fortunately, most of the excessive dryness stopped as the swelling started to subside. My lip finally returned to normal 3 or 4 weeks post piercing.
Thus far my vertical labret has been a joy to have. From the moment it was done, it's always just felt like it belongs with my face. I do have minor apprehension about my upcoming search for a job in the health care industry, but I feel confident that my charming personality will win out in the end! Here's to promoting the modified employee! Cheers!