The idea of tongue venoms had always appealed to me. I started off with a single center tongue piercing done about 5 years ago. I had almost immediately started stretching the piercing until it was a 4g. That is when I seriously started considering tongue venoms. I loved the look of a large gauge tongue piercing with 2 smaller piercings. I am however, a wimp. Just pinching the sides of my tongue hurt and I couldn't imagine piercing it. While that might sound silly coming from someone with a vertical conch-conch industrial and dermal punching it's true. Finally, woke up one morning with balls and decided to do it.
At A Glance Author Ashley Contact Ashley@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Phillipa Wholeslagle Studio Urban X Change Location Virginia Beach, VA Virginia Beach, VA is not known for it's phenomenal piercers. It is basically a Navy/Tourist haven so most shops are volume sweat shops. I did work at Urban X Change for a brief time as an Assistant Manager and got to know the piercers. There was really only one person I would trust to pierce me so I took the drive from Norfolk, VA out to the Virginia Beach oceanfront.
I got all signed up and was immediately led to the piercing room where I proceeded to take out my center tongue piercing. I knew that my veins would potentially be a problem since they are thick and run relatively close together. The piercer informed me that piercing them the way I wanted, off center and above my current piercing, was not an option so we decided to pierce them on either side of my original piercing. She marked me, remarked me, and got my approval before starting the piercing. She informed me how painful they were going to be by both her personal opinion and that of other customers. Maybe not the best decision since I was already pretty nervous but I decided to go ahead with it anyway.
The piercer first put on the clamps on one side of my tongue, making sure they were tight since I have a very thick tongue. I took a big breath and the needle was through. Yes, my eyes went teary. The jewelry insertion was not painful at all and it was a relief to be able to put my tongue back in my mouth for even a few seconds. The barbell felt strange since it was so long and off-center. After about a minute I once again stuck my tongue out and she proceeded to clamp me. The second piercing was more painful than the first and there was a significant amount of cursing with it but it went in smoothly.
After it was done the piercer had me stick out my tongue again to check the placement when she noticed that one was about 1 mm higher than the other. I told her that I wasn't worried about it since the long barbells just exaggerated a very slight difference. She gave me aftercare instructions. The basic 50/50 water/Listerine mixture and suggested trying biotene as well. She gave me the standard instructions to be careful with them while eating and to stay away from extra chewy foods like steak.
Since the piercings were so close to my original piercing I was able to talk normally immediately. Eating on the other hand was a little difficult. Since I couldn't really chew on the side of my mouth without fear of chomping down on my extra long barbells it took me forever to chew anything. Also, food seemed to like chilling between the barbells which was a little uncomfortable. The real problems were yet to come though.
I woke up the next morning with the worst possible ache in my mouth. I was not prepared for the level of pain that is associated with this piercing. I couldn't eat, I couldn't speak and even leaving them alone was painful. The piercing had swollen to the entire size of the barbell and there was significant internal bruising. This pain lasted about three weeks. I wasn't able to eat any kind of chewy food like sandwiches or meat for about two weeks. Since I rub my tongue against the bottom of my mouth while I sleep the piercings were always very irritated when I woke up. I ended up tearing one of them pretty good. Luckily it was the one that was slightly higher up and ended up evening out the piercing. Tearing it however, was not a pleasant experience.
I changed the barbells to shorter ones as soon as I could to avoid additional tearing caused by the long barbells. It has been about two months now and the swelling is completely down but they are still sore to change and not quite healed. The only downside is how visible they are. Not many people ever noticed my 4g tongue piercing but they automatically notice that I have more than one now. The piercings are completely even and I love being able to wear cute little 14g jewelry in my tongue again. Overall I don't know if I would've done it again but I definitely like them even after everything I went through.