RIP labret

Ok guys, two more piercing-related posts and I'm done with what's now body-mod month. Just this one and the one on my septum (forthcoming!)

So, today I unceremoniously got rid of my lip ring/labret. I woke up at 6am, about an hour before I was supposed to wake up for work, and finally had enough and just yanked it out and put it on the nightstand. I went back to sleep and when I woke up, the hole was pretty much closed up.

Seriously, no regrets about that. I've been wanting to get rid of this thing for a while.... 

For one thing, I wanted it so I could wear rings or cbrs. Nope. You know when you bite your lip over and over and you get that weird lump of scar tissue? That's what happened every time I wore a curved anything. I don't know if it was just from the pressure of my mouth closing down on the rings or what, but it would be a constant pressure in my mouth, and after a few days, it would start to hurt. I actually pierced my own lip in college with pro needles (that was....a weird experience) and ended up taking out the ring because of the above reasons. I thought it was because I was an amateur and maybe did something wrong. Nope.  

picture of the lip piercing that I did myself

So, rings were out of the question. So for comfort's sake, I had to wear labrets, which I kind of never really liked the look of--not for me anyway. I prefer bigger stuff. like rings. But labrets have their own problems too. The inside of your mouth is like an amoeba or something. It heals quickly, changes its shape--when I pierced my own lip it made sense. the needle going through was like cell membrane, squishy amoeba guts, then cell membrane again. so wearing a barbell poses some problems, especially with sizing. If the labret post was too small/short/tight, your amoeba-like like lip starts consuming the ring. eventually it just sinks into your lip. then you have to pop it out. ouch.

or you can wear a longer post. Yeah. That was fun. Metal or plastic knocking into your teeth and gums all the time. I always wore short posts so I wouldn't have to worry about gum erosion and that nonsense.

So this was the hellish rotation. Ring...until the scar tissue built up. Then a long post until the scar tissue went down and I'd start biting down on the ring. Then a short post until it starts "sinking" into the flesh of my lip. I finally came to the conclusion that I'm just between sizes...so I bought a clear plastic retainer so you can adjust the length. At that point, what was the point?

I've been wearing the clear retainer for about 6 months and finally had enough. No more mouth piercings for me, ever. I got it about 4 years ago during the depression when no one could get a job. A few of us got "unemployment" piercings. At the time, job prospects were so hopeless--why the hell not? It was totally impulsive--I just walked into a shady piercing shop. They didn't even autoclave the jewelry...just soaked it in some quats. OMG i should have just walked out. but I was stupid. Ha, it sucked from the get-go.

And I leave you with "scans" of Mara from the Wet Moon comics, taking out most of her piercings. More a growing up/rite of passage/change in life thing in the book, but I still like it. Even though I'm glad to be rid of the uncomfortable lip ring, I'm a teeny bit sad to let it go. (sorry couldn't find this online so I had to take photos...on the plus side I bought a camera)