I've always thought about piercing my tongue, but knew I did not want to do it the traditional way (I hate the "trendy" piercings, which sucks since most of my piercings have turned into that since I've gotten them). I had seen the pictures on here of the off center and horizontal tongue piercings and thought about it for a while, but decided not to go for it.
At A Glance Author Katie Contact thesupercoolkatie@hotmail.com When A month ago Artist Shawn Studio Pain Parlor Location Oxnard, CA Then my friend Katie asked me to go with her to get her tongue pierced and suggested I do it too. I thought about it and decided that if anyone was going to pierce my tongue it was going to be Shawn! So we headed off to Pain Parlor and told him what we wanted to do.
Her tongue was done quick and easy, since he had pierced it before... Me on the other hand (after doing all the cleaning procedures and everything of course), he had me stick out my tongue and he started to mark it, but in the wrong direction! I said "No! THE OTHER WAY!!!" Well he grabs my tongue and pulls it out and examines both sides long and hard for a good 5 minutes, finally determining he was going to be able to pierce it.
Next came finding the right barbell! He pulled out about 5 different sizes, since he wasn't sure how much my tongue was going to swell. So after deciding on the longest bar that would still fit in my mouth, he said "Ok, I'm gonna freehand this one! Deep breath in..."
He grabbed my tongue and held it flat and still. It took about 10 seconds... the most painful 10 seconds of my life! And I've had a few painful things pierced before... But never had my eyes water in the process! Oddly enough, it hurt 50 times more to pull the jewelry through than it did to push the needle through. I was just glad there was no blood!
He went over all the cleaning and care instructions and then grabbed my arm and pulled me out to the lobby and started showing me off to EVERYONE (and since Pain Parlor is right by the base, there were a lot of guys in there that day getting tattoos and stuff). My sister was sitting there shouting at me "Haha, now you have to give more blow jobs!" It was more funny because of all the folks in there... But even still, I think I turned bright red as I was being showed off. And let me tell you, a swollen, drooly red tongue is not that attractive. But I was happy, he was proud, and I was dubbed "hardcore" for getting my tongue pierced like this!
A bottle of listerine, a mouthful of blood, and a week later my tongue was healed up perfectly fine. I went back to see Shawn and he showed me off to everyone at Pain Parlor that afternoon. He changed out the barbell to a much smaller one (1 1/2" down to a 1") and sent me on my way, reminding me to do my listerine regularly since my tongue kept randomly bleeding (he checked the veins and it was fine, so we just assumed it was healing funny, but the bleeding stopped a few days later and hasn't reoccurred since then).
Now I just need to find an inexpensive PTFE bar so I can stop lisping... Everyone at my work has been making fun of me for not being able to speak correctly (at least I don't answer the phones at all, though they made me the first day I had it just because it was funny that I couldn't say the store name). My boss said to me "Don't most people get it pierced the other way?" I replied "Yes, but I'm not most people!"
I've had the piercing for about a month now and I still love it. I tend to clank it around inside my mouth a lot (I love the jingle sound) but I put acrylic balls on so I wouldn't worry about chipping my teeth really bad! I have pretty much full movement in my tongue, except for being able to curl it (which has made me sound like a small child learning to say "s"), but I don't mind.
My favorite thing about having the horizontal tongue ring is when people ask me to show them... "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" was my favorite response (the cashier at Wal-Mart, when I bought my listerine later that day). A lot of people ask me why I did the piercing like that and I really don't have an answer. It serves no purpose except for its simple amusement and can cause more dental damage than a regular piercing. But I don't care. I love having it, I haven't met anyone else with it, and I know it won't become another trendy piercing and that makes me feel more "hardcore" than anything.