2nd tongue piercing story

Last night I went down to Tattoo Ice in Dallas, TX to get my tongue pierced, again. I already have one piercing in my tongue that I got about six months ago, which I got at the same place. It was about 11:00pm by the time I got there and I took my friend with me since my car is wrecked. I had been telling my friends that I was going to get this done again for months and I just hadn't gotten around to it. I was slightly excited and a little nervous. Yes, I had done this before, but you still get that feeling.

I walked into the place and looked around at the walls of tattoos you could choose from. There were 2 guys working there, both tattooed and pierced a lot. There were an extra 3 guys just hanging around, I guess they were someone's friend. The last time I was here it was a different guy, but a week later he was shot and died. The shop was now the next guy's Dutch. He was busy doing a couple with tattoos of each other's names and "in memory of" the man's brother. Their small child was in her arms and she was watching her husband get his done.

Before doing anything I had to have a cigarette, since you really aren't supposed to smoke for a while after mouth piercings. I smoked my last cigarette for a while and then came back into the store.

I looked around at the rings in the display case, I really wanted a ring, or something colourful. Dutch informed me that the coloured ones are treated metal (I don't remember what they are called exactly) and that it rubs off into your system, so it's not good for you. So I quickly changed my mind and chose an identical one to my last one: a 3/4 inch 14g barbell. Last time that I was there I just said "whatever is normal" and he picked something up and I was like "Okay, that's fine" not really thinking about it because I was very nervous. He took out a needle and the barbell from a little toolbox looking thing and they were both wrapped in sterile packaging. I filled out a release form thing that asked me my drivers license number, DOB, name, and other things like that, I had to sign it 2 times.

I sat down in the chair and he gave me some listerine to swish, I must have swished for 3 minutes! It was burning my mouth when he finally said I could stop. He marked my tongue with a marker -- just a small spot and it looked like it was in an Okay place, about a finger-width away from my first piercing which was left in. This one was in front of the old one. It is still about 1/3 away from the tip of my tongue. He put some gloves on and placed the screw-on end of the barbell in this little thing that looked like a pen and held it so it would be easier to put the end on when he was finished. He wiped off my tongue with paper towel and then told me to stick it out. I stuck it out kind of rigid at first and he told me to relax it. Then I just hung it out of my mouth like it was limp. He placed a clamp on it with a hole in the middle of the clamp. Then before I knew it he shoved the needle through my tongue, bottom first. I could see it because I have a really long tongue. Then he pushed the barbell through my tongue, once again bottom first. This kind of surprised me because I thought that last time it was done top to bottom, but what could I do now?

He fumbled with the top ball for about 5 minutes, the clamp was still on and the barbell was getting pushed around a lot, he had to reposition the ball in the pen-looking thing and then finally he got it on. I was kind of worried about this because last time it was on in less than a minute, and it seemed to be tearing my tongue a little every time it got pushed over to the side. He took off the clamp and blood started pouring out; it dripped down my chin and onto my chest. He gave me a paper towel and told me to wash out in the sink with water. I did, and there was SO MUCH BLOOD! It just kept pouring out. He checked to make sure he didn't hit a vein and he said that he didn't. So I stood there and rinsed the blood out for 30 minutes. I was tired of the water-swish thing so I changed to blotting with paper towel. I literally soaked 5 or 6 paper towel sheets and took 3 with me. It didn't hurt really, but it was kind of shocking because last time I had it done it didn't bleed much at all, just a little drop around the barbell, this was just pouring out.

He washed everything that might have gotten blood on it with bleach and then put the stuff in a trash can. The sink and the chair especially, and the wall around the sink as well. He did a pretty good job of the cleaning. Then I gave him my credit card and he charged $50. He told me if it didn't stop bleeding by the time I was going to bed to take it out and he would redo it today. I was thinking that if it didn't stop I don't think I'd want him to fix it again! I'm sure that that's not what always happens with him, I'm sure he's usually really good at it, but I guess he was just off last night.

My friend and I went to 7-11 and got some ice for me and I sucked on ice and spit out blood for the car ride home and then some when I got home. I rinsed my mouth out with listerine and then got online. The last time that I got my tongue pierced I didn't have any problems speaking or even singing right after. Then when it swelled up I did have problems. I couldn't talk at all because it would bleed too much.

Finally it did stop bleeding and then I called my friend on the phone (it was now about 4:30am) and I sounded kind of funny but he heard me the last time so he didn't really care. I talked until about 5:30 in the morning and it still didn't hurt. I went to wash my mouth out with listerine one last time before going to sleep. This morning I woke up at about 10am and it looks alright, but bled a little when I swished with listerine this morning.

I'm looking at it now and it's a little to the left, not quite in line with the other one, but close enough, I don't want to go through that again this soon. I'm still planning to get my tongue pierced again with a ring in the front, but I'll wait another six months for that. It doesn't take that long to heal, it only takes a little less than a week for the swelling to go down and you can eat after 3 days or so, or just eat smooth soups or mashed up foods that aren't really thick. I could remove my first barbell after about 3 months, I probably could have before that, but I was scared to. Then after about 5 months I was taking it in and out all the time, but I wouldn't leave it out more than 5 minutes because tongue piercings close up really fast.

Well, that's my story. Feel free to ask me any questions.

Raven Foxwand mmbraven@aol.com