I hadn't really thought a lot on getting a tongue piercing. I had wanted one for some time, but it was more like "Yeah ok, I want this, but if I don't get it, oh well then." That was until my navel piercing migrated for the second time. It wasn't healing and I was afraid of it rejecting so I went back to the studio and had them have a look at it. And yep, it was migrating once again. I was 15 at the time so I had to have parental consent for everything. I thought the legal age to get pierced here was 16, but I wasn't sure, so I asked. My mom wasn't too happy about it, but I didn't care. Soon, I'd be 16 and who was going to stop me? Right.
At A Glance Author Sarah Contact Sarah@bme.anon When A month ago Artist John Artliner Studio Artline tattoos Location Bruges, Belgium Before I had my navel ring taken out, I talked a few times about getting my tongue done. The reaction was always the same, "forget it." After I got in the car to go back home though, she seemed to have given up trying to tell me not to. I said: "Mom, I think I'm gonna get my tongue pierced in a few months, maybe during summer so I won't have to go to school." She said "Hmmm." So I decided that I was going to do it in my 2 months of summer vacation.
I'm very impatient though, and I ended up making an appointment the day right after my last exam. I was very worried about my schoolwork and that I was going to fail. I studied harder than usual and thought I could get the piercing as a reward for that. So that was my motivation (sad enough, haha). I had planned on going with a friend, but she was sick and couldn't come with me. Oh well, then I'll go alone. I got there half an hour earlier, thought it would take me more time to get there. I wasn't really nervous 'cause I had read nearly all the stories on BME about tongue piercings, and everyone seemed to suffer no pain from it. So when the studio opened, I walked in there, sat down and got slightly nervous. The piercer talked more than usual, most of the time he's kind of quiet, so that made me less nervous. He sprayed some anaesthetic on my tongue, said to wait 10 minutes, but after 3 minutes it felt as if the numbing feeling was already gone... I didn't pay attention to that much, and got on a chair.
I always get nervous when I see the needle, so I tried looking everywhere but at the needle. He dried my tongue with a paper napkin, clamped it and checked for veins (I had checked at home, I always worry too much about things like this). He said it'd be a little pinch and put the needle through. And it actually hurt quite a bit. I didn't really expect it so I jumped slightly. He put the barbell through and I tried to put it back in my mouth. Damn that thing was long and annoying. I swished a bit with some green, minty stuff and water. I got up to pay him and show him my I.D. (he didn't do it when I got there first 'cause I'd been there quite a few times for other piercings and tattoos, every time my mom was with me, so I think he trusted me not to lie about my age). He told me to come back in a week to get the barbell downsized.
So I went off, and it felt really weird, I had this feeling that I had to swallow it. It bled a little bit, which made me feel sick, I don't like the taste of my own blood. There was a huge amount of spit in my mouth and it was hard to swallow that. I went back home and tried to talk, but that didn't work so I just kept my mouth shut for the first 5 days or so. I thought it was going to be hard at first, but talking hurt so I didn't even want to. Eating was really hard, even yoghurt and ice got in the way too much.
The first day after the piercing, it was fully swollen and still sore, I still couldn't eat which pissed me off and for some reason it made me really sad (I'm a cranky little child when I don't get to eat). My boyfriend thought it was funny when I tried to talk and now he has a new nickname for me, "Muffles".
The second day I noticed that the swelling was less and it wasn't as sore anymore. Eating was still something I couldn't do, and same thing with talking. I drank ice-cold water and pineapple juice (mmmm).
The third day I could talk a bit, but not much. That day my mom called from her work to tell me that one of my teachers called her. I failed and now I have to repeat my year. Great. All that studying for nothing. I was really down for the rest of the day and being hungry all the time did not help. At least my mom wasn't mad at me.
On the fourth day the swelling had gone down again. I tried eating by putting little bits of solid food in the back of my mouth, it was slow but it worked. It wasn't really sore anymore, the only annoying thing was the barbell sticking out.
The fifth day, it looked normal again. I thought it was kind of weird, as every story I read said that it took about 2 weeks for the swelling to completely go down. I bit down on it once, and it didn't really hurt.
The sixth day wasn't anything special, and the seventh I went back to get a shorter barbell. Woo, my lisp was gone! I could talk without sounding like a total retard. I had some ice cream and candy, and went back home.
It's been a month and I love it, I need to quit playing with it though. But it's a lot of fun and I'd recommend it to everyone. I always followed the aftercare instructions, I think it's silly when people don't listen to them. My mom tells me not to stick my tongue out at her anymore because she feels sick when she sees it. And now I have something to make up for that navel piercing that failed twice.