Life and stuff: Lip Piercing

Went to the nearest civilization yesterday to get my lip pierced and catch a movie. Started off with the lip piercing to get it out of the way. Honestly it went great, I've gotten all my piercings done at this place and every time has been virtually flawless. If you want to get piercings and don't know where to go I highly recommend somewhere APP certified. 

Anyway, the whole process was great. I picked out my jewelry (NOTE: any good piercing place worth their salt SHOULD NOT let you start with a ring) I just got a simple ball stud to play it safe in terms of snags (Shapes like cones/spikes or domes are more likely to get snagged on fabric or thread because of the flat back of the shape, which I didn't believe until switching my vertical helixes to spikes and they started snagging ALL the time lol, thank god they were well healed at that point). The place that I go to will put the jewelry you pick out through some kind of medical sterilizer machine so while they're doing that I filled out the paperwork etc in the waiting room area. All of this process really only took a couple minutes so at no point was I forced to sit around agonizing in fear and nervousness, everything moves a long very quickly which I appreciate. 

Once that's all done they take you into the back room, apply alcohol first, then work out the spot where the piecing will go with a marker. NEVER feel bad about asking the piercer to move the dot over, you're spending presumably a bunch of money on this and should be leaving satisfied. Anyway, I had the dot moved once and then we got on with the rest of the process. The piercer had me rinse my mouth with mouth wash and then applied iodine to the outside of my lip. I have a history of feeling faint/dizzy/blacking out (no shame) so usually I'll be fully laying down for my piercings just in case. My piercer didn't use clamps (which is pretty impressive considering how spot on he managed to get it), so he just lined up everything and then waited for my signal to go ahead and pierce. 

The pain was definitely not as bad as I was expecting. One thing I would say to anyone who has concerns about pain and hasn't actually experienced getting piercings before is that for me at least it always feels weirder than it does painful. That is to say, it's an uncomfortable sensation because of how strange it feels, but not necessarily because of the level of pain. Keep in mind everyone experiences different levels of pain so take all of this with a grain of salt, but I would say it wasn't as painful as any of my cartilage piercings such as my nostril or vertical helixes. I would describe the sensation as weirdly tight, like when you clamp a chip clip on your lip. 

Anyway it all went great and I didn't even get faint. I recommend eating a breakfast or lunch with carbs or sugar as well as protein before getting a piercing, avoiding caffeine (I know, coming from a monster addict, skip it just this once for your own good), and drinking plenty of water. Also, bring something to do with your hands like a fidget or squeeze ball; keeping your hands moving will help keep your blood pressure up and prevent blacking out. 

After that I walked around town to do some shopping before the movie; I went to the record store and found From Under The Cork Tree on vinyl and was so excited that I had to buy it (even tho my record player is too shitty to fully appreciate the beauty of that album). Then I got some ice cream, which I thought would be soothing on my lip but actually was just very difficult to eat and also made my stomach hurt a little xD. Anyways, then I caught my movie which was unfortunately not that good, but kinda in a funny way. And besides it's not like a mediocre movie could ruin my day at this point.

That's pretty much all! Hugs and kisses if you've read up to this point. I'm now on day 2 of healing my lip piercing as in I got it done yesterday and I'd say the pain is nonexistent, I don't even feel it. There's also little to no swelling either, so I'm feeling pretty good. 

XOXO microbiome! 

Also I haven't proofread this for typos lol sorry don't care