i want to get a lip piercing in my upper lip towrds the right by my canine teeth... anyone no if this will affect my playing?

Don't mean to sound flip but probably no more tha having your tongue pierced at the tip.
Really, I wouldn't. Even without the piercing inserted, this surgery Should have some detrimental effect your sound.

~Bilbo
N.E. Ohio

I couldn't tell you from personal experience, but I would expect at least some minor changes in your embouchure. A piece of metal sticking through your lip could potentially alter the air flow, move the lip out a bit, etc...and either of these, it seems to me, would be enough to warrant some small compensations on your part. I'm so obsessed with playing that I do tend to be overly cautious when it comes to changing my mouth, though so that could be the case here. I wouldn't let them put braces on me because they wanted to do surgery to correct an overbite which would have left my lower lip numb for 6 months to a year, with a slight chance that it would be numb forever.

I know that my nose piercing does. Nah, I am just kidding. It does when my allergies act up though. I am with the others as I think that it would tend to hinder your playing. Oh and OUCH!!! I just about passed out when they did my nose!

there is a girl at the university with such a piercing and she sounds beautiful... BUT!!! the problem with facial piercings is that there are tiny muscles that coud be harmed in the process causing paralysis etc. She happened to have a good experience but a bad body artist could cause irrepairable damage. Do you wanna risk that???

yup, i agree. there is a risk involved.
i don't have a piercing on my tongue but
i know somebody who started having speech defect after piercing, and it never recovered.
im not saying that it happens to everyone,but it might affect your playing.
if i were you, i won't take the risk.
just a personal opinion.

Ahhh, for once I am the person who can say I have done something wild. My tongue was pierced on two seperate occassions, so I guess I get to say the effects!

First, tongue piercings make it nearly impossible to play the flute because the ball of the piercing in right in the way of the air flow from your mouth. It seperates the air and essentially makes two air streams. Yeah is it bad for the flute. In fact I lost mine the second time because I took it out to play my flute. I practiced for about 2 hours, and when I put it back in the skin had already started to heal. It HURT when I popped it back through, so a day or two later I took it out.

Next, although a small hoop in your lip may not seem like a bad idea I can seriously say I think it is. The part of your lip you are describing is part of your embouchure. You are essentially saying you are going to put a leak in 2 places on your embouchure. I don't know if you wold be able to compensate for that or not.

Lastly, if you have any type of metal allergies at all DO NOT get a piercing in your face. Any metal allergies can cause a severe reaction from a piercing. Back in the good old days when I was much thinner I had a belly button ring. It almost immediately was infected, and I was a freak about keeping it clean. There is now a scar about the size of a pencil eraser there. It's not cute at all. I wouldn't risk something like that on my face.

DON'T!!!! it will affect your playing. My friend pierced her lip and she found it very difficult to carry on playing.

Someone from one of the bands I played in got her lip AND her tounge peirced just to get back at the band director. She sat next to me (I was first, she was second) and the director was kind of a jerk, I have to admit. Well, one day, he went too far with a few of us... They quit, I yelled, and *drum roll* she got the peircings. Of course, the director freaked out and she ended up getting kicked out of this band because of it. (She had other peircings already, so she didn't mind getting the new peircings, she had told us.)
What ended up happening is that the one on her tounge got infected, which affected the way she ate, which affected the peircing on her tounge. To make a long story short (too late), she can't play the flute or any other instrument that uses air because of the results of the infections. Don't do it if you are an avid flute player. If you would rather have the peircings and don't mind the risks, go for it, just as long as you know what you are getting into! (I would get my nose peirced if I wasn't so chicken! I am going in for a second ear peircing for my birthday in a few weeks, though!)
(P.S. Moral of the story: don't do something to get back at your band director... it will only get you in trouble, no matter how entertaining it is for the other band members to see their director tweak!)

<Added>

Sorry, I got it wrong... the tounge infection affected the way she ate, which affected her LIP peircing, not another tounge... Jesh, I should really pay attention! ^_^