I had just started my new job at the Skin Design tattoo parlour in New Plymouth, the only actual trustworthy tattoo and body piercing place in Taranaki. I was stoked; for 3 years i had been trying to get a job there. About a week before I began, I had ordered a 14mm and 20mm flesh tunnel as well as a 5mm barbell from Wildcat UK. I had big plans for the flesh tunnels but the barbell...HUGE plans...well I believe so anyway.
At A Glance Author NO REGRETS Contact n0_regret5@hotmail.com When A week ago Artist Steve Morman Studio Skin Design Tattoo Parlour Location New Plymouth, New Zealand. For about a month beforehand I had been stretching my tongue, in the first place I was going to get it pierced at 4mm with a needle blade but I changed my mind when I found a piercer who would do it for cheap. And yes, believe it or not, even doing it cheaply he had everything set up properly with all the proper gear. Anywho, the Barbell had arrived and I was noticeably excited.
Although, I had to wait a week before anthing was done about having it put in.
It was a crappy Winter's Sunday night, and I had gone into work to talk to Steve about my next tattoo. He told me I should put a bit more work into it before he'll put it on me. Dammit. Then he said he'd put the barbell through the autoclave the night before and if I wanted he'd put it in as he had nothing else to do. So, he had me sit in the chair and began the insanities.
As I had already had my tongue stretched to 4mm and that wasn't a big stress. he had a 5mm taper and a 6mm taper, but I recommended he used the 5mm taper. So, his assistant, Julianne, swung the 5mm taper into my tongue and...straight through it with no trouble whatsoever.
So we were all shocked. Then, Steve tried shoving the bar through by itself seeing as the taper just went straight through.
No,no,no. That's wrong, that really, really fucking hurts.
Okay, lets try the 6mm taper part next, and then rip it out and try shoving the bar through. At this point my pants were full. So, through goes the 6mm taper. This fucking hurt, of course, because now my tongue has been stressed and has begun to swell. Excellent.
Didn't work. So, back once again to the 5mm taper...That's pushed through, and the bar (which is internally threaded THANK GOD) was followed as close behind as possible. It went through, but not with the taper. The paper fell out and Steve just said 'Fuck it'. This, of course, scared me a shit of a lot. The barbell went through, but hit all the scar tissue on the way through. the ball was screwed on and I sat on the chair trying not to pass out.
I have to say, so far, this was my best experience. I'm not done yet though, with plans already to go up to 6mm. The unfortunate thing is the barbells are very heavy. Like not just 'golly, they are heavy', like, I'm having twubble not slurwing and lithping. Al good though.
So I sat in the seat for another 5 minutes until I thought I'd be okay, but unfortunately I was wrong. Standing up, I felt a little bit of dizziness, but passed it off as being from hyperventilating when I was freaking out from the pain. Walking out to the front work area, I had a mild gray-out. Steve found me on my hands and knees laughing away while a couple of HOT HOT chicks looked over the bench at me giggling nervously. That was the funny point of the entire experience, unfortunately.
3 days later, I thought it would be healed. But, I woke and found it had swollen even more. At this point I began to panic just a bit. I spent the entire day trying not to talk or use my tongue too much, which is very difficult when you work with people all day. At the end of the day I was sure it was worse but I realise now I had just panicked a bit. Day 4 and it had gone down signifigantly but the bottom of my mouth was still getting used to the big-arsed 10mm balls on the bitch. But that was expected.
Now, I've had it done for 8 days and it has healed well, although because it's always being put in from bottom to top, I'm developing a blowout on the top of my tongue. Nothing heinous, just noticeable when you're me and you play with your tongue piercing only on the odd occasions. Still, I'm glad I've got it done, even if it freaks out most people. It's the people that are intrigued who I'm after. good fun stretching.