My Horizontal Tongue Piercing Experience...
At A Glance Author Sheyanne Contact Sheyanne@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Keith Chamberlain Studio Stormi Steele Skin FX Location Kingston, Pennsylvania My need for this piercing started months before I actually got the nerve to do it. It all started when I was looking through pictures on BME like I usually do about once a month and I came across a new category of pictures. I fell in love with the horizontal tongue piercing and just had to have it! No one in my area had it done, and it was the step over the 'normal' piercing boundary I needed.
So I then proceeded to ask the guy who does all my body piercing, if he would do this one as well. When I asked him about it, he told me that he wanted to look into it himself and see. So I agreed to this and decided to stop and see him at a later date. I stopped down at the studio about a month or so after I first asked him. He told me that he had no problem in doing it. He even told me he would do it for half off because it would be the first one done in the shop. We discussed whether it was going to be extremely painful or not. We decided that it was definitely going to hurt more then your typical tongue piercing, but shouldn't hurt that badly. I had no doubt in my mind that this is what I wanted to do. So Keith and I sat down and set a date of when we do this. I had two tongue rings already and neither of them hurt as bad, so I wasn't expecting it to be that big of a deal. But as soon as I spoke to someone with tongue rings closer to the sides of their mouth I quickly c hanged my opinion. The told me that through their experience that the closer to the sides of the tongue you get, the more painful it will be. I wasn't sure if they were just joking to scare me, or if they were serious.
Waiting to get it done was worse then the piercing. Since I'm only 17, I had to wait for my mom to take me. She had stuff to do before we went and I started getting impatient. The nervous feeling that I had was actually starting to make me sick, a feeling I've never experienced over a body piercing. When the time came to go to the piercing studio my mind started racing, "is it really worth it" "what if it goes wrong". On the way to the studio, I sort of panicked. I had second thoughts about going through with it. I was tapping my hand, and bouncing my legs, I was so confused. I wanted to do it so badly, I couldn't wait. But at the same time, I was scared shitless.
When I got there, we bullshitted for a little while then it was time to get to work. We sized me tongue to see what size bar we would need. Then we ran into a slight complication. The size bar I needed to have due to the expected swelling was going to be too large. I could either not do it, or have the bar sitting on my teeth for a couple days. I decided to go on with it anyways thinking, I don't care if the bar sits on my teeth for a couple days. Well when it came time for the actual piercing, all I can say is: "OUCHIE".
My friend Loreli had gone with me to share the experience. She held my hand while I was getting it done since my mom was too busy taking pictures. It wasn't all that bad, but it still hurt. It was one of those mixed feelings. It feels cool because you can feel it going through your tongue but yet at the same time your just ready to scream! The moving it around to put the other ball on hurt. I am so happy that I didn't chicken out though. This has got to be my ULTIMATE body piercing. I am definitely happy with this one.
The funniest part of the night was when I walked out of the room, and into the lobby area of the shop, there was an older couple sitting there waiting to get a tattoo and they gave me a strange look so I showed them my tongue. I was all proud, telling them that I just made history. They gave me such strange looks, it made my night.
The healing process shouldn't be too bad. Like I said, I basically know what to expect because of my other two tongue piercings. The only thing to do is eat a lot of ice, chew slowly, and follow the rules given. That is the only way to ensure a safe and healthy tongue piercing.