Misc Piercing Experiences - 16mm Lip Scalpelling, Dodgy Jewellery & Nipple Piercings!

RhoDoDenDron

Hey guys, I've not been on for a while, but I think I'll try to get on and post more here again! It's tough when I don't really have that much of an interest in tattoos, but hey - community is nice

So I've had my first bit of proper work done since my scarification last May (which has healed up lovely).

Dodgy Jewellery:
About a year and a half ago I picked up four 2mm "Blackline" rings from Cold Steel, in Camden, London. It was a bit of a stretch to fit them into my existing piercings (two on each side of my bottom lip), so I wasn't surprised when they were irritated. As time went on, they never stopped being irritated, and as you do, I never put much thought into it. Recently, it struck me that the jewellery might be the problem, so I switched them out for regular labret bars. Within about two weeks, those piercings were the happiest they've ever been. A mundane story, perhaps, but it just shows the importance of correct jewellery for happy piercings. I've recently bought a new set of titanium rings (2mm, anodized gold) and my piercings are totally happy with them!

Nipple piercings:
Also about a year and a half ago, I got both my nipples pierced vertically, at 1.6mm, with the aim of stretching them. I stretched them (albeit a tad quickly) to 2.4mm and they were not happy. The one on the right started to migrate and reject, so after it was hanging by a small bit of skin, I had no choice but to remove it. The one on the left stayed in fine, but it was angry and refused to heal until I eventually downsized to 2mm. I recently got some custom jewellery ordered through Patric in Iconic Art/Zulu, a pair of 2.4mm bars with room for swelling and a nice Blackline pair once they were healed. He tapered the existing one back up to 2.4mm and there was no pain. A slight tightness, but no pain. He also re-pierced the right one, directly to 2.4mm. Very little pain also (less feeling in scar tissue) and it seems to be healing really well so far, with a lot less discomfort than when it was initially pierced. Another happy piercing story!

Lip Scallpelling - 9mm to 16mm:
Over the last two+ years, I've been slowly stretching my central lip piercing. After I got to 9mm, I found it impossible to find glass plugs to stretch with, so I waited, and eventually got talking to Patric about scalpelling. We were discussing it since November, and on Monday, we finally got everything together to do it.

Whenever I'm going for some heavy mods, I always manage to totally ignore the prospect of pain until just before it happens, so when we finally sat down and my lip was marked out and ready, I was freaking out. Scalpels hurt, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! I was still mildly "traumatised" from my five hour scarification, which is to date one of my most painful experiences.

He tried out a few different methods of clamping my lip, just to see what placement would work best, before eventually positioning a single clamps around my piercing. The other piercer at Iconic Art, Nate, was also present to lend a hand and to learn. In his usual excellently calming manner, he positioned the scalpel inside the piercing and told me to breathe deeply. It was terrifying, I tell you. He starts cutting, and I feel blood flowing. My hands and feet went numb and started tingling. And then, literally a few seconds later, he inserts a taper into my lip and slides in the plug, and quickly pops the O-ring on. It was all a LOT less painful and quicker than I had expected. He explained that he'd made a small horizontal cut on each side of the piercing, as the muscles in your lip run horizontally, and that the muscles would then only need to re-shape, instead of being cut through.

Unfortunately, he had worried that the piece might be too short for a swollen, recently-scalpelled lip, and that has proven to be the case. It's now just over two days since the procedure, and I was faced with a rather awkward choice. I could leave the O-ring on and risk a lot of embedding on the inside of my lip, or I could take the O-ring off and risk the outside of the piercing trying to close over and push the plug out and into my mouth. Last night, I opted to leave the O-ring on until morning when I could get in to see Patric, but luckily I couldn't sleep, and at 5am I removed the O-ring and painfully pulled the plug back a bit out of the hole it had embedded itself into. It's now happier, but still a massive pain.

Eating has been a slow and unsatisfactory process, as has talking and even thinking. I've tried to spend as much of my time as possible lying down and not thinking about it. A month ago, I also bought a fancier plug for it. It's a 16mm oval Amazonite plug, from Evolve Body Jewelry in Seattle. It cost about 90 euro (incl. shipping) and took two weeks to be custom-made and shipped over to Dublin. The piece is beautiful. It's got a concave back to accomadate the curvature of my teeth/gums and a T-back instead of a flare running around the full diameter of the piece. The natural stone has a really great feel, and I should be able to get it into my lip in about two weeks, which will make it a whole lot more comfortable.


