Her mission was to be different. She wanted to do something no one expected of her — something that would shock and surprise the people who are heavily involved in her life.

Her makeover didn’t involve a trip to the salon or the mall, however. This makeover only involved her top lip and a needle.

Within a matter seconds, Katelin Trautmann took on a whole new persona: Katelin “Marilyn Monroe” Trautmann.

Trautmann, junior in early education, got a Marilyn Monroe piercing, also known as a Madonna or Cindy Crawford piercing — on top of the seven piercings she already had in her ears — in November of her freshman year “to be different.”

“I think it was just a phase I was going through and I wanted to do something different,” Trautmann said. “I had considered getting my bottom lip pierced.”

The reactions to her piercing differed, but Trautmann said people were stunned by her choice.

“Everyone was really surprised because it was so out of character,” Trautmann said. “My parents freaked out — they were surprised when I came back with it, over Thanksgiving break.”

But although Trautmann followed directions, cleaning it twice a day, she ended up having problems with her Marilyn Monroe piercing becoming infected on three occasions.

Trautmann said she became worried the first time it happened because it wasn’t a piercing she could just cover up like the ones in her ears.

“I just kept cleaning it, and the third time it happened I just took it out because I was sick of dealing with it,” Trautmann said.

Dr. David Braun, director of the University of Iowa Student Health Service, said piercings are safe and have a “relatively low infection rate.”

“Piercings, in general, are very safe when done by a reputable piercing store,” Braun said.

Students or anyone who receives a piercing, Braun said, should make sure to follow the directions or advice they were given by the business where the received their piercing, but if an infection does develop, students should seek medical help, whether that means going to the student health center or going to an emergency room, if the situation is serious enough.

“The earlier infections are treated, the better, but generally redness, drainage and pain would be the signs,” Braun said, saying it would have to be asymmetric redness and generally drainage that isn’t clear.

Trautmann said she went back to the piercing place once to have them replace her piercing when she couldn’t replace it herself, but never to ask about her infections.

Even with the trouble she experienced with her top lip, Trautmann said she got her bottom lip pierced later that year but now she no longer has either lip piercing, and said she would never consider getting the Marilyn Monroe piercing again.

“I don’t think I would for two reasons,” Trautmann said. “I’m definitely over the phase where I felt I could get things pierced, and also because I’m going to start my practicum for teaching and it wouldn’t be okay to have a lip piercing.”