I don't really know how I decided I wanted my tongue horizontally pierced. I had already had it pierced in the center, many times, venoms, twice done, tongue webbing, more times than I can remember. I figured I was done with the whole tongue thing. Lee brought it up one day at the shop and I contemplated it. Then I contemplated it some more. Then I decided, fuck it lets go for it!
At A Glance Author San Contact San@bme.anon IAM BlueStar When A month ago Artist Lee, assisted by Mike Studio Sonics Location St Catharines, ON The day I went in to get it done, Lee had decided to take off. That's why you should call the studio first, kids, rather than driving in terrible weather in your car that handles like shit, out of the city. The next Friday I went in and decided to do it that day. I had been in St. Catharine's all day, and figured, what the hell. I had picked up a 7/8" PTFE barbell, since we decided 7/8" would be the best length. I didn't want to go with stainless steal. It's harder than my teeth. PTFE isn't. So that's a bonus. I don't like dentists, and I don't like having my teeth put back together.
I went into Sonics around 2:30 on Friday, and Lee said she "wasn't allowed" to do my tongue that day, since Mike wasn't there to hold the clamps. So we could do it the next day. Problem: Mike was tattooing me, for a while, the next day (I figured four hours, it ended up only being two and a half). So, we decided to do it the next day anyways. Lee was excited I had the PTFE barbell. It even has little half beads on it.
So, the next morning (around noon), I drove myself to the shop and was inked for a while. Then after that was done, and everybody (but me) had their cigarettes, we decided to do my tongue. I was not looking forward to it. Lee was, but she wasn't looking forward to the follow through, so she used a 13ga needle. Mike got to hold onto the clamps and make fun of me, which is his usual role when he assists Lee in piercing me.
The equipment and jewelry was set up: 13ga needle, 14ga 7/8" PTFE barbell with half beads, clamps, yellow Listerine, lube, all sterile. I swished with the yellow Listerine for a bit, Mike made fun of me, and then my tongue was measured, marked and clamped. It was marked very close to the tip, which is fine with me. I have a short tongue. We surveyed the marks to make sure they were even and all that fun stuff. First try, they're fine. Lee made me a little bib out of paper towels (how cute) and I was holding a paper towel under my mouth.
Then the piercing: my tongue was clamped, a few times to get it just right. I knew just from the clamping, that the piercing was not going to be fun. Hey, guess what, I was right! I kind of braced myself a bit, and got into the "zone" mentally, and concentrated only on my breathing and my tongue. Lee told me to take a deep breath in, and then a deep breath out. Ooh, interruption, I hadn't eaten yet that day. I felt the tip of the needle on the side of my tongue, and then it being pierced. Searing, hot pain throughout my tongue, I continued to focus on my tongue and keeping my breathing steady. I felt the needle exit, and the searing pain that followed, but not as bad as the piercing. It felt like pouring burning water on your tongue, and this lasted for a few minutes.
Since Lee had someone holding the clamps, and she used a 13ga needle, there was no problem in jewelry follow through. Lee was worried because of the PTFE, its flexible and doesn't go through like a barbell would, pushing the needle out. The follow through was no problem, I hardly felt it. Then she screwed on the bead, with not much of a problem, except I was drooling blood. Pete, one of the tattoo artists walked in and said something about the blood. Lee said that I knew I was bleeding; we used a bigger needle than the jewelry. Mike said something, and I said, "Fuck you", quite clearly and normally.
After the jewelry was screwed on she got me a cup of water to rinse with, and another to spit into. That was just lovely, until I spit a bead into the water. I said, "Oh shit, the bead fell off", and Lee panicked. Fortunately, the barbell hadn't gone back into my tongue much, so without much pain it was pushed back through and the beads were tightened very well.
Then Lee made me sit there for a while and I attempted to talk. A woman in the other room wanted me to show her, and so did Pete. It was easy to stick my tongue out, but very hard to find a comfortable position to keep my tongue inside my mouth. It swelled up immediately. Within an hour, the pain was gone though. I bought a bottle of water and drank that for a while. There was no more bleeding either. Hurray! I spoke with a horrible lisp and couldn't pronounce a lot of words properly. "Fuck" was a word I could pronounce properly.
I went out with Drew afterwards and we went to Pizza Hut. That sucked. It's really hard to chew with something on the side of your tongue. When I got my venoms done, I could eat that night. Not the same story with the horizontal. I attempted breadsticks by breaking them down and shoving them down my throat, essentially. The pizza I cut up into little tiny pieces and ate with a fork and knife. I could almost pull that off. Except for the cheese. It got caught on the barbell and the balls. It was just hell. I had a Slurpee later.
That night sucked. I couldn't sleep on my tattooed leg, and there was something unusual in my mouth. I woke up and took some ibuprofen, then fell back asleep. I was eating ibuprofen like candy. The next day it was slightly more swollen, so I took ibuprofen and drank lots of ice water. Ice water is your friend!! After that, it didn't get better. I couldn't eat. It sucked to sleep. Then I ended up in the hospital. Not because of the piercing, for other reasons, and I gave up on it a couple days later as we weren't allowed to bring pills, and I was starving.
I woke up about 5am, it hurt, and I probably bit it during the night. So I gave up. I couldn't fall back asleep, my lisp was NOT going away even though the swelling was and I could eat a tiny bit. So I unscrewed it and slid the barbell out. I lost the barbell the next day, unfortunately. It took a day or so for the swelling to go down and for a week or so after it felt funny to move my tongue. There was kind of a pulling feeling in it.
Well, the picture in Lee's portfolio proves to a lot of misinformed kids that there is obviously nothing major in the tongue that can kill you. It was also fun to stick my tongue out at people while I was in the car. (I wasn't driving!) All in all, it was a neat experience, the piercing looks good, but it's a huge pain in the ass.