Anyway, sorry for the long post. I'll have pictures up of all of these in a few days, once my lip has calmed down and I can think straight again!

Grayfoxy

Hi Rho,

Nice post, very enlightening and graphic

I always go to Patric for my work, I am curious, where did you get your scar done?

RhoDoDenDron

Also by Patric - [thread here]

Grayfoxy

Looks boss

Penny Tration

Welcome back, Rho. Oh, I'm eso, btw.

Got quite squeamish reading parts of that, I have to admit!

Very interesting read, though, and I look forward to pictures.

Patric is a legend, too.

RhoDoDenDron

Hi Eso

Yeah, I've spent the last few days wondering how I talk myself into doing these things! Patric got nice fresh pics, I'm gonna pop in for a check-up today and nag him to upload them.

hdowney

Some mental stuff there Rho - welcome back btw

Orim

Welcome back Rho. Good to see you didn't get tamer in your absence.

RhoDoDenDron

Ok, gross update!



The glass plug we had in was too short, so Patric managed to find a longer plug, but the catch was that it was a solid steel piece and quite heavy. So I put it in on Friday and it started to embed a bit, but largely improved things.

Then, this evening, I thought the swelling had gone down enough that I should try to take out the heavy steel plug (which had been pulling a lot at my lip) and put back in the shorter but lighter glass plug. I found it was embedded so badly that I couldn't remove it, despite trying for half an hour, so I left it be. I reckoned I'd get Patric to make a little nick with a scalpel in the morning and put in the glass plug.

I went about my business, and was in the living room playing video games when *plop*, the steel plug pulled itself straight out through the front of my lip, leaving a gaping and slightly bloody hole!

After taking a few minutes to panic, I tried to call Patric but no answer.

I pulled out my entire collection of plugs to see what I could do. The inside was quite tight but the outside was wide open. I tried to re-insert the glass plug but it wouldn't go through the inside. I fished out a 12mm taper from my younger days and inserted that, and found it went in really easily. After around, I put in a 14mm plug, but I knew O-rings would just slip off and it wouldn't be any use.

I had an idea. I put an O-ring on the steel plug and slid in straight down to the flare, and I used the 14mm plug to facilitate the insertion.

So now I have the steel plug in again, but the O-ring won't let it pull through, and it's long enough and thick enough to keep the piercing at optimal condition. It actually feels quite healthy, if a little bulky.

Anyway, crisis averted for now, and tomorrow I'll nip in to see Patric and let him assess it himself. By my own judgement, I think we'll probably leave this plug in until it heals enough to put in my oval piece, which has by FAR the most sensible flare on the back.

Orim

You know, you say there's a tattoo bias on this forum but I would counter that posts like that are why more people run with tats. :pac:

Fair play man.

RhoDoDenDron

Well in fairness, there's a lot more interest in tattoos than piercings, but this kind of stuff is kinda a different level :P

paul_booth_fan

Orim wrote: »

You know, you say there's a tattoo bias on this forum but I would counter that posts like that are why more people run with tats. :pac:

Fair play man.

I would counter again that it's the LACK of posts like this that means more people run with tattoos

McChubbin

Rho, any chance of posting up a few pictures? I can understand what you're saying but I'd like to see pictures please.
So, you have a massive plug in your lip? Is it anything like this?

RhoDoDenDron

Yeah, here's a shot, one week old :



And here's the Amazonite plug I want to put in it when it's healed:

RhoDoDenDron

New things! About two weeks after scalpelling, I got my amazonite oval plug into my lip, which feels waaaayy more comfy than any of the other plugs, being custom-tailored to fit in a lip.

I also re-arranged my side-lip piercings a bit, going for a more discrete bar-ring ring-bar formation.

hdowney

The lip still looks a lil sore there at the bottom, else it's just the angle of the pic or something!!

RhoDoDenDron

It was sore, just a little raw!

About two weeks after that picture was taken, it's settled in and is feeling a lot nicer. I've also started stretching my philtrum, as I seem to need to be constantly stretching.

osaurus

Keep an eye on your gums. Also I would suggest going for custom made labret pieces, t-backs are the business but the better the fit the longer it will last.