I've wanted a tongue piercing for a long time now, and not one day have I regretted it. I knew there was no way I'd convince my parents to allow me to get it pierced before I turned 18, so the only alternative was to wait for my birthday. Sure enough, as my birthday rolled around I become more excited by the day, and called around to all of the piercing shops in the area to get the best price and quality. As soon as that was decided, I gathered up the money and a few friends (my older and younger sister) to accompany me to the shop and provide moral support.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When Two years ago Studio BackStreet Boutique Location Salt Lake City, Utah Now I have a very decent pain tolerance, but still I anticipated quite a bit of pain during the procedure. The anxiety was almost unbearable. As we made the 20-minute drive, I followed a cycle of scaring myself out of it, and convincing myself again that this was what I wanted. Finally, we got to the shop, and proceeded to talk to the piercer about my new modification. We picked out my new piercing (14 Ga 1" surgical steel barbell) and talked about cleaning and aftercare. Listerine was about to become my new best friend. Finally, it was time to go back to 'the room' to have a new hole poked into my body. My little sister stayed up front in the shop, and my older sister stayed by my side through the entire procedure.
'The room' was very clean and well lit, which was reassuring, with many unfamiliar clamps and metal objects. My piercer explained the entire procedure to me, and we talked about the need to have it done in a sterile environment. He then had me swish my mouth with Listerine (the nasty yellow kind) for two minutes to get rid of most of the bacteria. Then, he applied a topical cream to numb the surface of my tongue, and dried it completely with a paper towel.
We discussed the placement of the barbell in my tongue. I wanted it as far back as possible, so as to not interfere with my speech. This however, is usually determined by how far the webbing goes on the underside of your tongue. So, he placed the entry and exit hole markers on my tongue with a marker, and asked if this was acceptable. Looked great to me, so I said yes, and we moved on.
He then had me stick my tongue out as far as possible, and dried it with a paper towel again, then held onto it tightly. He recommended that I close my eyes at this point, because if I flinched while he was putting the needle in, I would probably retract my tongue, and he'd have to pierce it again. This kind of freaked me out, so I closed my eyes. This whole time my sister was sitting a few feet away from me, eyes wide and bugged out at this experience.
Then it happened, I felt the hollow needle go in, and then back out, on the bottom. It didn't hurt a whole lot, just made a strange feeling of puncturing flesh, and I heard a crunching noise. But I relaxed, and concentrated on holding still and calm. The needle was in my tongue for a little bit while he grabbed the barbell, and slid that through the hole as he took out the needle. Then he screwed on the ball at the end, and that was it. Wow!
"Slowly put your tongue in your mouth," he said. So I did, and that was the weirdest thing I have ever felt. After having my tongue metal-free for 18 years, it's hard to suddenly have this huge hunk of metal sitting there. I maneuvered my tongue around to get the feel of this new piercing (I wasn't so sure that I liked it yet). It was highly uncomfortable, though I mostly contribute that to the huge barbell. I then washed my mouth out with water, and we talked more about aftercare. I'm a smoker, and he recommended that I don't suck really hard when inhaling, to avoid a type of dry socket of the tongue. Also, I was told (not asked) to use Listerine after every cigarette, meal, or drink (besides water).
Then we left. The healing process went well, and I only had to stick to non-solid foods for about three days. Luckily, I got my piercing at the beginning of my weekend, so I had a few days to recover from slurring before returning to my phone job. The immediate swelling, however, was very hard to handle, but goes away quickly when you use ice (slurpees are great here) and an anti-inflammatory (ibuprofen).
Two months later, I felt it was healed up enough to change the barbell without a problem, so I purchased a new 14 Ga 5/8" barbell to replace the 1" long one. True this shorter barbell doesn't give me much to play with, but it still looks very good and clicks the backs of my teeth much less often. It has now been over two years since I had this piercing done, and I still love it every day. I highly recommend getting your tongue pierced to anyone that is interested. Just remember to give yourself a couple of days to recover from the slurring, and don't push it with solid foods. Just give in, and eat lots of pudding!