For as long as I can remember, I always had an obsession with tattoos and piercing. I practically lived in a tattoo shop when I was young so I wasn't surprised when it got to the point when I wanted my first tat. My dad always took me with him to get his tattoos so it became like a weekend tradition to see my dad get tatted.
At A Glance Author Mallory Contact Mallory@bme.anon When Five years ago Studio 310 Tattoo and Piercing Around the age of 14, I started begging my mother to let me pierce my tongue, since i wasn't old enough to get a tattoo. I figured it would be good for my first piercing since most people can't really see it. Everyone knew that I wanted it done, so my friend decided to take it upon herself to get her tongue pierced since her mother didn't care what she did. When I found out, I practically flipped. I was so mad that she got it done; she never wanted it done in the first place! That was just more added fuel to my fire. I didn't let my mom hear the end of it.
After much begging and throwing many tantrums, my mother told me to drop the subject or I would "regret it." So I did but with much reluctance. The next day my mother and I were on our way to the grocery store when I noticed that we weren't headed in the direction of the grocery store. As my mom pulled into a parking lot, I realized that we were at 310 Tattoo and Piercing. My heart started racing as I turned to my mom and had the biggest grin I could possibly make. We walked in and I was so nervous that I started babbling on like there was no tomorrow. I think my mom knew I was somewhat nervous because she asked if I was ok and if I had changed my mind. Yeah right! I don't think so! I put in too many hours of begging to change my mind now. I was going to go through with it no matter what.
The initial nervousness is the worst. My stomach was turning and I felt lightheaded. The guy who was going to pierce came in. He prepped like usual and gave me the speech about how it was going to feel. I was listening yet I didn't hear a word he said. He said to take a deep breath and let it out. So I did. After what felt like forever, I asked when he was going to pierce me. He laughed and said that he had been done for some time. He said I could stick my tongue back in my mouth. Wow, it didn't hurt at all. That was easy enough.
A few days after I got my tongue pierced, I had the bright idea to eat pizza with my friend. I mean, who can resist pizza? Not me! So we ordered the pizza and patiently waited for it to arrive. We were both starving so when the pizza came, we dug right in. The next thing I knew, my friend was screaming and yelling "Oh my god! You're bleeding, you're bleeding!" Like a normal reaction to her freaking out, I started freaking out too.
I spit out my food and saw that it was my mouth that was bleeding. I put my hand to my mouth to see what the problem was and realized that I now had my new tongue jewelry in my hand. Running to the bathroom was like racing through an obstacle course. I had to dodge chairs, tables, people, and trash cans. It was like the twilight zone; everything was going in slow motion. "Was I ever going to get to the bathroom?" Finally I made it. I had torn my barbell through my tongue and now had a hole almost twice the size of my original piercing. My friend was more freaked out than I was. After rinsing my mouth out, I tried to calm my friend down. She finally calmed down and we went about eating our pizza and talking about random things.
You didn't think that something as little as me tearing my tongue ring out would stop me from eating pizza did you?
To this day, I now have an eight-gage barbell in my tongue. I knew I wanted to stretch my tongue someday, but that wasn't what I quite had in mind. But hey, shit happens right? My little incident didn't stop me from getting what I wanted. I now have more tattoos than my father (how proud he must be!) and plan to continue my quest in body art. But the one thing my father did tell me about my obsession with body art, "If you come home with tattoos on your arms, I will disown you young lady!" How I see it, what daddy doesn't know won't hurt him.
I can say one thing: everyone should follow the rules that you are given when pierced. Whatever it says, it is there for a reason.
P.S.
As for pizza, I can't live without it!