I had never really wanted a tongue piercing.
At A Glance Author Lisa G. Contact b_it_ch_@hotmail.com IAM Linli When A year ago Artist Sarah Studio Sammy Kaine's Location Medicine Hat They seemed so overdone. So... predictable.
Then, one day, I found myself in the "Off-center" section of bme's tongue piercing pictures. I was in love... (or would that be considered lust?).
Venoms. I needed them. (Need, want.. it's all the same...)
It took quite a bit of conniving persistance on my part to get my parents to go for the idea, however. So after a nice, long talk with mommy and daddy and a uh... *promise* (yeah right) to not bother them about any more piercings, I was on my way.
So, one afternoon a little while later my friend (the moral support) and I pulled my mom out of work on her lunch break to come in and sign for me, doubting she could stomach her daughter being skewered, twice, by anyone, she left quite quickly.
I got to watch an aquaintence of mine get her eyebrow pierced prior to my own experience, and a chance to ask about 800 nervous questions. Then the other girl got up, and, before I knew it, I was in "the" black leather chair with some disgusting antibacterial crap coating every available tastebud and nursing a $120 gap in my purse...
My friend stood beside me, probably doubting my sanity having almost passed out after getting her nose pierced, and Sarah, the piercer, then proceeded to extract my tongue what felt like 10 inches from my mouth. Telling me all the while that I had to keep it out because it was very important to find all the veins and other things I couldn't register for all the rabid butterflys inhabiting my stomach. I had never disliked clamps like this before *shudder*
*poke*
*mark*
*wipe*
"Hold still, stick it out a bit further"
*poke*
*lift*
"Okay open a bit wider..."
*mark*
*wipe*
Finally, after an eternity of prodding and drying, drooling and aching she made the last marks and grabbed the first needle. At this point, I figured nothing could be worse than that bloody clamp... I was mostly wrong. But at least it was quick. In (insert grunt of pain and watery eyes here) out, jewelry (relieved sigh), tightening (a little more hell) then over.
The second hole was pretty good though, considering all the horror stories I'd heard of multiple piercing sessions. Same hot, deep, quick pain then jewelry then tightening. (which still sucked because my jaw was so friggen tired that it kept wanting to clamp down on her hand.)
So after mopping up my impressive puddle of drool from the chair, I got up and checked my new piercings out in the mirror. It was about the coolest thing I've ever seen. Sarah snapped a couple pictures (by this time sticking out my tongue was a real effort since it had almost doubled in size) and I was gone.
Healing was actually less problematic than I'd of guessed. I was forcing solid food (yay, DQ chicken burger) down my throat after about day 2, although soup was still one of my best friends on "bad days", and I had thrown away the piercer-given directions to use watered down Listerine after each meal, etc, and opted for some herbal alcohol free brand I can't recall the name of off-hand. The swelling was the most annoying, and longest lasting, problem. It seemed like it was never going to go away. I would estimate it took about a month for it to go back to "normal" size. I recall a lot of mornings waking up feeling around my mouth making sure everything was still in place.
Once healed up, I put off putting smaller barbells in for almost half a year, probably not my best decision considering all the oral damage I may of caused myself, but when I finally did I had a lil trouble finding a good fit. The recommendation was 5/8ths but I went a little longer and I still found them a bit tight until the friendly little grooves in my tongue adapted. I assume it's because I happen to have retardedly thick tongue muscles.
All in all, it was a good experience, despite the initial pain. I am still very much in love with my piercings. The only negative comments I've gotten have been from my psychotically conservative self-righteous family (particularly my mom's side) and a couple elderly folks at work. Otherwise, just a bunch of of interest and "Didn't that hurt" s, at least to my face, haha.
The best part was discovering that the age limit (as is legal in Canada) to get pierced without consent was being changed to 16 at the parlors in town here, so my little deal with the folks didn't matter anyway.
I would definately recommend venoms, and Sammy Kaine's, to anyone!(assuming you're not real anti-pain...)