Well, after having my lip pierced in the centre, navel piercing and 3 stretched lobe piercing. I thought I'd go for one of my dream piercing - tongue. I hyped myself up about it for a long time, managed to convince my mum I wouldn't die or anything from having the piercing and then got the money together.
At A Glance Author Lu Contact twisterofminds@msn.com When A year ago Artist Keith Studio Kidderminster Location ...kidderminsrer? My mum was easy to get around, but my dad was another matter. He was not at all keen on the idea of his youngest daughter having more metal stuck in her. But by that time my dad was living 2 hours away so I didn't think it would matter much. He didn't even notice to start off with, until I showed my friend when I was with my dad. He said something along the lines of 'that's disgusting, you must take that out when we go and see the grandparents'. Heh. He's never said anything since then about my piercings and now I've got 3 in my lip alone!
I went on the Tuesday but it wasn't open, i was gutted because i'd got all my courage and gone down there and I was worried i wouldn't have that courage the next day. But I thought to myself 'come on, just get it over and done with, you can do it'
It was a Wednesday so I had school, but as soon as I got out my mum took me down to Keith (my piercing guy). She gave consent and all of the rest of it being as I was only 14 at the time. She's fine about me having piercings now; she's just worried about what my grandparents would say!
I was so nervous I was shaking; there was no queue so I went straight in and sat down. He sprayed some stuff in my mouth and i waited for about 5 minutes for it to go numb. Once i was all numb he marked my tongue out, and then out came the clamp. Again, he told me to stick my tongue out. This time i was a bit more reluctant. It took a good five minutes for me to let him clamp my tongue.
Then the needle went through, and I sighed with relief. It didn't hurt at all to my surprise, just felt a bit 'weird'. Then he put the bar in and put the ball on. I could taste the blood in my mouth already, there wasn't a lot, but enough to taste.
I got up, still shaking badly from the adrenalin and checked my tongue out in the mirror, I loved it. It was bleeding a bit from round the piercing but that's normal. I spat the blood out, washed my mouth out and it looked amazing.
I paid him the money and he told me to come back in two weeks to get the bar changed to a shorter one (this is free).
The piercing cost £30, and I think it was well worth it and I recommend it to anyone. It's a discreet piercing so it's convenient, you can barely see it when you talk so it's an easy one to have while you're in education or work.
As for aftercare there isn't too much you can do for a tongue piercing, just use alcohol free mouthwash really. My tongue was swollen the day after and ached a bit, but no major pain. The swelling and aching went within about 2 days. It's quite hard to get used to, but after a week you learn to keep the bar away from your teeth when you're eating. Many times I've bitten my tongue ball or swallowed it for that matter. You need to be careful when playing with the piercing in your mouth (it's irresistible), as it can chip your teeth. Also when you're eating it's very easy just to catch the bar or ball on your teeth or mistake it for a bit of food.
Not a nice feeling! Another thing is when you first eat after (for the first week) you can get a yellowish substance behind the ball on the top and you can get rid of that just by brushing your tongue behind the ball when you brush your teeth.
I went back two weeks later to get my bar changed after all of the swelling had gone down and it felt so much better not to have a massive bar clanging round in my mouth. The new bar fit my tongue perfectly. I didn't catch it as much and it was a lot easier to eat from then on.
One thing's true that people say - piercings ARE addictive! Since then I've got 10 more and plans for more. But my tongue piercing is still one of my favourites to this day.