I wanted to get my tongue pierced for years before actually doing it. It was just one of those fantasy-type ideas in my head that I never thought would materialize and actually happen. My parents are extremely religious and conservative (NOT mod-friendly). I was allowed to get my ears pierced when I was younger, but that was it. I imagine they expected me to follow through; to grow up and be just like them. Needless to say, that did not happen.
At A Glance Author emily Contact eschneida@hotmail.com IAM emily When N/A Artist Melanie and Jim Studio Skincraft Location Cincinnati, OH I started lifeguarding as a summer job when I was 15, and there was this one lifeguard I worked with who had his tongue pierced - I thought it was so cool! One time I overheard him telling some other guards about the procedure ("My tongue was in a clamp, I was drooling all over but I couldn't do anything about it...") and that just made me all the more intrigued. Also, there was this song I liked when I was in junior high (Flagpole Sitta by Danger Harvy) that mentioned it: "I wanna pierce my tongue, it doesn't hurt, it feels fine..." I thought about getting it done for years, quietly suppressing my desire.
Finally, after I moved out of my parents house and went to college, I decided to go for it. Late one December night, my best friend Abby drove me over to the shop (I asked around at the health-food store where I worked about where to get it done. Skincraft was recommended by a friend of mine who worked there.) I was incredibly nervous and shaky, and I was sweating a lot too. Abby did all the talking for me, I just filled out the little form and showed my ID. The counter guy was pretty cool and he recommended getting my tongue pierced at 10ga. At that point in my life I didn't know much about body piercing, so I went with it - an internally threaded, 10ga barbell.
I trembled as we walked back to the little piercing room. I sat on the little paper-covered bench as Melanie got things ready. Once I finished swishing around some Biotene mouthwash, I got even more nervous. Seeing the needle and the jewelry on the little tray just freaked me out, so I didn't look. Melanie was just great with me. She explained every little thing she was doing to me, and she spoke in this really smooth, soft voice to calm me down. Abby held my hand, or rather, I squeezed hers. The piercing was done before I knew it. I can honestly say that there was little or no pain involved (and I do not have a very high pain threshold.)
Melanie explained aftercare procedures in detail and strongly recommended downsizing the bar after a couple of weeks, which I did. My tongue swelled a little the morning after it was pierced, but that was no big deal. I had my tongue pierced! Finally! I felt so good about myself for that. And I showed it off to all my friends at work. (Tongue piercings weren't technically allowed at that job, but many of the employees had them anyway.) After downsizing, I left the jewelry in for a few months before considering taking it out.
For whatever reason, I did a little job-hunting a few months later. I guess I was burned out on my old job and wanted something different that payed more. I ended up taking out my jewelry to go to an interview - I wanted to look totally professional, and I guess I did because I got the job. That day I removed my jewelry around noon. But when I got home and tried to replace it, it was not going in. This was before I was comfortable going back to the shop to see if it could be reinserted by my piercer. I just thought that I was screwed, and ended up leaving the jewelry out for a few months.
The following summer, after I started dating Lori (who has more body modification experience than me), I decided I wanted to get my tongue pierced again. As funny as it sounds, I missed having the jewelry in there. So we returned to Skincraft to see what they could do. One of Lori's friends from BME was in the shop, and he apparently knew Jim, the piercer who was working. We all chatted for a little while and Jim suggested that I let him "go in there with a taper" to see if the piercing was still there. I had no clue what a taper was or what that meant, but I wanted to look cool in front of Lori and the other kid, so I conceded.
Jim was really cool. I laid down on the little table with my head upside down, and he went to work, starting underneath my tongue. For twenty minutes or so he kind of "dug around" (that's how Lori phrased it) in my tongue and found the small hole that remained. The piercing was still there (at least partially), and he said it would have been a waste of money to get pierced again. I bled a tiny bit, but soon enough, he was able to slip in a 12ga barbell that he lent me. He was too nice to stretch me all the way to a 10ga right then. Jim refused to charge me, telling me to play around with the barbell and come back in two weeks to put the 10ga back in. I forced a small tip into his hand and we left the shop.
After two weeks of playing with my jewelry, I was able to slip my old 10ga barbell right back in. We kindly returned the 12ga jewelry to the shop, and I was back to my old self again. Now I can almost put in an 8ga barbell. I'm stretching my piercing very slowly, but I would like to get it up to a 00ga, or at least 0ga. I love having my tongue pierced (and I think someone else loves it too.) I've gotten other piercings since my tongue, and I plan to continue with even more piercings in the future.