Freud suggested that most people have a least some degree of an oral fixation, so maybe all I've got is your garden-variety fascination with teeth and tongues and what have, but all I know is I've liked the idea of tongue piercing for a long time. I first considered it seriously after kissing someone who had his done. I weighed out the pros and cons of the whole thing (the pros were just things I wanted like the aesthetic value and the experience; the cons were the possibility of expensive and scary things like chipped teeth and you know... fatal infection) but I decided I would go for it.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When It just happened Artist unknown Studio The Green Dragon Location Chico, CA When I turned 18, it hit me that I was finally going to be able to do it, and told (rather than asked) my mom about doing it. I had been thinking about getting this done for years, but it upset my mom a lot because for her, it was a very new idea. She couldn't get over the 'social, professional and hygienic implications' of doing this and actually told me that, had I still been in high school, she would've been okay with it because I would've been doing it to 'be cool' or 'fit in'. But now that I was out of school, she said, she had no idea what my motives were. She doesn't seem to believe that I would get a piercing for any reason other than to be fashionable or trendy. I was unemployed at the time, which was always an underlying source of irritation for her, and had been trying to get hired at a local coffee shop for over a year. I suppose I thought getting the job would appease my mom a little and make her more accepting of the tongue ring, so I made a deal with myself th at if I finally landed the job, I would reward myself by getting my tongue done.
Much to everyone's surprise, I managed to bother the people at the coffee house until they buckled and hired me, ha ha. My friend Jesse had offered to pay for the piercing as a birthday gift right before she moved away for college, but by the time I found a window of opportunity about 5 days before I actually started work (so I could start my job feeling and sounding pretty normal), she had moved away. So I took a trip up to see her 2 and a half hours away.
We took a walk and found a large studio called the Green Dragon. I told them what I wanted done and they sent us upstairs where I was asked if I had any questions. I was content that I had done enough research and told them no. He said it was $50 for the large barbell, procedure, smaller barbell, and changeout in six weeks. Nice. We waited on a couch for another client to get pierced, reading magazines. I gave them my driver's license and they gave me a form (I'll admit I didn't really read it... after the part where they stated that they use new and/or autoclaved instruments, nothing was going to make me back down), signed my name, and had Jesse sign as my witness.
I'm used to piercing studios being like a doctor's office, but this one was carpeted and had a couch. The man and the girl (I really wish I had gotten their names and I don't know why I didn't) said Jesse could watch and seated me in an unassuming rolling chair and laid out everything. The girl had me swish with the Listerine, which was nowhere near as bad as I've heard. She dried off my tongue and placed a dot with an inked toothpick, asking me to approve placement. The man then sat down and ran through everything he was going to do, emphasizing that, under no circumstances, could I put my tongue back in my mouth. He had me lean forward and tilt my head back in such a way that I couldn't see anything he was doing. I stuck out my tongue good and far and he dried it off. Next, I'm assuming he clamped it, but I couldn't really tell. He told me to breathe in and out—and any sucka knows that's when the needle is coming. A lot of people say they didn't feel a thing at this point. What I felt wasn't pain, but I felt it going through every inch of the way, and he hesitated for a horrifying second halfway through, but then it was over. I could see Jesse cringing out of the corner of my eye (she later told me "that needle was HUGE"). The jewelry being threaded through felt essentially the same as the needle, not painful but uncomfortable. He dried off his hands, screwed on the bottom ball, and told me I could put my tongue back in.
Overall it was quick, clean and painless—there wasn't spit everywhere and very little blood. They went through the gamut of dos and don'ts: nothing hot or spicy, no smoking, alcohol, coffee, or oral contact of any sort for SIX WEEKS. Gag. I really miss coffee. Mouthwash every time fingers, food or objects went in there. They suggested Listerine, but I went with Biotene, which is alcohol free. It tastes fine but after I spit it out I swallow a little bit of it and it makes me sick to my stomach every time. Ice, ice, cold water, and lots of ice. No problem with that. Jesse wound up not getting hers done and we went to Subway and got tons of ice.
What I have is not really a lisp, but a general slight drunken slurring. I've come to the conclusion that when your tongue can't hit the roof of your mouth, it fucks up half of everything you try to say. I've had each ear pierced four times and I've found both cartilage and lobe piercing to be essentially painless, so I was fearless about the pain, but I've experienced a high rejection rate. I've had to abandon so many holes that I find myself with a lot of surplus jewelry and I'm currently sporting 10 earrings in only four holes, and it still remains to be seen if my tongue will reject. It's still only been two days and they wanted me to make the trip back up to the Green Dragon to get it changed out in a month and a half. If I make it that far, I may just do that.
My mom still insists that it shows poor judgement (poor judgement=anything she doesn't understand) and is worried about the consequences. I told her, though, that I'm 18 and have found an employer who'll tolerate it. I've done the research and opted to gamble with my own health. As far as those horrible social implications, if anybody thinks any less of me for having my tongue pierced, I think way less of them for being narrow-minded.