I had decided after retiring my tongue web piercing because of an ulcer I was going to get my tongue pierced again. My father had recently given me £30 and instead of saving, which I should have, I spent it on a brand new piercing.
At A Glance Author Cat Contact welsh_carrot@hotmail.com IAM Tyger-Cat When A week ago Artist Bonita Studio Sun lounge Location Wales, uk I have had my centre tongue piercing for exactly a year, so to mark its anniversary I decided to get another one. I phone up my local piercing place and made an appointment for 1.15. I was really exited, and nervous, although I don't know why.
I went into the parlour and my usual piercer called me in. after chatting for a while with her complaining about the number of people with their tongue pierced she finally got the jewellery out. She gave me a choice of a few mangy barbells and I picked the plain titanium one with a blue diamond.
She told me to open my mouth so she could check my tongue. She said that I already had my tongue pierced, much to her amazement and said what side did I want it pierced on. I said I wanted it further back, so she gave me a weird look and checked my tongue again. She said that further back would be fine as I don't appear to have any visible tongue web, although the ulcers from my tongue web piercing might be a problem. I assured they wouldn't be and she took my word for it.
She chucked the barbell in green anti-infection solution and got out a pair of clamps. She gave me a tissue and started putting some orangey gooey stuff on a q-tip. She looked up at me and said, I assume you want your tongue numbed? I just stuck out my tongue and she spreaded the goo over the top and bottom of it. She turned and put her gloves on.
My tongue numbed really quikly and that's when I started dribbling. I poked my tongue out and she clamped it down with what I would call a really evil pair of clamps, because they were pretty sharp on my tongue. She got the needle and pushed it from the bottom up. It seemed to take ages for the needle to go through and felt really weird, because I could feel it going through my tongue
'All done' she said and removed the needle leaving the tubing in my tongue. I was dumb and tried to put my tongue back in my mouth with the tubing in, not thinking, which hurt more than the piercing. She seemed to take age's to get the jewellery and I was drooling everywhere. She finally got the barbell and tried putting it in the tubing. Now this was the worst part. When she was pushing the barbell and tubing through it killed. Although it wasn't her fault as the piercing was a fair bit back, it was fiddly. She pulled the barbell through which felt uncomfortable and screwed the ball on pretty quickly.
She turned took her glove's of walked over to the desk and said that would be £25. That was it.
The next few days were hell. My tongue is pretty thick as it is, but it swelled to an inch and the barbell was putting a lot of pressure on my tongue. I drank lots of cold water, cleaned it with Listerine and ate lots of ice lollys, but the swelling still wouldn't go down. For three day's I was in utter agony because the tongue had swollen so much, and the barbell was to short.
I was pissed off by this time, as I couldn't remember having half the problems with my first centre tongue piercing. I phoned a different piercing shop and asked if they sold 25mm barbells, they would not speak to me over the phone and said that it would be better if I went to their studio. But I didn't, I sent my auntie down.
The piercer in the shop wouldn't sell her the 25mm bar as it would cause too much damage to my teeth, so they settled on a 22mm barbell and the piercer told my auntie that if there were any problems I could go see her. The piercer also gave my auntie a free mouthwash which really helped and tasted better than Listerine.
The problem was now, how was I going to get the other barbell out of my tongue? I had only had it pierced for 3 days and you're not normally supposed to remove the barbell for a month. I tried to remove it but I wouldn't budge, so I left it. Later on that night, while in the car I was determined I was going to remove the barbell and replace it. (I know the car isn't a very hygienic place) I only had to turn it a little and it was out, thankfully I must have loosen it while eating.
As soon as I removed the barbell, I was instantly relived from pain. I swilled my mouth out with the mouthwash and spat it out onto the pavement. I grabbed the bigger bar and put it in. thankfully it went back in without a problem, and then I again washed my mouth out with the mouthwash. My tongue felt much better after putting the new barbell in and the swelling went down really fast. Since I have changed the barbell I have had no problems
After closer inspection, I realised that the barbell that it was pierced with was only 17mm long, when the length you are suppose to pierce as it with is 20mm. the piercer I went to, was my usual piercer and pierced my tongue the first time, so I trusted her, I guess she was just sick of piercing so many tongue's.