The Quest for Rice and New Labret Jewelry

Because I was absolutely exhausted by the photo shoot Friday evening, I woke up really late on Saturday and spent a good several hours just lolling about doing nothing. But Makal had been hankering for a walk somewhere, either downtown or more in the neighborhood, so I motivated myself by proposing a walk to Uwajimaya. Supposedly there is a trail somewhere near here that leads down to that area, and we did need rice something fierce. So we headed our around 3p I think, down the road.

Now, Makal had forgotten about the mythical trails he himself had originally told me of, and we traveled the precarious non-sidewalks of our neighborhood. It started to rain just as we reached signs up life (fast food, strip malls and gas stations) so we sat in Taco del Mar eating our burritos and debating whether we should head home or continue on our trip. The catch was, that morning I realized that the ball on my labret piercing had disappeared; usually I notice when it falls out but this time the jewelry managed to escape me. Plus as we were eating burritos, the motion of my chewing managed to loosen the clear acrylic retainer I'd put in to save my piercing, and I bit the retainer clean in half (but I didn't swallow it). So we at least had to go somewhere with body jewelry.

We ended up at Adorn Body Art, still in the Uwajimaya neighborhood. Neither Makal nor I had been there before, and we were surprised to find the tiny colourful mod shop full of customers who could be described as no less than preppy. After a bit of immediate shock over the gorgeous jewelry on the display just inside the door, a girl at the counter got our attention and asked what we needed help with. Slightly irrelevant side note: this girl was pretty cute, kind of body-mod hippie meets body-mod punk butch, if that makes any sense. She helped me pick out some new jewelry, suggesting a different type of flat-back than the normal screw-together. Amusingly, she initially showed me a red gem for the jewelry, then remarked why she wasn't sure why she showed me red, just that it seemed to fit (that actually happens to me a fair amount). Then it was just a matter of waiting to get the new jewelry put in... no telling how long that would be with all the people around.

Only a few minutes could have passed by the time someone called my name to go back. The woman explained that if we didn't do this now, it would probably be over a half an hour before I could go back, which is silly for just a little labret jewelry. There were some complications at first, something about a mixup in the gauge size and available jewelry (apparently, my labret is pierced at a 14ga, not the standard 16ga). But eventually the piercer came back in with the correct piece of jewelry. Now, this jewelry is different from your standard flatback labret in that none of the components (the ball, bar, or flatback) screw on; the bar and back are one solid piece, and the ball--or in my case, shiny red gem--is mounted on a stem that gets inserted in the bar. Some magic design allows the two pieces to essentially snap together, and come apart just as easily. The pic to the upper left is the new jewelry plus the old, with the ball from my navel jewelry for size comparison (it's the same size as the old ball for my labret).

As soon as this jewelry was put in, it felt really good. The flatback is thinner than the normal screw-on, and is basically flush with my lip due to the indentation from the old jewelry. This means too that it isn't wearing on my gums nearly as much, something I had begun to worry about and was considering removing my labret over. Not only is this jewelry more comfortable for my teeth, but it's much lighter weight too and I can essentially forget about it, whereas the old jewelry was always there and I was always fiddling with it. Plus the bar is shorter, 1/2 inch I believe she said, so it's not sticking out so much when I smile, nor jarring into my teeth if I kiss Makal. Yay for comfort!

There was an issue during the jewelry insertion, though. Somehow, the piercer managed to pinch a small spot just above my labret piercing in the jewelry as she was pushing it snugly closed. So as I first looked in the mirror to see the new jewelry, my attention was more drawn the the bloody spot than the new gem. We ended up chilling in the back room for a few minutes, waiting for the bleeding to go down and wiping up with sterile pad after sterile pad (who'd have known that a 1mm square spot could bleed so much?!). Oddly I hadn't even realized my skin had been pinched; in retrospect I probably just thought it was the jewelry getting tightened. Not a big deal, but it was noteworthy for its unexpectedness.

After having the jewelry in for a few days, I do still like it. I'm happy with the new jewelry overall and I especially like that it's lighter and easier on my gums. The only thing I'm not sure about is the size of the gem; having been used to larger steal ball ends, this tiny jewel (which is as big as the gem in my tragus piercing) feels too small. I mean, I got some pouty lips on me, and with the shorter bar the front of the jewelry is flush to my skin--and the underside of my lip. Makal likes it, says it's subtle but still noticeable. It's definitely not as obvious, but that's okay. Since I love you guys, I uploaded some before and after pics to Flickr: [old labret jewelry] and [new labret jewelry]. Lucky for you that smirk is permanent; it allows me to create much more consistent photos. ;D And you can see how massively pouty my lower lip really is!

We did end up going to Uwajimaya after that, as the weather had cleared up and was downright sunny, making the walk much nicer for us. We also stopped at a thrift store and browsed, leading Makal to find a set of three tall wrought-iron candelabras of varying height (are they still candelabras if they only hold one candle each?). A woman at the shop who was obviously scouring for goods she could resell in her surely much fancier boutique commented several times on what a good find they were--i.e., she would be buying them if he wasn't. But they look fabulous in the corner of our living room, complete with red pillar candles. Makal always does buy the most interesting things when he impulse-buys decorative things. :)