I'm doing this a bit backwards, but I guess this works. I split my tongue about a month and a half before this happened. I cut my tongue web two weeks before this, also.
At A Glance Author San Contact San@bme.anon IAM BlueStar When A week ago Artist Mike Studio Artistic Impressions Location Niagara Falls, ON Canada
I split my short tongue. It hardly bled and healed quickly. But it was so SHORT! I couldn't go back any furthur because of my stupid tongue web. So I took matters into my own hands.. er, surgical scissors, and cut my tongue web. That healed really quickly, and I got to squirt blood out of my mouth after I did it, through my labret piercing, which is always neat.
I decided I wanted a larger gauge tongue piercing to anchor my next split. I figured I'd get it done around 8 gauge and then stretch it to 4 or 2 gauge before splitting it again. So, I had Mike do this for me. He took my 5/8" 8 gauge barbell and put it in the autoclave. Do note that I've had no problem using 5/8" in new centre tongue piercings. My 4 gauge, which was scalpelled, hardly swelled at all.
My tongue web was still a bit touchy, I noticed, when Mike clamped me. A bunch of people were watching, I forget who though. I know Ralph was, because he commented on how my eyes watered later. I rinsed with Listerine and Mike dotted my tongue, checked the bottom and top, got my okay, and all systems go.
I've grown so used to getting pierced with 8 gauge and 9 gauge needles (suspensions, random piercings) they don't bother me anymore. Mike was piercing with a 9 gauge needle and tapering to 8 gauge. I've done this for many piercings and the tapering doesn't bother me at all, it's a very small difference in size and helps with bleeding.
Mike gave me a paper towel which I held under my tongue and he clamped it. It took a bit for him to get it exactly where he wanted it and this sucked. My tongue was nice and sore by the time he told me to breath in, and out. I felt the needle go through the first few layers, and around the middle it caught a bit. Fuck. I hate oral piercings.
The pain was familiar, I've had my tongue pierced at least 10 times before and scalpelled to 4 gauge from nothing. It was furthur back then I've ever had it before, because of my tongue web. Mike was pushing, hard, on the needle and the clamps were tight. Finally, I felt it tear and pop through the bottom of my tongue. That sucked! Mike still had it clamped. All I thought was, "take the clamps off!"
He followed through with the taper (no pain there) and the jewellery. The bead was on and I was unclamped. *sigh* Finally! The worst part was the clamp, especially since I'm not used to sticking my tongue that far out. I should have waited a bit longer between the web cutting and 8ga piercing. Ralph said it looked pretty brutal later on, that I actually looked like I was in pain.
I rinsed out some blood, and tried to talk. I couldn't. As usual. I lived with it for a few days. I took a lot of ibuprofin and it never swelled too terribly bad. It was down after around a week with a little bit of pain. There is a bit of tongue web left in front of it, which I'll snip off as soon as I can take the jewellery out for a little while.
Painwise, it wasn't too terribly bad. It was very uncomfortable though. I've gone through far worse piercings and come out fine. My tongue web wound was re-opened a little bit and that was uncomfortable. I had a bit of annoyance eating for a few days, since my tongue has been so much trauma lately.
I used my standard aftercare. I'd brush my teeth, rinse wtih lavender oil and water (one drop per class), then rinse with non-iodized sea salts I got from a health food store, a very low concentration of salt in the water. It healed quickly, as do most of my piercings. I plan on splitting back furthur after I stretch this thing. I find larger gauge tongue piercings annoying, but 8 gauge is a decent size.
I recommend salt water and ice water while healing a tongue piercing. I also recommend cutting back to an existing tongue piercing to split your tongue. I find larger gauges heal a lot faster. The procedure was uncomfortable, but its worth it in the end. Pain is beauty, beauty is pain. I swallowed blood for a day.
I definitely think that you shouldn't do things the way I did. I did everything too fast because I'm impatient. BAD idea. I'm lucky I didn't really mess up my split or tongue web.
Thanks Mike!