Growing up, I always had said that I would NEVER get my tongue pierced. I had always seen those trailer trash people on Jerry Springer, you all know the kind, and almost every single one of them had a tongue piercing. Seeing all of these trashy people on Springer, I associated being trashy with tongue piercings. I was determined not to get my tongue pierced and look trashy like all of those people.
At A Glance Author Ashleigh Contact Ashleigh@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Jeanie Studio Duce's Wild Location California First off, I am no stranger to piercings. I have 13 (and three tattoos) to be exact, so I know what to expect when receiving that needle through some part of your body.
Well, I was having a really bad day, you know, the kind where NOTHING seems to go right. I didn't know what to do to help me calm down. A few months earlier, I became friends with a piercer so I decided to call him up and see if we could get together in hopes that he could calm me down and make my day seem a little better. He said that he was done at the piercing parlor in a half hour and that I should come down right away and hang out till he was off. Not having anything else better to do, I went.
When I got there, I started to complain to my friend about how bad my day was going, to which he replied "Get a piercing! It always makes me feel better!" and I thought Why not? I started to think about what it was that I could pierce without getting into trouble at work. Anything on my face would be too obvious, my ears were already pierced enough, and I wasn't too into the whole nipple thing. I finally came to the tongue. I could hide it from work with a clear or flesh colored ball and no one would ever know that I had it. I was a little weary about getting a tongue ring, thinking that I would be perceived as trashy as I said above. But seeing as how this was basically the only piercing I could get, I broke down.
My friend being a piercer told me that he would be glad to pierce me at a very reasonable price. I said OK, filled out the paperwork and went to the back room and sat in the chair. All of the instruments were out and ready. I was told to rinse with mouthwash while I sang the ABC's in my head and then to spit out the mouthwash. I did so and my friend started to examine where to place the marker when he started to look a little worried. Noticing his look, I asked what the matter was and he told me that the veins in my tongue were too close together and that I could not get a normal, vertical tongue piercing for fear that if I did, a vein would be hit and that was bad news. He noticed that I started to get a little disappointed and immediately told me about a fairly uncommon tongue piercing. One that went just through the top part of my tongue and would miss my veins entirely.
After hearing this, I perked up a bit. That is until he told me that he had never done the piercing before. He called around to a few other piercing places in the area and finally found someone who had done ONE previous piercing like the one that I wanted. Being a little hesitant, we went into the shop and I went through the whole mouthwash thing again. Since this was a pretty rare piercing, all of the piercers, tattoo artists and guests in the shop wanted to come see me get this piercing. 20 people in all saw the needle go through my tongue, not including myself. I felt no pain. The clamp hurt more then the actual piercing.
Afterwards, I was having a little trouble swallowing. Because my tongue was so swollen, and the fact that it was a little tender, I had to stick just the part that was pierced out of my mouth in order to swallow. So all day I had people staring at me, wondering why I kept sticking my tongue out at them.
For the next four days, while my tongue was still swollen, I lived on ice cream, otter pops and huge chunks of ice. The only problem I had was the second night after getting the piercing. I woke up in the middle of the night with a strange film on my tongue. Upon closer inspection, I found that it was a thick layer of blood. I peeled off the layer and continued to bleed for about two hours. But sucking on ice for about 45 minutes fixed that. I was later told that this was caused because I was putting too much pressure on my tongue while I was asleep. Other then that one problem, my tongue piercing was great.
Since my tongue has healed, I have inspired other people (some friends, some people that work in the mall) to get this same piercing. It is unique and original. Not a lot of people have seen it. I get a lot of comments from people on how cool it looks and how they have never seen anything like it before. I would highly recommend getting a tongue piercing to anybody. It doesn't hurt and it's so easy to take care of, just rinse with Listerine after every meal!