I want to get snake bites (the piercings on each side of bottom lip), and I'm trying to learn as much as I can about them before I ask my parents.
Do they hurt super bad?
What are the typical risks involved?
How much does it cost usually?
Any advice?
Helpful info?

Please&Thanks. =]

All piercings involve a degree of pain. After all it is a needle going through your flesh, it's a matter of pain tolerance and place being pierced. The lips dont hurt much at all in my opinion.

Risks: Scarring, anytime something is pierced there will be a scar left. Infection, there is always a risk of infection. Allergy to nickle. If you have an allergy to nickle at all, then you would have to use 316LVM surgical stainless steel, or titanium, which those types are best for healing piercings anyways.

Just wondering, how old are you, you have to be at least 16 in the united states to be pierced even with parental consent, and 18 without parental consent. Good luck.

Pain: For me it wasn't that bad. It was uncomfortable for a couple seconds. The worst part is the swelling and the fact that you have to be careful eating for a while after getting the piercing, because if bite the stud it hurts.

Risks: As I said before, if you bite the jewelry you can chip your teeth. I solved that by being really careful then I just switched the jewelry to bioplastic so I didn't have to worry about biting them. If you get them too low they can cause gum and/or teeth erosion. Kevo already pointed out all the other general piercing risks so I'm not going to go into that.

Cost: Call your piercer. Mine cost $US140 because I got 3 at the same time and everything is expensive as **** where I live. Worth it though!

Advice: Bioplastic! Read up on nesting as well. A quick search on Tribe should give you a couple of threads on the subject, including one by yours truly.

I think lip piercings are great starter piercings They heal real fast!

Pain of the piercing itself is next to none (There's a vid. of me getting my lip pierced on youtube somewhere).
But be prepared for a nasty first week. You can catch it on the teeth, the swelling is icky as hell.
I kept getting my flatback stuck on my teeth when I tried to have like, a sandwhich or something.

Just take some ibuprofen and suck on an ice cube and it should be okay

Risks are generally to do with teeth and gums, but this can be minimised by wearing soft jewellery, I personally swear by PTFE for labret bars. But if you want rings in for your proper jewellery, they can cause your teeth to drift, and can chip teeth too.

Good luck convincing

Yeah, I understand there will be some pain.
It's good to know it'll be very little though. =]

Thanks, I'll have to make sure about what the needle's made out of. I know I get rashes on my neck from certain types of necklaces, which I think are Nickel.
I want to get them pretty close to my lip, so the lowness thing shouldn't be a problem...
What would be considered 'soft', and about the bioplastic: can you start right off with that, or do you have to start with metal?
I'll go look at nesting.

What are the backs to the studs like?
I've always wondered how it doesn't stab into you or something.

Btw, my 16th is in July, so I'm planning on asking to get it done around then, though I'll probly try to talk about it with them before then so they aren;t like totally surprised, haha.
(& yeah, odds are, I'll hafta wait till I'm 18. But why not try? May as well know what I'm gonna get into eventually. )
Thanks guys!
You're all very helpful. =]

Awesome, I got my first facial piercing for my 16th too, hehe, wow, 2 years ago now

Check with your school too.

Bioplast, bioflex and PTFE can all be autoclaved, so yeah you can start off with them. But chances are the studio will want you to have a metal bar in there at first, hopefully Titanium.

The needle will probably be Surgical Steel, but I don't think it'd cause an allergy that fast would it? Make sure you tell the piercer about the rash.

Soft SAFE plastics are Bioplast, bioflex and PTFE. Becareful of acrylic jewellery, if you see a brightly coloured end to a bar then it's probably acrylic and needs to be avoided.

The bars they generally use are flat backs, have a look at some on this jewellery website. It's basically shaped like a T

TBH I felt no pain with 3 of my 4 lip piercings.
Monroe tickled so much I could hardly stop laughing.
My lower right lip was so numb I felt nothing at all.
My vertical labret the first time round just felt uncomfy.
But the vertical labret 2nd time hurt a tiny bit cause it went through scar tissue.

Good luck skeleboy. My parents told me I had to wait until I was 18, they said if I really wanted it I would still want it then. Now 5 years since becoming 18 i've had 12 piercings. I have 6 right now, and would like to add about 3 more before the end of the year. Good luck with everything, lip piercings are great, and a good place to start in my opinion.

Ooh, another candidate to join the snakebites club! (we're making jackets)

For my personal experience, it did not hurt. I had them both done one after the other, just over a minute in between each pierce - it was like a small pinch, nothing dramatic, nothing excruciating, just a pinch. I got EXTREMELY minimal swelling, if not no swelling at all (lucky me.) But then again, I do not speak for everyone - all our experiences are different.

The risks are basic - most probably some scarring if you decide to remove it, infection of course which can be prevented by proper aftercare and treating the new piercing properly. Depending on jewelry and placement, gum erosion is possible (but not as common as people make it out to be, and even so, it's much, much more common with center labret piercings). For me, personally, my jewelry is above my teeth. No problems whatsoever. The placement could be different for you, all depending on your anatomy.

I can't be specific on the cost, most places are different. I went to get mine done during December, so my piercing place had a deal going around for Christmas. It was cheap which was good, lol.

In terms of advice, browse around. Go visit a few shops in your area. See if one stands out specifically, see where you feel comfortable. Enquire about the price for your requested piercings.

Last of all, good luck on approaching your folks. Tell us how it goes.

The minimum age over there really sucks! With parental consent, here, you don't have to be sixteen.. I'm not sure if there's a minimum age, but I guess if there is, 14 is above it :p

Thanks everyone for your help! =]
They don't sound at all as bad as they're made out to be (pain&swelling wise).
So, now I just gotta wait till school's out to ask.
(I have gym this semester, and they got really strict. You used to be able to just put tape over them, now you gotta take 'em out.)

But yeah.
I'll definitely tell how it goes when I ask.
(Which hopefully goes well. xD)

Thank you all again! =]

Oh, & Bret,

If & when I get them, I want a jacket. ;D