Jan 7th 2006:
At A Glance Author Christina Contact eklund27@hotmail.com When It just happened Artist A woman Studio Astron, Stureplan Location Stockholm It happened on my 18th birthday. I've been thinking about this piercing since I was around 16. I woke up around 12 and a friend of mine came over. She told me that 6 of my friends were on there way over to my place.
When they got here, they blindfolded me and put me in a car. While in the car, with like 6 other people, I just sat there, listening to some music, didn't see anything for sure. After like an hour in the backseat, the car pulled over to the side and I got out. I was still blindfolded and they guided me up some stairs. I could hear my friends talk and I was wondering what was going on! They all made me sit down, and they took the black scarf off my eyes. "Surprise, surprise!!!" I looked around and I was in a piercing studio. A woman dressed in white with a little cup in her hand smiled at me. I was so surprised; I had no idea what I was going to do my tongue piercing on my 18th birthday, ever though I was talking about it all the time. I had thoughts about doing it in like 6 weeks, when we had time off school.
All of my friends stood around smiling funny at me, I couldn't help myself, I almost laughed so hard the mouthwash came out my nostrils ;). No not really, but you get the point.
The woman, I don't know her name, but we can call her Anna or something, she marked my tongue, but I wasn't happy with the placement so she made another dot. My friend Nicole stood beside me with her camera filming me, before and after shots. I closed my eyes, and held Nicole's hand, and the needle went through my tongue. And as they say: It didn't hurt at all!!! Just a weird feeling just when the needle goes through. When I sat there, smiling and every one of my friends stood there with their cell phones taking pictures of me. "Anna" took the barbell and pulled it through, some blood on my tongue that's all. I rinsed again and then I thanked "Anna" and my friends for the pleasant surprise and then we all left.
It felt so cool, I did it, it was over, I HAVE a tongue piercing now. On my 18th birthday, that's a bit cool! We passed by McDonald's and asked for ice. My tongue felt ok but I knew that it was going to swell up! When we came home we made some dinner and had desert, everybody except me, I drank a lot of ice water and some ice cream. Some hell of a party ;).
Jan 8th:
When I woke up this morning my tongue was a bit stiff, weird feeling, but I tried to eat something, yoghurt it was.
It's been around 30 hours since I did it. And it feels ok, but it's still swollen and it hurt a bit under my tongue. I just had some "dinner" also called yoghurt. I rinsed with my mouthwash and I have that salt solution downstairs.
It's my first day of school tomorrow, let's see how that will work out. I'll fill you in tomorrow.
Jan 9th:
First day of school and I woke up at 01.00p.m. I didn't feel well at all, I felt dizzy and I was so hungry! I ate some yoghurt, my tongue hurt like hell. I took some painkillers and drank a lot of water. For dinner I made some mashed potatoes and water. It went slowly but ok, it hurt a bit but I rinsed afterwards. I think the swelling is on its way down, but it takes time... very slowly, we'll see how it looks tomorrow!
Jan 10th:
When I woke up my tongue felt sore. It's always like that in the morning. But then it gets better during the day. The swelling is still here but it has gone down a bit. For breakfast I had some yoghurt and for dinner some salmon! But I mixed it with mashed potatoes in my mixer of course. Right now I'm rinsing with mouthwash. My breath is not so nice, I've noticed! But it's like that when you eat weird stuff and your piercing is healing. I also got this white stuff on my tongue, but they say that it will go away later on.
Jan 11th:
When I woke up my tongue really hurt. And now, three hours later, I ate a mashed banana with yoghurt, and it hurts so bad!!! I've never had this type of pain before, doing the piercing felt less then this. I'm boiling some salt water right now. The swelling just went up and it sucks! My tongue feels so sore and tense. I can feel this pulsation in my tongue. It feels like the barbell in not long enough, but it's 20mm long! Yesterday that felt very long. But things change I guess.
Now, when the clock is almost midnight, my tongue feels better, like yesterday sort of. The swelling went down again. This is like a damn rollercoaster.
Jan 12th:
The sixth day, when I woke up my tongue felt ok, it hadn't swollen up like it used to do in the mornings. My tongue has felt ok through the entire day. I'm going to have dinner soon, I'll stick to my soups and yoghurt because my tongue is still very sore and I don't want to irritate it. I've lost like 8lbs during this week. It's great, sorry but it's true :P this is the best diet ;). But it will probably come back to me later on, so sad :P.
Jan 14th:
The swelling is gone and that feels great. Today I had my first "big" dinner and I ate so much, like a dinner for five or something! I was about to burst. After awhile my stomach started to hurt, and it just kept hurting for like an hour. I couldn't stand straight, I was in so much pain. The cause to my instant pain was that I ate too much to fast, I haven't eaten practically anything for the entire week and my stomach was in such a chock. My advice is to take it slow, just because your tongue feels ok and you think you can eat as normal again, your body isn't prepared for that.
It's been a week since I did my piercing and it feels really nice, I'm really happy with it. I've gotten used to it so fast! I'm gonna switch to a shorter barbell in two days, I hope that that will make a big difference. I must keep rinsing and look after my piercing, not play with all the time, which is hard, but it can leave a scar later on. My tongue is still a little white from the mouthwash, but it will go away when I stop using it. My mom keeps asking; what is the purpose with this piercing? I just say that I like it, it's just something you feel that you want.
I read a lot on BME before I did this piercing, and it helped a lot, but I was a little nervous about the swelling and the eating part. But it's just a thing you have to get use to, everything comes naturally to you. I hope that I could help you a little with my story, if you wonder anything, just e-mail me and I'll answer. Good luck with your piercing and don't be so scared, easy to say afterwards but still.
All the best. Christina