An English Rose and her Tongue!

At A Glance Author Laura Contact lauratart@yahoo.co.uk Artist Don't know! Studio Artistic Tattooing Location Crewe, UK

A little bit of background first I think! I am probably the LAST person you would expect to get a tongue piercing!! I am 19 and was a straight A student right through school, and I'm studying Physics at uni, I mean my summer job is as a computer programmer - NOT the sort of person you would expect to do this!! I like to surprise people!!

I had been considering a tongue piercing for about 3 months, and about a week ago I was seriously interested and I found BME. This really helped me to decide to go for it, as I'd just heard that the after period was a nightmare, I wasn't too worried about the actual piercing as I'd read that it only hurt in a minority of cases.

On Friday I decided to go for it!! I called a few places around where I live as I'd intended to go on Sunday. Nowhere was open, so it would have to be Monday, during my lunch hour!

Day1 - Piercing day

I sit at a desk all day at work and rarely have to speak, so I brought into work ice cubes, mouth wash and yogurts, and at lunch time my boyfriend and I walked down there. I'd eaten LOADS of food first as a "last meal for the condemned", and then I took some Ibuprofen, I wasn't really that nervous - until I got into the piercing place. It was Artistic Tattooing in Crewe, Cheshire. They had a separate piercing guy who was really friendly on the phone; he had loads of piercings himself, including a HUGE tongue bar!! I won't go into too much detail about the actual piercing as it's been done so many times. First I rinsed my mouth out with the blue Listerine, and then he sprayed on some banana-flavoured anesthetic (which was a horrible experience, probably the worst part!!). I then told him I wanted it quite far back, he clamped it (sharp pinch, then not much felt), then I closed my eyes and he said "that's it!" all I felt was a slight pinch, and the weird sensation of the needle moving through my tongue. I rinsed again and then left, only a drop of blood!! He used a 22mm bar (don't know the gauge) which at the moment seems HUGE, and my tongue isn't swollen, it only really hurts when I move it around a lot, can talk fine too. Ate a yogurt, went OK but slow, I think it was a bit thick really! Had soup for tea, managed bread fine, and a Slim-Fast shake, sucked on ice then went to bed.

Day 2

Slept OK, only woke up twice with a dry mouth, noticed a little creamy-yellow crap around the holes, just cleaned it off with a cotton bud, rinsed and took some more Ibuprofen. I had a Slim-Fast shake for breakfast and more ice. It doesn't really hurt at all, I only notice it when I move it a lot, and then it feels like a pulled muscle. Lisping quite a bit today too, but my tongue has swollen to almost the length of the bar, so it's not surprising really!! Swelling went down loads during the day, so by the time I got in from work it was almost normal size, I ate yogurts, soup and Slim-Fast all day at work, but when I got in the Pizza smelt so tempting that I had some - it was fine, just my tongue was a little overworked afterwards. More ice and an ice-lolly then I went to bed.

Day3

Slept the whole night through, my tongue was swollen again in the morning but no yellow gunk today. Another Slim-Fast (I'm getting sick of that stuff!) and Ibuprofen, more ice and went to work. Not as swollen as yesterday, and I'm sure it'll get better throughout the day. Not as swollen now, but this afternoon it hurts a lot on the top, plus my glands are up.

Turns out I'm getting a cold - fantastic!!! Ate garlic chicken and potatoes for tea without problems.

Day4

Not very swollen at all, the bar feels MASSIVE!! Still hurts a bit on the top and where the bottom ball rubs against my lower gums. Ibuprofen, Slim-Fast and ice and it's off to work! Felt OK all day then ate ham and pasta Italian fine, and almost at normal speed too!! Went down to the pub tonight as my mates are going back to uni soon, I didn't want to tell anyone until the swelling's gone and I've downsized the bar, but my brother had told my mate Rachel and she insisted that I showed her in the toilets!!

Day5

Woke up, a little blood and yellow crap around the top hole, but cleaned it off with a cotton bud and went on as usual. The swellings less, mainly around the hole itself, but I'll see how the day goes. Felt OK and was eating normal food. Went out clubbing and drank loads of alcohol - fine!!

Day6-8

Feels fine, can eat normally - just a little slower than normal, just swollen still around the hole, which is annoying because I'm dying to get it downsized.

Day9

Fine again, and I can eat whatever I like!! Still a tiny bit swollen, so I'm going to give it 3 more days just to be on the safe side and get it changed Friday (day12) - ready for a BIG weekend!!

Day12

Totally normal, except for the bar that is!!! Doesn't hurt and I'm enjoying playing with it!! I'm going in about an hour to get it downsized, I hope that I can choose my jewellery, I want one that's as short as possible!

Got it changed no probs!!! I got a smaller silver barbell with small balls. I found out that it's 16mm long (about 1/2 an inch) and 1.6mm diameter (don't know what gauge that translates to!). I'm looking forward to looking for interesting shaped and coloured barbells now.

Anyway, that's my story, and I'll leave it here. I wanted to wait til I knew that everything was fine til I submitted this to BME, but now I think I can safely say that it'll be alright from now on!!

I really like this piercing, it's fun, different (well, in the UK it's pretty rare!), and it stopped me biting my nails too!!!

Hope you all decide to go for it if you really want to; it's worth the few days of pain and nuisance!!

Feel free to email me at: lauratart@yahoo.co.uk