My first piercing

At A Glance Author manda Contact manda@adulation.net Artist Lilith Studio Auroborus Location Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I got my tongue pierced in October of 1999, it's something I wanted to do for a few years, and finally got up the courage/was near a piercer. I went with two of my friends, one who was a vetran of both piercings and this piercing place - she's had her nipples, hood, eyebrow and labret done. I was really nervous - extremely nervous, all I'd ever had pierced before were my ears (six times on each side, in case you're wondering - but most of them have grown over now, and I don't bother wearing earrings in the ones that aren't).

So Nicci and I stopped to have a beer along the way to meet up with my other friend; Nicci was as nervous as I was because she was going for her first piercing too, a lip piercing. Then we head off to meet up with Michelle, and ended up being late. Finally we were all together and off to the piercers. Once outside, my nerves were really acting up - my hand was shaking, I could feel a cold sweat starting; I insisted we stop for a cigarette before going inside, which we did.

Once in there it was kind of neat, the place wasn't what you'd expect. We chose this place because Michelle had all of her piercings done there, and highly recommended them. It was very clean, and a very relaxing enviornment. They had some lizards or some other kind of creature like that in tanks in the waiting room, which was different. Tons of magazines and books and pictures of people who'd been pierced there before. Michelle knew everyone there so they were very nice to us. We made small talk, told the guy there what we wanted done, signed the forms, read the aftercare sheet, asked questions, joked around etc. Finally it was time for me to go down and buy two jumbo freezies - one to eat before, and one for after the piercing. We did that, stopping for another smoke before going up. From the start Nicci and I were fighting over who was going to get their piercing done first - I insisted she was going first, she insisted I was. We got back up there and I sat down and started eating the freezie while the piercer decided for us who was to be first - she came out and called for Nicci to go in. Of course, Nicci then proceeded to curse me. She was about as nervous as I was, but we're old hat now.

Nicci was in and out of their fairly quickly while I ate my freezie, and then it was my turn. I was more nervous than ever. For some reason, when people who had gotten it done before told me they clamped your tongue and you drooled I had pictured something totally different than what actually happened. I had pictured you sitting in a chair in front of some big contraption that held your tongue in place while you drooled over some kind of little drool pan that was underneath you. Boy was I WAY WRONG. Lilith had me stick my tongue out, marked the spot she was to pierce. The guy that was out front (his name escapes me) clamped my tongue and held it there. I think the clamping took away from the pain of the piercing, because after he'd held tight on the clamp for a little while my tongue was numb and I could barely feel anything. Lilith pierced it, sticking the needle through and it felt like nothing more than a quick jab. She dropped the jewelry in and put the ball on and I was done before I knew it.

It didn't really hurt much, no worse than getting a needle; but apparently Nicci said that I made a kind of 'uuhhhnn' sound that they could hear in the waiting room. We paid and they told us some more information about aftercare, recommended some mouthwash, told us different signs that would indicate if something was wrong. They said we were free to call them or drop by if we felt the need, but if it seemed serious to go straight to the doctor or hospital. We left after thanking them, both very happy that we had went through with it. Afterwards we walked down the street a bit to a Shoppers Drugmart and picked up some listerine, laughing our asses off at how nervous we were. I soon learned that listerine is NOT the way to go when you have to rinse your mouth all the time - especially if you are a smoker. Get the blue oral b stuff, without alcohol. Or else your tongue will turn white and feel gross. Then the three of us went to sit at a bar/restraunt type place to chat and 'attempt' to eat some poutine (very amusing).

All in all everything went well. I sucked on ice, ate cold stuff, didn't get an infection and my tongue was back to normal within a week. Although it did swell up to about twice its size, I spoke with a lisp for a few days and couldn't say the word 'three', but that was to be expected.