MySQL Query Improvement/Optimisation - Insert Row Without Conflicts - mysql

Question

I am having problems with table locking in my little app and want to know how I can improve my query.
Below is the relevant table information.
| assigned_presents | CREATE TABLE `assigned_presents` (
`id` bigint(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`recipient_id` bigint(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`present_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
UNIQUE KEY `recipient_id_index` (`recipient_id`),
KEY `present_id` (`present_id`),
CONSTRAINT `fk_message` FOREIGN KEY (`recipient_id`) REFERENCES `person` (`id`) ON DELETE CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=12914 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 |
| present | CREATE TABLE `present` (
`id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`description` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
`type_id` int(10) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
UNIQUE KEY `present_type_id` (`present`,`type_id`),
KEY `index_type_id` (`type_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=83196627 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 |
| person | CREATE TABLE `person` (
`id` bigint(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
KEY `added_index` (`added`),
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=249486846 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 |
And this is my current query. It does the job but I'm wondering if it could be improved.
INSERT INTO assigned_presents (present_id, recipient_id)
SELECT present.id, ${person_id} FROM present WHERE present.type_id IN (""" + ${present_type_options} + """)
AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT present_id FROM assigned_presents WHERE assigned_present.present_id=present.id)
ORDER BY present.id LIMIT 1
It is basically assigning a present of a particular type (${present_type_options}) to a person (${person_id}) but making sure that present hasn't already been assigned. I hope it makes sense.
I basically want to insert a present_id and person_id into assigned_presents as long as the present_id doesn't already exist in the table.
The query makes sense to me but I am not an experienced MySQL user. I do see that there may be row locking issues when called under heavy load (I haven't figured out how to stress test it) due to the query relying on two select queries before the insert.
The error I get is:
Deadlock found when trying to get lock; try restarting transaction
Also, I can't retry the query. It HAS to work the first time it is called. The reason for this is that this is a first in first served type API where responses are immediate.
Hope someone can help.