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 Throughout
human history, lip piercing has been a popular method of body decoration. While
lip piercing was a part of some rituals, it has also been used during various
ceremonies. Lip piercing continues to be practiced by many people, the most
well-known of which are certain African tribes, who wear large decorative lip
plates or discs, usually in the lower lip, while European and American teens
use lip piercing as a mark of distinction to stand out in the crowd. In the
society of the ancient Aztecs and Mayans, a man who has a lip piercing is a
member of the higher caste and he usually wears jewelry made from gold and
jade. Today, a lot of people, including some celebrities, wear lip rings
because of the way it allows them to express themselves.
Although it
may give you the bad girl or bad boy appeal that you would like to portray, do
take note that going through lip piercing is no joke. It is a decision that
involves facing risks and consequences that might cause you to regret your
actions later. Also, you have to remember that a lip piercing isn't something
that you can just remove after you have grown tired of it.
Since you
will be living with it for the rest of your life, you should know where you
want to have your lip piercing done. Lip piercings can be placed anywhere
around the mouth, but the surface of the lip is not typically pierced itself,
except for horizontal lip piercings. Putting a lip ring on your lower lip is
very much recommended because it doesn't have any contact with your gums and
wouldn't cause any damages in this area in the future.
You can
also have a labret stud on the area below your lower lip. This is also called a
labret. Because the flat disk is squeezed between the back of the lip and the
gums, the placement of this lip piercing is very important because it can hurt
your gums.
Piercings
in specific positions have certain names. Monroe piercings, for example, are
labret studs worn on the upper lip where Marilyn Monroe had her famous mole.
Medusa piercings go through the center of the upper lip, perpendicular to the
tissue. Labret piercings are pierced with a labret stud and can be pierced in
the center or off-center. A variation of this is the lowbret, a lower labret.
Vertical labret piercings go through the center of the bottom lip, parallel to
the tissue. The variation is called the vertical lowbret, which starts inside
the mouth between the lower lip and the teeth and travels straight down,
exiting on the lower edge of the jaw line. Horizontal lip piercings are very
rare, and include a horizontal bar on the lower lip that goes through the lip
surface.
Worthy of
particular mention are so-called smile piercing, when your piercing can be
visible only in case you smile. This is a body piercing through the frenulum of
either the upper or lower lip. For this type of piercing small jewelry 1.2x8 mm
or 1.2x10 mm. Rings, mocrobarbells and microbananabells are appropriate. It is
important for the jewelry not to bother you and not to hit on your teeth.
You should
choose the length of the jewelry very carefully. If the length of the jewelry
is not sufficient then it may lead to «skinning over» and «caving» of the
jewelry, especially the heads of the labrets. Very often the clients want
small, imperceptible jewelry in their lip and buy short labrets with small
heads and beads. In healing process the lip tries to push out the jewelry or
skin the jewelry over. In case of skinning over it is necessary to replace the
jewelry by longer one or by one with larger head.
Lip
piercing is considered to be the simplest and the safest type of piercing,
because there are no large-vessels and complex ganglia in our lips. The
piercing procedure is standard and doesn't need anesthesia, curved piercing is
difficult to do due to the marks and the whole procedure passes faster and less
painfully than tongue piercing. But it is recommended for piercer to make sure
that there are no veins in the place of piercing by holding the pierced part of
the lip up to the light.
Lip
piercing aftercare is the same as for tongue piercing: to rinse with the
antiseptic three to four times daily and soak the outside of the piercing using
topical anticeptic, and don't play with the jewelry until full healing (one
week to 20 days).
Problems
that may arise during the healing period are often associated with the need to
keep to a diet, and a high risk of infection at the place of piercing which is
due to a high concentration of bacteria in the mouth. In the first four hours
following lip piercing procedure you shouldn't eat or drink anything
(especially alcohol), or smoke. After that time, dairy products, cereals, pastry,
and all fruit except oranges, lemons, grapefruit and tangerines are allowed. Sour,
spicy, hot, cold foods should be avoided.
This diet is
highly recommended for the entire post-piercing healing period. To speed up the
healing, you should stop smoking and drinking alcohol for a while. You also
have to wait with kisses and oral sex, because it will be not only painful but
risky as in this case you will be risking getting a serious infection.
Lip piercing
noticeably changes your speech, and your articulation may become poor. Another
disadvantage of lip piercing is fistula, but this is rare. It's important to
follow your piercer's recommendations regarding nutrition, oral hygiene, and
regular treatment of the pierced lip with antiseptic solutions for smooth and fast
healing of the wound. Commonly, piercing professionals recommend washing your
mouth three or four times with chlorhexidine-containing antiseptic solutions.
These may include «Stomatidin», «Perideks», and «Lizoplak» among others.
A home-made
saline solution made from one-fourth teaspoon of all natural pink or gray
non-iodized sea salt and one cup of distilled or filtered water is a common way
to heal a lip piercing and avoid infection. This solution can be used to rinse
out the mouth after eating (or the mouth can be rinsed with non-alcoholic,
non-antimicrobial mouth wash) and to soak the outside of the piercing using a
cotton ball. Anything with alcohol, peroxide, iodine, or any strong soap should
be avoided because they may irritate the fresh piercing, and cause additional
swelling and trauma during the healing process. Also using things like
peroxide, iodine, teatree oil, conventional antibacterial soap, or dish soap
can damage or kill the skin in and around the piercing, extending the healing
process. The ornament should be periodically cleansed to prevent bacterial
plaque accumulation.
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