I have had my tongue piercing now for over 5 years and still do not regret it to this day. In my opinion, its good to reflect on a past modification and realise how much it IS part of you, and how you can't imagine being YOU without it. I was 19 when I finally decided to get it done. Looking back, I do not think there was any particular reason for wanting it, maybe I just decided that it was time to change myself in another way. I had started doing some research on various websites and after discovering that the tongue is one of the strongest muscles in the body (in relation to its size and the amount of pressure it can exert) - I could not get the idea of piercing it out of my head. If you have read any of my other experiences, you might recollect the 'strong woman' theme that drives me to get most of my modifications. Payday rolled around, I made my appointment and I was set.
At A Glance Author seahorse girl Contact seahorse girl@bme.anon IAM seahorse girl When Five years ago Artist Maybe Michelle? Studio Four Roses Body Piercing Studio Location Adelaide, South Australia Four Roses Body Piercing & Tattooing Studio in Adelaide was one of the first body piercing studios in Adelaide, Australia and opened its piercing studio next door to the long-established tattooing studio. My navel was done there four years before, and I really did not think about going anywhere else, despite plenty of piercing studios starting to appear everywhere. It was comforting to see that I would have the same piercer (I think her name was Michelle – but she has been working there since the piercing studio opened). She is friendly enough, but in hindsight she is not the type of piercer that I would choose today, but that is not due to anything that they did wrong. I just have different expectations of the professionals I choose to modify me today. Looking through their portfolio, I was impressed at some of the piercings the all-girl piercing studio had performed, including some interesting and individual 'project piercings' on navels, nipples and genital.
I was asked to suck on ice for about half an hour beforehand, and was not required to show any identification or sign any paperwork at all, although all Australian piercing studios are a lot more tightly regulated nowadays under laws introduced a few years ago. Once again, Ben was by my side for this piercing and she was happy to let him come in the piercing room with me. There weren't too many people coming in and out of the shop so it was very quiet, plus the piercing room is also very private and comforting. Sitting down in the chair, I remember feeling nervous and excited. The place was familiar and the same posters of some extremely heavily pierced genitals were still up on the walls.
She unwrapped her tools, showed me the packaging etc and got ready to mark my tongue, but I was having some real troubles letting her get a good grip on my tongue to mark me up. I suppose my body was in tune with what was going through my head at the time. She got the marking right first time round and I was clamped. Michelle was again muttering under her breath about the fact that my tongue just wanted to jump back into my mouth without me having any control over it, I couldn't feel everything that well due to being numb from the ice. I do not really remember feeling the needle go through but thought to myself how much easier it was than my navel. She quickly inserted the jewellery and explained how the oversized barbell for healing may start to get uncomfortable after a week or two. Michelle also took the time to tell me how it would take at least 4 weeks to heal I could come back after then to get the barbell downsized and gave me a discount voucher for the jewellery.
The first few days were the worst, and I was living on liquid foods but was talking fairly normally within about 4 days, although as the swelling went down, the more I felt that the barbell was too long. I had been given some great aftercare advice from her, but I started using too much Listerine due to rinsing every time I had a cigarette. I was overdoing the aftercare and I was rinsing at least 10 times every day. Even though it was diluted, it was too much for my tongue to handle and I had the 'fluffy white tongue' symptoms within a week. Not knowing any better, I just kept using the Listerine even though I could not taste any of the food I was eating. However, once the swelling totally disappeared at around 10-14 days after being pierced, and I used it less, and started enjoying my meals. My barbell was changed at 5 weeks after being pierced and although it is a little longer that most others, my tongue still felt slightly tight after the jewellery change, which I adjusted to within a couple of hours.
Recently, I had my first big drama when I burnt the inside of my piercing eating food that was too hot. It didn't hurt my piercing to begin with, but I knew I had burnt the top of my tongue. The following day, I woke up with a slightly swollen tongue and the area around my piercing was hard. There was no lymph but a small white circle of scar tissue around the bottom hole had formed. It was like this for about 4 days and there was a slight ache at the base of my tongue. Some Nurofen (aka Ibuprofen) and couple of salt solution rinses later - things were definitely improving. The scar tissue is slowly breaking down two weeks later and I am not so paranoid anymore. This time round I chose the LITHA technique - just Leave It The Hell Alone!
Five years down the road, I think there may have been at a guess about 2mm of migration but the piercing seems to have just found a more comfortable position to be in. I have the natural slant towards the back of my mouth and there has been minimal tooth damage. I mean minimal damage because I do so many other unhealthy things to my teeth. Coffee, cigarettes and grinding my teeth in my sleep has done more damage to my mouth over the past five years than my tongue piercing.
I know I would go through it all again and I have considered venoms positioned slightly further back than my centre. However, the idea of healing another pair of piercings (on top of too many other things at the moment) in my mouth doesn't appeal to me. But like everybody else, that is not a hard and fast statement. The list is growing and probably always will be.