Mod monday; lip reconstruction 

If someone would’ve told me that I’d end up reversing my largest lip piercing, I wouldn’t have believed them one bit. The last number have years have seen a lot of jewellery removal, never to be re-inserted again. My labret was the only piercing I felt like I wanted to keep. All of the little ones were just an added touch; not necessary. But piercings can be unpredictable, and although you may still want to keep one that’s been giving you problems, it isn’t always the best option.

Like lobe stretching, I had a few sizes in mind that I considered goal sizes, but oval was always a goal. The shape looked sleek and interesting to me, and helped control the issue of lip bowing becoming an aesthetic concern, when considering large sizes like I was.

My first non-ear piercing was a labret piercing—my first favourite piercing—which I did myself when I was thirteen with a safety pin. It was an incredibly slow process, mostly I was curious to see if piercing myself was something I could do. If my family saw it, I’d have to get rid of it. I was already struggling to get away with weird clothes, hair and makeup. So that piercing didn’t last long. A short while down the road, I pierced my lip just a little higher up, again in the center. My lower lip shape helped cover the hole a bit, so I felt I could get away with it. After a few more gross DIY piercings, most of which were also in my lips, I came back to a lower center placement, and started working on a second row of bottom lip piercings. I can’t say I had a plan in mind. It just evolved on its own over time, working with the space available and keeping symmetry and a balanced aesthetic in mind as the project grew. Whenever I look back through photos, it’s still a look that I like. Regret isn’t the reason why I’ve been slowly dismantling this project, and I don’t regret any of the decisions I’ve made about it. But sometimes I do miss it.

There used to be some photo documentation of my early lip piercing days, before I began stretching my labret, and some photos from early into the process, but they have been lost over time. This blog starts at 7mm, or 1g for those that ignore the simplicity of metric. This is also the first size that had real jewellery, all previous stuff was handmade, or I modified cheap body jewellery to suit my need. Again it was a very safe, and clean process, just like the piercings themselves. All the necessary precautions were taken to ensure my well-being.

The photo compilation above goes from 7mm(1g) – 8mm(0g) – 9mm(00g) – 10mm(000g) – 11mm(7/16″) – 12mm(15/32″) – 13mm(1/2″) – 14mm(9/16″) – 15mm(19/32″) over about four years, from the end of high school to the beginning of college. Round pieces were the only shape worn, and I wore materials such as glass, delrin and ptfe. Glass was my favourite, but the backings became much thicker in larger sizes, so I stuck with delrin as it got bigger, which was easy enough to modify if I had any rubbing issues, and could be made with very thin backs. Wasn’t my favourite look, though.

Stretching never seemed that difficult with my labret. Mingling among other labret owners informed me that this wasn’t always the case, especially for a piercing like mine that began at 16g and never had any help from a scalpel. Generally a new, larger piece would go in when it was ready to, but there were a couple occasions where I became impatient, which I recall clearly at 11mm. Usually it resulted in downsizing because of swelling. The larger it got, the easier it was to stretch. Transitioning to oval caused more discomfort than stretching did, and put more precise pressure on the corners of the fistula, compared to round pieces that mostly just rubbed gums. I reached 16mm(5/8″) as a final round size, and because I had a transition set made, I began with a very gentle oval shape and went to a wider piece later on, which was also 16mm. This was my first goal size, and I wanted to stay here because it worked so well with my other smaller lip piercings, and my lip still had a natural shape to it. Looking back now, I should have stayed right here. Everything that was going on just flowed together. My labret was happy, it looked happy, no concerning issues ever, or discomfort. As the pieces got larger, so did the backs, causing everything to overlap, shift positions, and pinch. A job interview led me to temporarily remove jewellery from many facial piercings, and seeing how I looked with only a few triggered the decision to leave it all out, making the labret a focal point. The collage above shows a couple images starting at 16mm(the first image is the less drastic oval shape I started with), 17mm, 18mm, 19mm, and 20mm.

During a couple of the larger oval sizes, I had problems with jewellery not fitting quite right, which became a long term problem. A wing began nesting deeper into the inside of my lip, and caused a lot of discomfort and scar tissue. Swapping back between smaller and larger pieces, and going without jewellery helped how it felt temporarily, but I knew it was time to try downsizing to help. And it did for a little while. But the scar tissue was noticeable, and still caused problems. Gum recession had also begun, so I knew what I had coming to me. I was actually looking forward to it, now that the piercing was more of a nuisance than it was worth. Below is a collage starting with my downsized labret at 17mm, naked to show the scar tissue, and soon after reconstruction.

Brian Decker was doing a guest spot at SIX16 body piercing in Pittsburgh. I found out kind of late, but it happened to fall on a week I already booked off for a holiday, so I took that as a sign and was lucky enough to get one of the last spots available. Jessy and I drove there just for the day, spent a night in a hotel. I also had two of six implants removed, but that was just an aesthetic decision and had the opportunity.

The procedure was interesting. A lot of tissue was removed. I regret not downsizing even more before the procedure, but I hated how it looked naked, and it led to a lot of uncontrolled drooling. The anesthetic wore off before the sutures were completely done, but I sat through it. The tugging sensation felt like my gums were being torn from my teeth. There was very little mobility once the procedure was done, and noticeable nerve damage. The hardest part during healing was trying not to laugh, which is difficult around Jessy. The internal sutures dissolved, and I removed the outer ones about a week after. Localized swelling took a while to fully heal and go down, but the initial balloon lip was bearable again after the third day, when it started to subside. I recall using ice to help the swelling because of how uncomfortably tight it felt. Slowly the area became more supple and mobile. Some sensation returned. The scar became less and less noticeable.

About a year and a half later, it’s pretty safe to say that things are about as healed as they will get. I have good mobility. I can feel the scar tissue and minor tightness when touching my tongue against the inside, and stretching my lip over my teeth, but nothing that hinders. My lip is pulled slightly downward due to the nature of the procedure, but it isn’t so tight that my lips always remain slightly open. Nerve damage remains, but isn’t usually detectable. Some areas are more sensitive while others are basically numb. Cold that touches my lower lip triggers the same sensation in the scar itself, so if I’m drinking cold water and it lands on my lip, it feels like there is cold water where my labret used to be as well. My lower lip is also asymmetrical now, so naturally I’m considering a lip lift to give a fuller and more even shape, if I can ever reasonably afford it. On rare occasion, I’ll get a phantom-like pain where I think I still have the piercing, but to my surprise it’s only come up a few times. The most unexpected side effect is how differently people treat me now that I look a little more like your average modern day human. People are so nice when they aren’t wondering what the hell I have on my face, which has been great for trying to get a grip on my anxiety. I probably wouldn’t have bothered with reconstruction if the piercing remained content, and no sign of recession popped up. It was still something I wanted to hang on to. Like the rest, I miss it sometimes. But I don’t regret having it, or reversing it. It needed to be done, and how it helped change my state of mind was an unexpected and necessary process that needed to happen as well.