I remember what set me off on my mission to get a tongue piercing; my friend Claire. Claire and me spent a lot of our secondary school years together; staying over at each others houses, going on holidays with each others families and generally living in each others pockets. Whenever we had a sleepover the conversation always seemed to arrive back at piercings; in particular tongue piercings. I had only ever seen one tongue piercing at that time (I lived a sheltered life) but I knew it was what I had to have. At the time we both had our belly buttons done and our lobes pierced a few times each ear but the tongue seemed out of reach for a million reasons. Top of my reasons was the fact that my parents would never allow it; Claire's parents were a little more liberal and so the only thing stopping her were her nerves and the money.
At A Glance Author Aimee Contact aimz69er2001@yahoo.com When N/A Artist Kim Studio The Studio Location Nottingham UK We talked about it lots and lots and but I never thought for a second it would be anything more than talk. That was until I heard a knock at my door one Sunday lunch time. It was Claire, eating a rather melted ice cream. I was just about to ask her what was up when she stuck out her tongue. There, in the middle of it, was a long, surgical steel bar! I felt sick; sick with envy, but I tried to hide it. Her Mum had given her the money and she had gone, without me, to have it done and was eating the ice cream to lessen the swelling. I said I was pleased for her but inside I was heartbroken.
>From that day onwards, every time she ran that bar along her teeth I felt jealous, every time someone asked to see it, asked how it felt and completely ignored me I wanted to cry. Claire had always said to me that she'd only gotten her tongue pierced because she wanted the attention and wanted to be different... for me it was something else. I needed this piercing, I needed it to feel like myself but she couldn't understand it and I felt very left out.
My Mum noticed that I was down and asked what the matter was; me and my Mum are very close; although she has some old fashioned ideas about things she is still my best friend. So I explained to her what was bothering me and she said she would talk to my Dad about the possibility of me getting mine done. I waited, waited days until she finally said that my Dad had said yes, as long as I saved up and paid for it myself. I was so happy; the fact that I had to save up was irrelevant because I was going to get my piercing!
I didn't have the internet then and so I could do little research but knowing Claire and her piercing helped a lot as I knew what to expect. The trouble was that I felt like Claire's piercing had some how tarnished what I had originally envisioned and so I began to think of ways I could modify my modification so better suit me. As I said before, I had no resources and had only seen 2 tongue piercings in my life (coming from a small town sucks) so I had to think all on my own.
For as long as I can remember I have had a strange love for all things even and odd numbers will drive me crazy... I guess its some kind of OCD or something as I also have to turn the light switched on and off 4 times before bed and can only walk on the left hand side of people etc. Bearing this in mind, the most obvious thing to do, the most natural, seemed to be to get 2 tongue piercings! It was almost a Eureka moment, as if it was the most blindingly obvious thing in the world and I was amazed I hadn't thought of it before.
With my mind made up I got the wheels in motion. First stop was saving enough money; I worked at the local bakers and so I saved up my money from there until I had the £60 for both procedures. At the time tongue piercings weren't so popular in our small, backwards town and so you had to make an appointment (at the one and only piercing studio for miles around) because the only piercer who worker there and had pierced tongues before worked on a Thursday! It was a Friday when I rang, all geared up to go in that afternoon and I was beyond gutted when I heard I'd have to wait another week.
I swear that week was the slowest damn week of my entire life but when Thursday rolled around I was up bright and early and raring to go. I had discussed with the lady at the studio that I wanted a double piercing and she suggested I should probably heal one then go back for the other so I was only having the one done but that was enough. I hadn't told anyone I was having it done except my parents and so I went alone, signed all forms and went upstairs. The waiting room was familiar as I had had all my piercings at that same place (ears and belly button) and so as I sat; rocking in my wicker chair the nerves weren't too bad.
"Aimee, I'm ready for you." Ah there she was, the lady who had helped me thus far on my modification journey. She had all the equipment ready, snapped on a pair of gloves and asked me if I wanted 'the spray'; said spray was (according to Claire) more painful than the needle and tasted like crap so I kindly declined and Kim gave me a look as if to say 'right on!'. She went through what she would do; mark me, check it, make sure it was straight, clamp me and then go for it and then she did just that.
I sat with my hands in my lap on the edge of her white leather dentist's chair and watched her closely as she got her pen and ripped yards of paper towels out of the dispenser for me. She explained I would need then for the dribbling and she was right; as I sat with my tongue out to be marked I found it almost impossible to stop it! Next was the clamps; uncomfortable but not unpleasant and then it was time. "You ready?" A muffled yes was all I could manage and I watched her line up the needle underneath my tongue and push.
There was a slight crunch to it but the feeling was amazing, it was like a warmth spreading all through my body and is as close as I've felt to orgasm without actually having one (maybe I'm just odd). That's when the real drooling started; mixed with the blood I'm sure it wasn't the prettiest sight. Kim got the swelling bar, fed it through, wiped me up and we were done.
I looked into the mirror on the wall and gave her a big smile. It was perfect and I just couldn't stop staring at this new piece of metal skewered through my tongue. She informed me that, although it looked a little wonky, it was just because of the swelling bar and it would straighten out fine once I had a smaller bar in. I thanked her again, amazed that I wasn't lisping and that it didn't hurt and I was on my way. On the way out I made an appointment for the following Thursday for the 2nd piercing dependant on how the healing went.
The next week was pretty easy; I brush my teeth about 4 times a day anyway so germs weren't too big of a problem and I gargled with the special mouthwash Kim gave me. By Thursday I was fine, no swelling, no lisp and no pain the only thing that was bothering me was the length of the bar!
When Kim saw me again she checked it was ok and we set to business. Everything was going smoothly until she pushed the needle through. It wasn't painful; she had pushed it through at a bad angle and wanted to try again to get it perfectly in line with the other bar. That was fine by me but as she removed the needle blood began to spurt everywhere; apparently my blood doesn't clot very quickly either because, after several failed attempts, I had to come back the next day for another try. This time we were successful and she put a smaller bar in the 1st piercing and a shorter swelling bar in the 2nd as I didn't seem to be much of a sweller. The second one was also perfect and sat just below my first; I had asked Kim to put a smaller ball on the top on the 2nd bar and this made it look even prettier.
I waited a little while before showing Claire; opting to wait until fully healed (about a week and a half after the 2nd piercing). She thought it was the coolest thing she'd ever seen in her life and was very excited that we 'matched' now. I didn't make a big fuss about my piercing at school and continued to let people ask about Claire's without even mentioning mine; knowing that I had what I wanted was enough for me.
Myself and Claire are still close friends now, almost 4 years on, and while I continue to add metal to myself and create more holes in my skin than God intended, Claire settled for her tongue piercing and never got anything else. At the end of the day everybody's reasons for getting modified are different and none are better than any other; I thank Claire for being braver than me in the first place; who knows, if she hadn't got it done I might never have ended up with my perfect double tongue piercing! Thanks Claire.