Lip piercing

piercing one's lip with a stud (barbell) or ring. This practice has some historical precedent, but is known by most as an activity of the youth.

A decorative item is worn in the piercing; commonly a single-ball barbell (also referred to as a 'post'), captive bead ring, spike or, nowadays, an inert plug. Traditional labrets were often clay disks.

The labret piercing is a relatively straightforward procedure; the lip is held away from the mouth with a clamp, whilst a hollow needle (14g/1.6mm as standard size) is pushed through, usually from inside-out. The jewellery (which should be a little larger than normal, to accommodate for swelling) is then inserted into the end of the needle, which is then removed and the jewelery fastened. Oral piercings heal very quickly and resist infection, but stick to sensible after-care, such as watered-down Listerine and/or salt-water mouthwashes, daily. See also Body Piercing Aftercare for more information.

Anthropology

The labret was a traditional piercing among the American North-West Coast Indians, where it was related to status:

LABRETS: these leave indelible tooth wear and are thus easily recognized skeletally, indicating attributes of the living individual rather than the postmortem treatment of that individual. Many are broken in grave contexts, perhaps ritually. Appear after 3,500 BP at Pender Island (Vancouver) and Blue Jackets Creek (Haida Gwaii). Appears that while both men and women could wear labrets at this time, only a restricted number of males and females had access to labrets. After 3,500 BP, a divergence in labret wear in S and N coasts. In the N from 1.500 - 3,000 BP, more labrets worn by males. After 1,500 BP, labrets worn by females. In the S, between 2,000 - 3,500 BP, worn by males and females, but from 2,000 BP on, labrets generally disappear and are replaced by cranial deformation by free males and females of whatever class (e.g. elite or commoner). SO, for 4,000 years on the NWC, it was important to distinguish certain individuals in a very direct manner; either by cranial deformation or by labret wear. Gender and geographical region may also be identified by these methods. (From http://www.sfu.ca/~csmith/genstuff/academic/comps/ames.html with permission)

When a mask was being made to represent someone of high status, naturally enough, that mask had a labret.

Word Origin

The word is from the Latin labrum, lip. It is not French, and should be pronounced "la-bret" not "la-bray."