When I decided to get the sides of my tongue pierced, there wasn't even a question in my mind as to where I would get them done. I went straight to Rick Gilmour at Adorned. He had already done my vertical labrets, and they turned out wonderfully – perfectly straight and symmetrical. He has a way of relaxing the person he's piercing, too. Makes for a really good experience overall.
At A Glance Author andreaXedge Contact andreaXedge@bme.anon IAM awolfrom When Three months ago Artist Rick Gilmour Studio Adorned Location Calgary, AB Anyways, I went in to visit him, filled out all the appropriate paperwork and whatnot. We went into the back and he started to prepare things. He got out everything he'd need, (of course changing his gloves like 80 million times like any good, clean piercer would), and then it was time to do the marking. That took forever, but of course that's nothing to complain about – he just wanted to make sure that everything was straight. It was very difficult because I already had 3 piercings in the center, that weren't very straight (bad piercers in the past).
Finally he finished the marking and it was time for the fun part. I laid down and he grabbed my tongue in his hand and did the first piercing. I think he did the right side first, not that it matters. I'm not gonna lie, these hurt like hell. I take pain pretty good and none of my other piercings were really anything to complain about anyways, but I must say I wasn't expecting these to hurt as much as they did. In any case, he did the other one, and that was it. We checked them out afterwards and we both noticed that one of them looked slightly off (it was really hard to get them straight because I have some seriously bunk center piercings). It was hard to tell if it was actually crooked or not, though, because it had already started to swell. So of course he told me that if I figured it was actually not straight, after the swelling went down, he'd fix it up for me.
We went back up to the front of the store, chatted for a little while (which wasn't that easy for me), I paid, and walked straight over to 7-11 to get myself a slurpee. And did that ever feel good.
I talked funny for a few days, but not as bad as I had expected. I guess that's a lot of metal in my mouth. I actually spoke better than when I had gotten the front middle tongue piercing done. So lots of ice, pineapple juice and salt soaks took care of that in about a week.
After the swelling was gone, the one side was still slightly off, so I went in for another visit to Rick. He took me straight into the back and took out the one side, and started with the marking again. Finally he re-pierced it. Pain, again. But it didn't turn out like he wanted it too, so we had to try again. He took out all my other jewelry this time so it wouldn't get in the way. Stuck the needle through again. It was perfectly straight this time. Lots and lots of blood, too, but that's all part of the fun. He put in all my other jewelry, and I was off.
So home I went to start healing another piercing. Like two days after I got it re-done, I was going skateboarding with my roommate and some friends. I had had a few problems with one of the balls falling off of the new piercing, but it had been no big deal, just put the ball back on. Kind of a pain, but what are ya gonna do. This time though, the entire barbell fell out. Not cool! It fell on the ground. We washed it off with water that a friend had with her (not exactly sterile, I realize) and after a few minutes of trying, stuck it back through. I was bleeding and drooling all over the place. Pretty painful, and I was scared cos it wasn't exactly the cleanest of situations. All I could do, though, was give it a some sweet sea salt soak loving when I got home, and hope that it wouldn't get infected. It didn't, luckily.
So, after a bit of hassle, I finally had a fully healed tongue. You should definitely go see Rick Gilmour if you're in the Calgary area and are wanting a good piercing. He's definitely an awesome piercer, I'd never let anyone else come near me with a needle around here. Plus he's not stupid, he makes sure that he only pierces people over 18 unless you've got parents consent. I guess a lot of people go to other piercers cos they pierce kids that are like 16 and don't have a problem with it.