What Is A Snake Bites Piercing?

A snake bites piercing is two piercings on the lower lip. Those piercings are separated by a lot of space – one goes on the left side of your mouth and the other goes on the right side. Like spider bite piercings, snake bites are meant to be spaced as evenly — just as a real snake bite would look on the skin.

The snake bite is similar to the spider bites piercing, except the two piercings on a spider bite are both in the same corner of the lower lip, instead of having one in each corner.

What Happens During Snake Bite Piercings?

You’ll first talk with your piercer about what you want and discuss the spacing you’re looking for. You should let him know before the piercing about any allergic reactions you had to any metals used for body piercings you’ve had in the past.

You should also talk to him about any other complications you’ve had from piercings in the past, like any keloids or infections. The more he knows about your piercing history, the better he can help you decide if this is right for you.

You two will pick out the jewelry you’ll want to start with because you can’t just pick any jewelry you want. You need to make sure the studs you pick aren’t too long or too tight. They have to be just right to help you avoid complications.

Once you both decide to go ahead with the procedure and you agree on the spacing of the piercings, your piercer will disinfect your skin on the piercing site. That will help cut down on your risk of developing an infection just from the procedure itself.

After that, your piercer will insert a sterile hollow needle into your lip. Next, (once that piercing is taken care of), he’ll do the other side the same way. Once the piercings are done, the jewelry will be put in.

Snake Bite Piercing Pain – How Much Do They Hurt?

While snake bite piercings may sound intense because you’ll be getting two of them, it’s really not as bad as you might imagine. It isn’t as brutal as some other piercings and it just hurts a bit more than having your ears pierced.

For some people, the worst part isn’t the five seconds of stinging pain you’ll feel when the needle pulls through your skin. That part isn’t actually too bad because it’s quickly over with.

For many people, the clamps are the worst part. Clamps are used to hold your lip in place and pull it out enough so the piercer can see what he’s doing. When your lip is clamped, you’ll feel some slight pressure and discomfort.

The procedure itself isn’t as bad, according to some people, as the aftermath. You can be pretty sore and numb feeling for the first several days after you get your snake bites piercing.

Since it’s not a good idea to let fear of pain rule your life, you should just take a deep breath and take the plunge. Pain is only temporary after all and you’ll have decades of showing off your snake bites piercing to look forward to.

How Much Does A Snake Bites Piercing Cost?

Snake bite piercings aren’t the cheapest piercings you can have done, but considering you’re getting two holes, the price isn’t outrageous. You can expect to pay anywhere from $80 to $120 for snake bites. That fee also includes the jewelry you’ll get when you do the procedure.

If you’re thinking about saving a few dollars by going to a piercer who doesn’t have much experience, remember that you shouldn’t skimp on quality while getting this piercing.

This is more complicated than some other piercings you can get because your teeth are involved, and as everyone who has ever gone to the dentist can tell you, getting any problems with your teeth corrected isn’t cheap. You should gladly invest a few extra dollars with a skilled piercer to keep your chompers healthy and intact.

What To Do Before Getting A Snake Bites Piercing

You’ll want to discuss the procedure thoroughly with your piercer to make sure you understand exactly what’s going to happen, as well as any possible complications that could arise later.

Talk to your piercer about any concerns you have. If you want to ensure that your piercer uses the best practices for sanitation, you could ask him to explain the sterility of the equipment he uses. Most piercers are happy to discuss the safety protocols they follow to give their customers more peace of mind.

Before your appointment day, you should make sure you’re stocked up on all the stuff you’ll need after your piercing is done. You might not feel like running to the store right after your piercing to grab what you need. Your lip might be sore and numb so you might just want to get home as quickly as possible.

Some of the supplies you’ll want to have on hand include cotton balls, Q-tips and sea salt so you can make up your wound cleaning solution.

Snake Bites Piercing Aftercare & Cleaning Guide

The first thing you should always do before touching your piercing is to wash your hands thoroughly. If you handle your piercings with dirty hands, you might be inviting an infection.

A quick video guide to cleaning a new piercing:

Twice a day for the first couple weeks after you get your snake bites piercing, you should clean the piercing with a homemade sea salt mixture. To make this mixture, you need 8 ounces of hot water. Then you’ll take one-fourth of a teaspoon of sea salt and stir it up in the hot water.

Once the water has cooled enough that you can comfortably touch it, dunk a cotton ball in it and gently start cleaning the outside of the piercing site with it. Once you’re done with the first piercing site, move onto the second and do the same thing.

However, if you decide that you don’t want to make the cleaning solution up yourself, there are lots of great pre-made products available to purchase which will help ensure your piercing heals quickly and effectively.​

The best aftercare product I’ve personally used is the After Inked Piercing Aftercare Spray. Not only is it vegan, but it’s also completely alcohol and additive-free. The solution works well on all skin types including sensitive skin, and it comes in a generously-sized mist-spraying bottle for easy application. When using it from the very start of the healing process, the spray helps to decrease healing times and aims to eliminate any lingering pain or soreness.​

To clean the inside lip part of your piercings, you need to rinse your mouth with that salt water mixture every time after you eat. It only takes a few seconds and it will help your piercings heal up as fast as they can.

Besides making sure to rinse the inside and outside of your piercing sites, you should also take some other simple steps to keep your mouth as comfortable as possible during those first few weeks after your piercing.

Remember your lip will feel tender for days, if not weeks, after your piercing. You don’t want to do anything to irritate it further.

You may want to eat a soft diet for the first couple of days. Things like yogurt, soup, and gelatin may be the easiest for you to eat without hurting yourself. If you want to eat solid foods, go for it. Just make sure to take small bites so you can keep the food away from the piercing sites.

