After 3 years of pondering whether or not to get it done, I finally got my tongue pierced. It is the best thing I have ever done, but back to that later. Before I got this done I only have had my ears pierced then stretched to a 6g (soon to be a 4g, but I don't want to take it much bigger than that because I work at an insurance company) I live in a smaller town in Missouri little old St. Joseph I went to all the shops that I knew of and didn't feel comfortable in any one of them so I decided there isn't a single piercing/tattoo shop that I had seen in town that I trusted to do any piercing other than an ear lobe. So I started doing my research, thank God for BME!!! After I spent hours online looking at stories and pictures I remembered that my high-school theatre teacher had a few tattoos that were done absolutely beautifully and I knew he would only go to one place and it was in the Kansas City area, so off to the old school. I caught him at a good time and was able to question him about where he got his tattoos. After catching up on all the new things that have happened I left knowing exactly where I was going to go. He told me that he always would go to A-1 tattoo in Gladstone.
At A Glance Author Gob Contact jcrosswhite@gmail.com When It just happened Artist Chris Studio A-1 Tattoo Location Gladstone, MO So I waited till the next Saturday and then took the hour long drive down to the studio. The whole way down my girlfriend was trying to talk me out of it, she almost did until we got to the studio, once I got in the studio there was no doubt in my mind, I had to get this done. The studio was clean and neat. I went up and talked to the piercer Chris and he gave me all the paperwork that I needed to fill out and looked at my tongue. After he checked my ID he took me to one of the rooms and went through the basic things that I needed to know, like all of the things that I have to stay away from when looking for food, he made sure he told me not to eat any of my favorite food...anything really spicy. (Which was pretty much a common sense thing, but me and all my excitement had forgotten about that small aspect of the process and had forgotten to get some before I went. But that will just make it that much better when I finally get to have some.) After that he explained the process and asked if I had any questions. Of course, me being new to the whole piercing thing and only going by what I read on BME asked all the stupid questions that you could ask about getting your tongue pierced that I already knew the answers to and told him my thoughts about the shops in my town. Then he told me of some of the many horror stories that he has seen on piercings done with the evil piercing gun. After that he went through the prep work, pulling everything out of their sealed packages. First he asked if I was planning on getting any more tongue piercings, I told him that I wasn't, then told me to stick out my tongue and put the mark on it where he was going to pierce it, asked me if that position would work for me which I agreed that it would because he knew best. After all of that clamped my, tongue told me to take a deep breath and then exhale and it was done.
Pfft!! All of my stressing about this?
Honestly I didn't even know he did it until I saw him reach for the barbell. After he put that in, he tightened it and had me wash out my mouth again. I was done already. I went and paid for the piercing; he gave me my aftercare list and told me to get some ice from Sonic down the street. I went with my girlfriend down to get my ice and the other essentials that I needed and went home. Once we got back into town we met up with all of our friends and we all got a great laugh at my new speech impediment.
Today, the next day, the swelling has gone down to where it isn't half where it was yesterday and talking is a bit easier. But the worst part of it is not being able to eat solid food. My whole family got together to celebrate my grandmothers birthday for a cookout. Needless to say I had tons of ice cream and got a bunch to take home with me, because I am lucky...My uncle is the Blue Bunny man and can get lots of free ice cream. Lucky me!! Miraculously nobody said anything about my new speech impediment, so maybe I wont have to try to explain why I wanted to get a bolt through my tongue to a 78 year old woman. Now I just get to see how fast it heals from now.
This has been a great experience, I have been hooked; I love piercings, I have always been a fan and enjoyed looking at them but never thought I would get them myself but this is awesome!
...hmmmm now the question is what do I do next? Labret or eyebrow?