I always thought piercings looked cool, especially the lip. All my mates were into them too.

One of my mates' brother said they weren't hard to do and offered to pierce us both together. He said he had the basic equipment.

I didn't feel totally comfortable but went along with it anyway. When the time came, as the needle was right there I freaked. Aren't there infections you can catch from using unsterile equipment?

The school nurse gave me a pamphlet on body piercing and I found out that you are at risk of hepatitis B and C, and even HIV, from unsterile equipment. It's lucky I didn't go through with it.

So I waited another couple of months to decide if I really wanted the lip piercing. What if it affects my chances of getting an apprenticeship or job in the future?

In the end I decided to go through with it. I checked out a few piercing parlours. I wanted to make sure that they were clean and that the operators used sterile equipment and were happy to talk to me about the piercing.

I also talked to my dad about getting it done because I wasn't sure what he'd think and I was still undecided. Plus you can't exactly hide a lip piercing.

My dad wasn't very happy but said he wanted me to be sure that I was making the right decision and not just caving in to peer pressure. He also said that it might prevent me from working in certain types of jobs in the future.

On the day I took a mate along for moral support. It hurt pretty bad. They gave me after-care instructions and said that it would take about six weeks to heal.

It's two months later and it's fully healed. I don't regret getting the piercing, but I'm glad I didn't go through with the backyard job. I could've ended up with a pretty nasty blood-borne virus.