So in and around the beginning of September, I came into some money... via a decent amount of hard work around the house, and a decent amount of saving meagre sums of allowance money. I was thinking of things I could blow it on, and (obviously) the answer was a new piercing. But what. I had been considering venoms for quite some time, ever since an ex boyfriend of mine got them done, and I figured not was as good a time as any. Money was a slight issue since I wasn't sure if i'd have enough to foot the entire bill for the jewellery at the shop that I normally get pierced at, so I had plans to buy 10G internally threaded 316LVM 3/4" barbells from another shop down the road that was slightly less expensive. From there, I would take the jewellery back to my regular shop, get them to autoclave it, and then proceed with the piercing.
At A Glance Author Aleicia Contact Aleicia@bme.anon IAM vanillalife When Three months ago Artist Jesse Studio NEXT! Body Piercing and Tattooing Location Vancouver, B.C. Well, the day came (September 11th), and two of my friends who were supposed to accompany me bailed. One of them complaining of a hangover, and the other... well... I never really did hear his reason. He just never showed up. So Heather and I headed downtown early with high hopes for the day ahead.
We arrived downtown and walked first to the shop where I intended to buy the jewellery. It was entirely an assumption on my part that they stocked internally threaded jewellery in 10G... and I was sorely dissappointed to find out that their internal threading starts at 8G (more disgusted than disappointed, quite honestly). I thanked them for their time and walked out, heading down to the next block to my shop... steeling myself to settle for wiry 12G barbells. I walked into the door of the shop, greeted Jesse and Sam, and chatted with them about my dilemma. Then I realized that I had never bothered to ask them the exact price of how much 10G venoms would cost me at their shop alone... I had only estimated, judging from prior knowledge of jewellery prices. It turned out that not only did I have enough, I had enough left over to add on a generous tip! This made my day. I filled out the forms (I swear, I can do it in my sleep by now), paid, and told them i'd be back in an hour (after the next aftercare/piercing group had gone through... damn its nice to be a regular!).
Heather and I figured it would be a good idea to get my blood sugar up before getting pierced, so we headed to Subway and proceeded to have a grand old time. I suspected it would be my last sub for quite some time (not to mention my last solid food for a little while!), so I ate it zealously.
Arriving back at the shop, we had a short wait until Jesse was done piercing. (Girl) Jessie (another of Next's piercers) had arrived by this time and was excited to come watch, since she'd never seen venoms done before. We talked for a bit, and eventually Jesse finished up and came out.
Once in the piercing room, he offered me the choice of piercing at 12 and stretching to 10, or piercing straight at 10. Knowing the pros and cons of both, I chose piercing straight at 10, since I know i'm not much of a bleeder anyway... and i'd rather the extra drops of blood than excess swelling.
He laid out the clamps, needles, jewellery, and lube (everything claved, of course), and turned towards me with a toothpick dipped in gentian violet to mark my tongue. This process took some time (about 10 minutes or so) as he looked at my tongue, marked the top and bottom, and finally asked me if I wanted the piercings on the inside or outside of the veins which ran directly through his careful placements. Heh. I told him inside, since I like the look of closer venoms. He re-drew the placement to make sure he had them well inside the veins, and then proceeded to clamp my tongue.This is where it started to hurt.
Well, not hurt, but get uncomfortable.With the clamps in place, he gave me cotton with lavender oil on it to breathe, and started to talk to Jessie about the procedure. After explaining to her his reasons for piercing from the bottom up and his experiences with other techniques, he started counting for my breathing. On the third breath out, he pushed the needle through.
Oh the blessed release of it all.
Quite honestly, it wasn't that bad. And as i've heard many people say, the clamps were worse than the actual piercing. However, the jewellery insertion was worse than the clamps. And guess what... the clamps on the other side were worse than the first ones.
At this point, my tongue was getting very tired. It had been sticking out for about 15 minutes now, and it was shaking from fatigue. Jesse's lucky that he had clamps on it because I'm not sure I could have kept it out there on its own.
We took a short one minute break to let me get my breathing normal again to let me get ready for the next needle, and then we were ready. Jessie left at this point to go do counter work, so this piercing went much quicker. It was also significantly more painful. And the jewellery insertion was significantly more uncomfortable.
When it was all overwith, I headed immediately to the mirror to check out the beefy barbells in my tongue. Man they were beautiful. I thanked Jesse profusely, and went out to go whimper goodbye to Sam and Jessie in the front.
It started to swell almost immediately. The newfound weight in my tongue was incredibly odd; as was the feeling of two very long barbells hitting both the top and bottom of my mouth. I walked along, attempting to talk to Heather, and trying to get used to the sensation.
My aftercare, once home, consisted of drinking COPIOUS amounts of chamomile tea and water, and keeping up good general hygiene. After the swelling had gone down (around 10 days later), I added in Toms of Maine mouthwash. Once in a while, a sea salt rinse is added in.
It took me a good month to get back to eating regular food. I blame this mainly on the fact that it became habit for me to eat nothing and only drink clear fluids. Even now, three months later, I have trouble with spaghetti.
They're doing well, although they do get sore if I eat something awkward or annoying. They're definately a lot of fun to have.
Advice to people planning on getting them: keep the aftercare simple, and don't rush eating solid foods.
Go well and pierce!
- Aleicia