Medusa Piercing: The Most Important Info About Upper Lip Piercing

Risks, pain, care, and costs: Here is all the important information you should know about the Medusa piercing.

Table of contents

• How to do the upper lip piercing
• How painful is the piercing?
• Getting a Medusa Piercing: These Are the Risks
• How much does a Medusa piercing cost?
• Everything about Healing and Proper Care
• This jewelry is available

The Medusa piercing is a piercing in the lip area. To be more precise, this piercing is located on the philtrum, i.e. the small notch between the upper lip and nose.

Incidentally, all piercings in the lip area are known as labret piercings. In addition to the Medusa, the Monroe or Madonna piercing, which is located to the right or left of the upper lip, and the classic labret piercing below the lower lip are also labret piercings.

Do you want to know how the Medusa piercing is done, what risks there are, and what you need to bear in mind when caring for it? Click here!

Important: Like all other lip piercings and piercings in general, the Medusa piercing should only be done in a professional piercing studio. Amateur piercings could lead to severe infections.

In addition, the Medusa piercing requires very precise piercing, as it should be placed exactly in the middle of the skin groove.

Medusa piercing: How to do the upper lip piercing

Before the actual piercing, the piercing site is first thoroughly disinfected and the entry and exit points are marked with a pen. The upper lip is then fixed with a clamp and slightly lifted. The puncture site on the upper lip is then pierced with a special needle.

Immediately after the piercing, the upper lip may swell slightly, throb, and feel hot. In some cases, the lip or even the gums may turn a little blue in the first few days. However, these symptoms should disappear after a few days.

How painful is the piercing?

The Medusa piercing is only pierced through the skin and not through cartilage tissue like many ear piercings (such as the tragus or conch ), but it is still considered one of the more painful piercings. The reason: there are a lot of nerves running along the philtrum, i.e. the place where the Medusa piercing is.

How much pain you will ultimately feel depends, of course, on your pain sensitivity.

Getting a Medusa Piercing: These Are the Risks

Like other piercings, the Medusa carries some risks. If the piercing gets caught on clothing or similar, or if you don’t look after it regularly, pain and inflammation can occur. Severe inflammation often leaves a permanent scar on the upper lip.

In addition to inflammation, the piercing jewelry can also grow into the mucous membrane in the mouth. The piercing should therefore be carefully turned from time to time. The piercing can also be a nuisance when eating, especially at first.

The greatest danger, however, is that the Medusa piercing (similar to the frenulum piercing ) can cause damage to the gums or tooth enamel. This is because the piercing exerts permanent pressure and friction on the gums. To avoid damage, piercing jewelry made of soft plastic should be chosen.

How much does a Medusa piercing cost?

There is no general answer to how much you have to pay for a Medusa piercing. Prices usually vary from piercing studio to piercing studio and from region to region.

As a rule, you should expect to pay around 40 to 70 euros for a lip piercing. In addition to the piercing, the initial jewelry and piercing care are usually included in the price. It is best to find out beforehand from the piercing studio of your choice what costs you will incur.

Medusa Piercing: Everything about Healing and Proper Care

The piercing on the upper lip should be completely healed after four to eight weeks. To ensure that the piercing does not become infected and heals quickly and easily, you should make sure to take proper care of it after piercing.

Important: Since the Medusa is partly an external piercing and partly an oral piercing, it must be cared for both externally and internally. Here are the most important tips:

• During the first few weeks, clean the piercing site two to three times a day with disinfectant mouth spray (available from piercing studios or pharmacies).
• In addition, the mouth should be rinsed after meals with mouthwash (without alcohol) or with chamomile tea.
• Avoid cigarettes and alcohol for the first few days and protect the piercing from soap and cosmetics.
• During the first two weeks, no foods containing milk or fruit acids should be consumed.
• Medusa from time to time with disinfected hands! Carefully turn it to avoid it growing into the inner mucous membrane of the mouth. But under no circumstances should you remove the piercing yourself.
• Any crusts that may form can be carefully removed with warm chamomile water.

What to do if your piercing becomes infected, you can here: Piercing infected: What you can do and when you should see a doctor.

Medusa piercing: This jewelry is available

Once the Medusa piercing has completely healed, you can have your piercer replace the original jewelry with other jewelry.

A labret bar is particularly suitable for this lip piercing. Such a bar has a small plate at one end and a thread at the other end onto which a small ball can be screwed.

The piercing bar is usually 1.2 mm thick and 8-10 mm long. A labret bar made of Bioflex (PTFE) is also recommended. The material is particularly skin-friendly, while nickel-containing piercings made of surgical stainless steel often trigger allergies or inflammation and can damage teeth.

Piercing rings, horseshoes, or segment clickers are generally not recommended for Medusa. These can damage teeth and gums and should therefore never be worn for more than a few days.