What are snake bite piercings?

Are you looking for a fun new piercing that will be perfect match for your sly and mysterious personality? Then a snake bite piercing might just be the thing for you. In this Inksane blog, we are going to talk about what you can expect from this type of piercing and how to properly care for it.  

 

This is wat you have to know before getting snake bite piercings 

It’s always helpful to know some tips in advance about what to expect when getting a snake bite piercing.  Below you can find a small summary of how the placement of your new piercing will go. 

Before coming to your appointment, you don’t have to do anything special. As far as oral hygiene goes there is no particular thing you can prepare yourself for. Our piercer will give you the chance to rinse your mouth while you are at the shop.  During your appointment, the marking of your piercing will take up the most amount of time. This is very important though so that the piercings are placed evenly on each side of your mouth. After that you can just relax, sit straight and you might feel a sting. Getting a piercing does hurt, but the pain is relative. Some people find it absolutely not painful, while others have a lot of pain. After the piercing has been placed it is important that you take good care of it. You might see some swelling or feel a little more sensitive in that area but that’s completely normal.  Rinse you mouth on a day-to-day bases, carefully follow the aftercare instructions provided by your piercer and you will be rocking those piercings in no time.  

What is a snake bite piercing?

This piercing is suitable for anyone who wants to bring out their inner seductive sssssnake. 

For a snake bite piercing, 2 lip piercings will be placed, one on the left side of the lower lip and one on the right side. We call this a snake bite piercing because they are supposed to imitate the teeth of a snake. For them to be like snake teeth they are a bit too far apart. Therefore, we prefer to call them a paired lip piercing. With this piercing we will place a little bar on each side of your lower lip. This bar has a flat disc on the inside of your mouth and a small ball or stone on the outside.  

It is important not to mix up a snake bite piercing with a snake eye piercing. With a snake eye piercing a piercing is placed horizontally through the tongue. We do not perform this procedure because this type of piercing will connect the two tongue muscles and that can be very dangerous.  

How does the snake bite piercing healing process go?

Overall, a lip will heal fairly quick. The piercing will most likely get a little swollen but that will be over in no time. After about two weeks you can come back to the shop to have a shorter bar placed. 

On the day of the procedure, we advise you to avoid hot and spicy foods, warm drinks and soft drinks. The following days you must rinse your mouth with water every time after you have eaten, drunk or smoked. For the next few weeks, we recommend you to stay clear of makeup and other skincare products around your fresh piercing.  

If you want to be extra clean and careful you can always use Neilmend spray (which you can buy at our shop) on the outside of your piercing. For the inside you can use a mouthwash without alcohol (also available at our shop). Be careful to never use any types of alcohol or oil-based product around or on your piercing during the healing process. After all that, you just need to listen to your body. You may experience some discomfort or feel sensitive, but that’s normal. It is not a good sign if you feel some form of pain. 

Do I have an infection because of my snake bite piercing?

A piercing can get inflamed if something gets into the wound that shouldn’t be there, such as make-up, dirt or pet hair. If you use any type of low-quality jewellery, your piercing will also get infected. You can recognize an infection by the green pus that will be coming out of the wound, redness and heavy swelling. An infection can cause severe pain and you can kind of feel your heartbeat in the wound.  

Keep in mind that there is a big difference between an infection and some irritation. You will have a little bit of irritation because there is a foreign piece in your skin, which is completely normal. An infection is a lot more serious. When you think that you might have a beginning infection, you can treat the piercing with eye ointment. This ointment contains a small percentage of antibiotics that will calm down the infection.  

To prevent any type of infection, or irritation, it is crucial to follow the given aftercare instructions provided to you by our piercer. All our piercers work according to the methods of the APP (association of professional piercers) and they work exclusively with high-quality jewellery. If you have any doubts, please come by at the shop. If we see that the infection is serious, we will see you to a doctor.  

Can snake bite piercings ruin your teeth?

This is a tricky question. Your teeth won’t chip, if you don’t play with your piercing. We always use a labret with a flat metal disk at the end to make everything as comfortable as possible in your mouth. To prevent any kind of dermal problems, we strongly advise you to keep on rinsing your mouth and to not play with your piercing. That’s the spirit!  

How much are snake bite piercings? 

At our Inksane piercing studio you can get a paired lip piercing (known as a snake bite piercing), which contains 2 piercings by the price of €35 a piece (jewel and aftercare exclusive). The prices of the jewels start at €15 a piece.

Where to get snake bite lip piercing jewellery?

Check out our piercings at inksanepiercing.com. We also sell jewellery in our shops. If you choose to buy your jewellery from another store, please keep in mind to buy jewels made from implant grade titanium. Please keep clear of surgical steel (this is just inox and it will oxidise) and silver. At Inksane piercing studio we consistently use implant grade titanium, 14K gold or Noibium. To buy a good fitting piercing it is also important that you know the size of your jewel, a lip is usually pierced at 1.2 mm.

Snake bite lip rings 

When your piercing is fully healed, you can choose to change out your beginning jewel. This exchange is ideally done by our piercer. If you want to do it yourself, you can exchange your jewellery after 10 weeks of getting it pierced.  

We will never choose rings as your beginning jewel. This is because they close with a joint that might cause irritation in the fresh wound. Rings are more due to cause dermal problems because there is more metal in your mouth that might cause chipping. Once your piercing is fully healed, you are free to choose any jewel that your heart desires.  

Does it already tickle your curiosity to have a piercing placed? Or do you have any more question about a snake bite piercing? Please do not hesitate to contact us. Our piercers, Stéphanie, Julie, Flavia or Mare will be happy to help you.