You’ll need to stay away from spicy foods for a couple of weeks, even if they’re your favorites. That burning sensation in your lip will have you regretting every bite.

You should also stay away from smoking and alcohol during your recovery phase.

You may want to consider scaling back on how minty your toothpaste is too. It’s great to have strong minty toothpaste to fight morning breath, but you’ll be swearing up a storm when that mint hits your healing piercing.

Even though it may feel strange or uncomfortable at first, make sure you keep brushing your teeth in the morning and night just as you did before getting your snake bites piercing. You don’t want to end up with unsightly and expensive tooth decay because of your piercing.

When you’re getting ready in the morning, try to keep in mind that you shouldn’t put any topical items on your piercings, including make-up, creams or lotions. That can slow down healing and potentially even increase your risk of infection.

How Long Does A Snake Bites Piercing Take To Heal?

It’ll take a bit of patience to wait for most lip piercings to heal. You can count on it taking two to four months for your snake bites fully heal. During that time, you shouldn’t take out your jewelry to swap it for new stuff.

You may want to change up your look a bit, but it’ll have to wait. It’s important to let your piercing fully heal before changing your jewelry.

Snake Bites Piercing Infections

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, things go wrong with your snake bites piercing. Whether you’ve skipped some of your aftercare instructions or you simply have some bad luck, infections can set in, complicating your recovery.

The problem with infections is that it can be tempting to do some wishful thinking when you start to notice the signs. You can convince yourself it really isn’t that bad and that things may still be normal. Nevertheless, if it is an infection, you need to take some sort of action to correct it.

Whether you treat it at home with extra TLC for a couple of days to determine if it is clearing up or you go to a doctor to have it looked at, you should take an infection seriously. Although many of them tend to only hang out at the piercing site, they can spread and cause serious problems.

At the very least, they can make you feel self-conscious about your looks. If they get really bad, you may even begin to regret having the snake bites piercing done in the first place. So you really want to stay on top of any possible infections and nip them in the bud before they become even more problematic.

Here are some of the warning signs that your piercing might be taking a turn for the worse:

Redness

After you have your snake bites piercing done, there will be some redness. There’s no way around that. So you shouldn’t call for an appointment with your doctor just because you notice some redness.

The key can be when the redness is present and how the red skin feels to the touch. If your piercing is red in the first couple of days, that’s fine. Things are likely completely normal still at this point.

Still, if you notice the redness starts to fade from the piercing site after a few days before returning with a vengeance, you should be suspicious an infection could be involved.

Also, if you notice any red streaks near your snake bites piercing sites, that could mean an infection is present and is beginning to spread beyond that site. That’s bad news and you’ll want to head to your doctor at that point.

Finally, if you see some red skin, but you don’t see any other signs of infection, feel the skin. Does it feel warmer than the rest of the surrounding skin? Hot feeling skin may point to an infection. If that happens, keep an eye on it and watch for any other signs.

Discharge

When your skin is pierced, you can expect a little bit of bleeding. After all, your skin just did get punctured, and some discharge, particularly in the first few days, is to be expected too. On the contrary, discharge that seems to be getting heavier, changing color or developing a foul odor isn’t normal.

If you see that beginning to happen, you should ramp up your aftercare by cleaning your piercing site with warm sea salt compresses a few times a day, making sure to leave your jewelry in (unless a doctor tells you to take it out). That jewelry is holding the wound open so the infection can drain out instead of staying in.

Swelling

If your skin seems to be getting puffier after those first few days, you need to consider infection as a possible source for that.

Preventing Infections

The number one thing you can do to cut back on your chance of infection is to wash your hands thoroughly before handling your piercing at all. Those hands have to be squeaky clean first.

You should also stay away from pools and bodies of water while you are still healing. If you are considering getting your snake bites piercing in summer and you know you’re going to be spending a lot of time in the water, you may want to postpone your piercing. Wait until fall or winter when you aren’t going to be in potentially bacteria-laden water.

If you are a jock in your spare time, you need to be extra careful when participating in contact sports, like basketball.

If someone’s fingers snag on your piercings and pull on them when you’re scrambling for the rebound, you could be in a world of hurt. Plus, that irritation or injury to the piercing site could be just enough to let bacteria in, which ups your chance for infection.

You have to be careful and try to troubleshoot before things go wrong when you have a fresh piercing.

Snake Bites Piercing Risks

When you get a snake bites piercing, there are a few things that can go wrong with it. As the last section covered, it can become infected, requiring extra care at home or a doctor’s visit to treat.

However, other risks are less obvious, especially when you aren’t familiar with snake bite piercings. The biggest risk of having this piercing is that you could end up with damage to your lower teeth, as well as gum problems.

You can get gum recession from the jewelry rubbing often against your gums, and the jewelry repeatedly striking and scraping your teeth can cause them damage too. That’s why having the right size of jewelry is so important to decrease that risk of damage.

Remember, you’ll need a perfect fit for your jewelry – it shouldn’t be too big or so small that it’s too tight.

Snake Bites Piercing Jewelry

You have a lot of options when it comes to jewelry choices for snake bite piercings, but anything you choose will have to be approved by your piercer. If it’s too big or long, he’ll let you know so you can protect your gums and teeth.

As far as your look goes, you can wear hoops, studs and ball closure rings. You can get darker colors for a more dramatic look if you want or you can go with the traditional metal appearance.

Summary

A snake bites piercing isn’t for everyone, but certain people love the look and edge it gives them. If you decide to go for it, remember to find a piercer who has a great reputation for knowing what he’s doing.

You want to end up with the look you’re going for – an evenly spaced snake bites piercing while keeping your teeth and gums as healthy as possible.