just say now that this wasn't a spur of the moment thing. I've wanted a lip piercing for upwards of 2 years, seriously for the last 6 months. I did the research and I know my stuff. I also knew that the only place I wanted to be pierced at was NEXT! and I got exactly the experience I hoped for there.

I went with my friend Becky who was getting a kanjii tattoo on her calf. She brought along a frickin' camera crew. Jeremy brought a video camera to film both of our experiences for a college project. We went into Next and it turned out that her tattoist wasn't availible for another hour, so we went for some mickey d's. (I had small fries, not that you care!) We wrote "Take 1" with french fries and mcchicken sauce for Jeremy's opening montage. But I digress... We went back to next! and I only had to wait about 2 seconds untill they gave me my form, I filled that out and the next thing I knew, we were in the piercing room. (myself and 4 other piercees) Micah gave us the straight goods on aftercare and stuff and he did a tongue and navel pierce before he got to me. I called for Tal (who I'm just aquaintences with, but I wanted a hand to hold) so she came in and held my hand after I did the listerine rinse. (AHHH! IT BURNS) He sterilized my chin/lip area with some bizzare smelly crud, and put the clamps on. He gave me two relaxing aromatherapy bottles to sniff from, both of which I identified correctly as Lavender and ylang-ylang. Micah told me that i knew my shit, and I beamed with pride. So anyway, clamps, yeah, no discomfort, Breathe in on 1, out on two, in on three, out of 4 PIERCE~! A little pinch as the needle went through, nothing major. Tal balked at the needle in my face, but I squeezed my eyes shut so tight that I didn't bother to look...But then the trouble started... He couldn't get the CBR in right away so he had to use a taper and it took anywhere from 2-4 minutes.. i dunno... my eyes were closed. This was more about discomfort than pain. At no point did it really hurt like a bastard. Seriously. A little uncomfortable because he couldn't get the captive bead ring into my lip, but he managed with little redue. He put the bead in and sqeezed the pliers and ta-frickin'-da. I was done... A little dizzy, so he had me lie down and I got free orange juice. yay. So I got back out where Joshua was tattooing becky, and I was drinkin' my OJ and people were complimenting me. Then it felt like I had a hair in my mouth, but when I took it out, I saw that it was a little piece of flesh... i nearly made alecia barf, it was quite amusing. That was the only real unpleasantness. I really liked the way that I was handled there. They treated me like an adult and Micah had a great sense of humor about everything. The classical music and aromatherapy made it so relaxing and the group element was there too. Very nice. Very very nice. It was professional, but casual. Which is exactly what every piercing salon should be like. It was like a relaxed, boheimian dentist's office. The chair made farty noises, which made everyone more relaxed because... it was funny...
So all in all, I had an extremely pleasant experience and would surely do it again. Probably my eyebrow. Any questions, you can email me. Let me just push NEXT! for a moment and say that it is probably THE best place in Vancouver to be pierced, so if you want a good hole put in your body, do it there! Right across the street, there's a place called "HOT HOLES: EROTIC BODY PIERCING AND JEWLERY!" It's a total dive. Seriously, I can't imagine anyone going in there when you could go to NEXT across the street... Maybe it's more expensive, but it's definately worth the cash. (Mine cost 72 bucks in total, pierce and jewlery) Even the bathroom is nice. It has a friggin' disco ball. I kid you not, I almost didn't wanna pee in it, it was so nice. Too the people who just want a tat or a piercing... Please think it through so you will truly appreciate it... i love mine to death already and it's the first day. It's not really red or swollen yet, by the way. Don't do something stupid like my brother, he got a tattoo of his dog's name. Pfff... And I'm the one my parents balk at. Ahh, cest la vie. Ta-ta. Healing experience later. ~The Amazing Ixford~