My wife and I had been talking about getting out tongues pierced for the last 1.5 years, but never acted on it. Last week, I got this urge to do something random, so I said to her, "Let's go get our tongues pierced this week." She looked at me and asked if I was serious. We planned for wednesday since we had some scheduled appointments earlier in the week. It seemed to take forever for the day to arrive.
At A Glance Author Nefarious77 Contact Nefarious77@bme.anon IAM Nefarious77 When A week ago Artist Jason King Studio 23rd Street Body Piercing Location Oklahoma City, OK Wednesday rolls around and we head over to 23rd Street Body Piercing to get pierced. My wife was a bit nervous, so I insisted that she go first so she wouldn't chicken out. When we get there, we talk to the girl at the front and tell her what we are after. She looked at both our tongues and copied our ID's. We both were getting a 12g 3/4" SS barbells. After filling out the forms and signing, I paid the $102 to cover both of us and we took a seat on one of the leather couches.
A few minutes later, Jason King (owner) calls us both to the back to one of the rooms and talks to us for a few minutes with general chit chat. My wife takes a seat on the bench and Jason got started. She didn't even flinch when the needle went through. The whole process took about 2 minutes. Next was my turn with a repeated process. Jason went over the care procedure with the Tech2000 and saline one more time and sent us on our way.
I must admit it was a very strange feeling having a metal bar in my mouth. We were both a bit swollen, but not bad at that point. Upon leaving the studio, we headed out to get slushies.
Day 2, both of us were really sore and swollen. We took some ibuprofen and drank slushies most of the day. We followed the care instructions exactly. Eating really wasn't fun. We found that we could tear up food really small and eat it slowly with little problem.
Day 3, this was the worst day for my wife as far as pain went. She was very swollen. As for me, I was so swollen that the balls on the bar were sunken into my tongue on top and bottom. I had some puss and blood starting to come from underneath as well. We had a lot of ice water and slushies along with 1600mg of ibuprofen.
Day 4, my wife was doing much better and was able to eat normal again. I on the other hand called the studio and went in to have my tongue looked at. It was determined that I needed a 7/8" bar to reduce pressure. They switched out the bar and cleaned up my tongue. 5 hours later, 50% of the swelling was gone and I was healing as I should.
Day 5 (today), my wife is practically normal again except for talking with a lisp still. She plans to change our to a shorted bar in 2-3 days. Hopefully that will help her. I'm doing great and still have a little bit of swelling around the hole, but no where else. The pockets formed in my tongue from the previous barbell are starting to level out again. I ate solid food with no problem and seem to be able to talk fine. I will probably switch to the 3/4" bar in the next few days and eventually a 5/8" once completely normal in a week or so.
Personally, I like the look of the large gauge tongue piercings, so in 2-3 months, I will begin stretching slowly. I don't think the switch to 10g will be hard, but from what I've read the 10-8 stretch is hard. Chances are that I will be visiting Jason again to be tapered. Who knows, I may try a few other piercings as well. It is a fun piercing since I have the option to show only those I want to see it. It also gives me something to play with when bored. I can see how piercing can become an addiction.
The people at 23rd Street were very nice and the establishment was extremely clean. I would recommend them for anyone interested in any type of piercing. The use better materials then some of the other local shops. Their reputation is top notch and I can understand why.
Now the reactions have been interesting. I told some of my close friends and got responses like I'm having my mid-life crisis early or "why?" My wife's parents gave us a hard time about them and insisted that we do nothing else "trendy". I guess it's just a difference in generations. My family still does not know and I'm expecting similar reactions since they are very conservative.