I never really actually liked the way tongue piercings looked. It just seemed like everyone had them and they just didn't appeal to me. But than when I went and got my bridge pierced my piercer showed me her tongue, which was at a 6 gauge, and I thought it looked amazing. I knew than that I had to have my tongue pierced.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Ron Studio Medusa Location NYC The only thing that was stopping me at this point was my mom. I'm 17 so she has to sign for everything. She's pretty used to me having piercings by now but she refused to agree to another one. At this point I had, my bridge, eyebrow, lip, smiley, and 6 in my years. Since than I've went on to have both nipples, my hand web, madison, cleavage piercing, my tongue, and a helix to conch ear project. Anyway the point is she refused so I did the only thing I could at that point. I got 3 of my friends to go to the village in nyc with me.
I wasn't really nervous on the train or when we got to the city, although I wished I knew a place to go, instead of just going into a random place. While we were looking for a place I got an iced coffee in a pointless attempt to numb my tongue. Anyway I saw a place and we walked over there. A guy from the place was outside and I told him I wanted my tongue pierced and he said ok and that it would cost $35. Then he went back inside and I stayed outside stalling. At this point I was terrified for some reason. I stalled by saying that I wanted to finish my iced coffee, but one of my friends took it away from me. I decided that I was ready and took one of my friends with me inside to fill out forms and such. So I did that and the guy was ready for me right away.
I'm still not sure why I was so nervous about this piercing. I've never really been scared about any except for this one. Maybe it was because I knew this might not be a great place to get pierced since they didn't even check to see if I was 18. Anyway I was basically shaking and mumbled something like "I know this is a dumb question and I don't know why I'm scared but is this gonna hurt?" to which he replied it will be the most painless piercing you'll ever get. Which made me feel slightly better.
He then marked my tongue in the center, slightly far forward, because of how long my tongue web is. Then he clamped it. I grabbed my friends hand and closed my eyes. He then pierced me, and I was amazed. All I felt was a slight pressure. No pain, nothing. I never believed when people would say you couldn't feel the needle or any pain, but I couldn't. I didn't even feel it when he followed with the barbell. I gave him $40 and mumbled thank you and walked out.
I had a lot of trouble talking that night. Everyone was making fun of me because I was lisping so badly. I had to call my mom to tell her what time I was coming home which made it even worse. I couldn't say the word "train" when I was practicing what I was going to say to her, all that would come out was "twain." I was able to control myself enough though to call her without her realizing. It didn't really hurt while I was in the city, I got a cup of ice from a pizza place and ate that. It didn't really swell either. And when I got home that night my mom was half asleep and didn't notice thankfully.
For about 4 days I was so swollen I couldn't eat or talk right and was in constant pain. And unfortunately at some point I had to talk to my mom. She realized, and then came the yelling. The "how could you do this to yourself", the "I trusted you", and the "it looks horrible" and so on. Eventually she got over it though, the same as all my other piercings.
Anyway I decided after about a month I would start stretching. I bought a ten and that went right in. So I was happy. For a short period at least. I wanted a 6 gauge like the one that made me do this in the first place. So I bought one, and tried to put it in. And tried again. And again. Until I realized there was no way it was going in. So I decided to use a 6 gauge taper. I thought that it wouldn't be that bad because 10 to 6 isn't that big and the 10 didn't hurt at all to put in. So I started to push it in and felt immense pain. After 20 minutes of screaming and feeling like I was ripping apart my tongue I had it in. But then when I tried to follow with the barbell I lost the connection and couldn't get it in. Later that day I decided to try again. This time I braced myself against the wall and pushed. And ten minutes later, with tears running down my face and drooling all over, I had it in. I went to the mirror to put the barbell in and it went right in. I screwed the b arbell on. It felt strange with bigger jewelry in my mouth but I got used to it. And then told myself I would never ever stretch my tongue again cause of the amount of pain I felt. It was honestly the worst pain I think I've ever felt. Anyway that didn't last. I'm going to 4 gauge tomorrow. But I've been using Teflon tape to stretch so it should be about 4 right now.
Anyway that's my long and boring story. And to end it I'll just say that I love my tongue piercing and I would go through it all again if I knew what to expect, all the soreness, all the being yelled at, and all the pain (of stretching).