I am a chicken. But, I had always been absolutely in love with tattoos and body piercings. I never really planned on having any done,though.
At A Glance Author Dawn Contact Dawn@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Jeff Studio Tattoo Jungle Location Pelham, AL My adventures began with getting my first tattoo a little over a year ago. The first tattoo led to another almost a year ago. And after a lot of pushing from my cousin and my boyfriend, I decided
to go through with it and get my tongue pierced. Because I knew if I didn't I'd never be able to live it down; they would bug me about it for the rest of my life!
I'd been wanting a tongue ring for a really long time, but I was scared to death that it would hurt. My cousin had gotten hers pierced about two years ago, and she told it didn't hurt (at least not too much), and that I could live through the experience. I wasn't quite so sure, but I decided to go get it done anyway. So, I got my cousin and my boyfriend to go with me so I wouldn't chicken out. They both have their tongues pierced, so I had two veterans to coach me through the whole thing.
I already knew who I wanted my piercer to be because I'd used the studio for both of my tattoos. Unfortunately, the guy who had done my ink work wasn't there when I got to the studio, so I had to use another guy. His name was Jeff and he was really nice. He didn't look like what I had pictured a body piercer to look like, he only had his ears pierced with small studs and a 12 gauge tongue ring, and of course a whole bunch of tattoos.
Jeff explained the whole process to me before he had me sign all of my forms and stuff. He also said I could pick my jewelry so he could take it and get it sterilized before he used it to pierce me. I looked at all the tongue rings in the studio ( WOW! There was a ton of them,too) before I finally picked out a barbell with clear balls with silver sparkles in them. It was super-cute! Jeff took the barbell and began sterilizing it while I paid the girl at the counter.
About five minutes later Jeff came out and said he was ready.
He took me into the room that looked more like a dental office rather than a body art studio. Jeff told me to sit down on his Dentist's Chair while he got ready. He washed his hands and put on a pair of rubber gloves as I sat there. Then I saw him get the needle as he turned around to me and opened it. He showed me the needle he was going to pierce me with; I couldn't believe that thing was going to be in my tongue in just a few minutes. Then he gave me a cup of some kind of stinky mouthwash to rinse my mouth with. After I spat out the stinky mouthwash (which numbed my tongue somewhat), Jeff told me to stick out my tongue so he could mark it. He dried my tongue off with something and them marked a dot on the top and bottom of my tongue. He showed me the mark in a mirror and asked if it looked okay. I said it did and then he took a clamp and put it on my tongue. Ow! It hurt! But, not like I thought it would. That was the worst part. Jeff said he was going to count to three a nd then pierce. He went," One, two..." no three, and BAM! I had a needle in my tongue! I don't really remember what he did next, the only thing I remember was feeling him screw the balls onto the barbell. He gave me another cup of gross mouthwash and made me rinse my mouth out again. It stung a little. After I was done he let me see my tongue; Oh, my gosh! It was so cute! I thanked Jeff and told him I loved it. He gave me a bottle of the gross mouth wash and a care sheet with instructions.
My tongue swelled up pretty bad that night, which hurt more than the piercing itself. I kept taking stuff for the swelling and chewing crushed up ice to make the swelling go down. And of course I had to religiously rinse my mouth with the gross (and stinky) mouth wash every day for about two weeks. The swelling finally went down after about 5 days and I could talk a little better. It's been about a month now, and my tongue still isn't healed up all the way, but it's doing great and I am loving it. And for those of you that are too scared to get it done, DO It!! If I can, you can! It's not bad at all. Just make sure to have crushed ice and anything that reduces swelling around for about two weeks after you get pierced. And plenty of ice cream.:-)