I decided I wanted venoms the first time I saw someone with them, but I had to wait a long time before I finally got them. One day I was in a coffee shop near my piercer, and I realized I had enough money for venoms, so we ran over to the shop. It was pretty busy, so I paid for the piercings, then had to wait for a while. I originally wanted to have the piercings done at 10 gauge, but it cost a lot more, so I finally decide to have them done at 14. I decided to do them at the same time and get them over with.
At A Glance Author sellthestars Contact sellthestars@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Brent Studio Avant Garde Location West Allis, WI By the time I was called in for my piercing, I was shaking because I was so nervous (and because it was about 9 degrees out.) First Brent, my piercer, gave me a little cup of Listerine, which I had to swish for 90 seconds. I spit in the sink, then Brent marked my tongue with ink on a toothpick, and had me check to see if the placement was okay. It was, so he had me sit down to do the piercings.
I was worried my tongue web ring would get in the way, but Brent said I could leave it in. He clamped the left side of my tongue and slid the needle in, from the top down. It hurt more than any of the other piercings he's done for me, but that isn't saying much as none of the other piercings he's done for me have hurt at all. It just felt like what it was, something sharp cutting into my tongue. He put the barbell in, then quickly clamped the other side and pierced it. This one hurt a little more than the first one.
After the barbell was in he wiped away the drool (there was a lot) and had me check them out. They were even, and there was just a little blood. He gave me aftercare instructions and I managed to lisp "thank you" and drive back to my cousin's house.
The first night my tongue was a little sore, but not too bad. I had a pretty bad lisp, and talking hurt, so I didn't talk much or eat anything. The next day, my tongue was still sore, and I drank a lot of cold stuff. I very carefully managed to eat some popcorn (not a good idea) by letting it melt in my mouth. I was still getting used to the barbell in my mouth, so I didn't try to chew much. Later I ate some pasta very slowly, which was okay.
Then the next day, I made a big mistake. By then the swelling had totally kicked in, but since I had eaten yesterday, I thought I could eat some chips. Wrong. After I ate then, my tongue started hurting, especially on the left side. By the time I went to bed it was really painful. I woke up in the middle of the night and my tongue felt weird, so I looked in the mirror. There was a glob of gummy, dried(ish) blood around the ball of the left piercing. My piercer told me that a little bleeding was normal, so I peeled the blood off and went back to sleep.
The next day my tongue was still hurting and bled off and on throughout the day. I ate a sandwich and some other normal food, but the swelling was still pretty bad. The next day I woke up and there was a flap of dried blood on my tongue. I peeled it off, and saw that the left side of my tongue, especially around the tip, was bruised purple. I freaked out at this point and thought the piercer had nicked a vein or something and my tongue was going to fall off or something, but I didn't want to have to take out my piercings.
I decided to wait a few days and see what happened before I went back to my piercer. I realized I should have stuck to softer foods while I t was still healing. There was a little blood for the next few days, but it was much better after I started eating only soft foods. I also found out that swelling is worse if you are dehydrated, so I started drinking ice water all the time, especially before going to bed. This helped a lot. The bruising disappeared, and after about the first 10 days the swelling was pretty much gone, there was no pain, and I could speak normally. After a month I was completely used to having the barbells in my mouth and could eat and do everything normally.
The moral of this story is venoms are not the same as a center tongue piercing. They go through muscle and take a lot longer to heal. During the initial healing period take it easy on your tongue. Don't eat crunchy or hard food, drink lots of water, and don't talk too much. Be patient and give the piercings time to heal, it's worth it. I've had my venoms for two months now and they have healed nicely. They're definitely my new favorite piercings to play with. :p
Note: I also have a 16g cbr in my tongue web, and it hasn't caused any problems with my venoms so far.