About 5 years ago, when I first moved away from home to uni, I got my tongue pierced. Since then, it's probably been out for a total of 2 hours, 1.5 of those being for an interview earlier this year. I love this piercing, and although no one believes me, I actually forget sometimes that I have it. It's become such a part of me that when I take it out, my mouth feels really, really wrong.
At A Glance Author OllyB Contact OllyB@bme.anon When It just happened Artist JP Studio Access All Areas Location Nottingham, England
Despite this, I always said to myself that if for some reason it closed up, I don't think I could go through with it again. I'm not a huge fan of needles and I found the whole "metal stabbed through the tongue" experience quite traumatic. So I guess I surprised myself when I decided to get another centre tongue piercing done.
A friend of mine, who from now on shall be referred to as Emma, decided to get hers done. I was so excited for her, as it is without a doubt the coolest piercing there is, that I found myself with the urge to get mine done a second time. She was feeling quite nervous coming up to the event, so I promised to her that if she got hers done, I'd get mine done a second time. And so it was, that a week ago I received a garbled phone call from Emma informing me very slowly and with obvious difficulty that she had had the piercing done. That afternoon I found myself phoning up Access All Areas in Nottingham to book my appointment for a mere 4 days later.
And so it was that we traveled to Nottingham on a Sunny Friday in late August, and made our way to Access All Areas for my 2pm appointment, dodging the armed police running around on the way.
Waiting in the Reception area, I filled out the forms and started to get nervous as I remembered what it felt like the first time. When the receptionist came back off her lunch, JP, the head piercer dude, took me upstairs. Emma and Robin (who is my friend, my boss and Emma's boyf) came too. Like a sensible person, Emma had closed her eyes when she got hers done, so now, like a mental person, she wanted to watch a bit of metal being shoved through mine.
I got my tongue marked and a longer bar put in my original piercing. I decided I wanted the new one just behind the existing one, so it was set at about 1.2cm behind. I was also really anal about the placement, and wanted it at the same angle tilting back as the other one. If I was going to do this, I wanted it done properly! Apparently the older one was just off centre, so this one was going to be off centre, but by a bit less, so that it wouldn't look too odd. My tongue was numbed top and bottom with these little banana flavour pads, and while this was happening JP was talking me through all the aftercare and placement etc, to do with the piercing. Then he took the pads out of my mouth and put another 2 in, just while the autoclave was finishing off. These pads were really good, as they numb you really well, but I have to say that by the end they made me want to throw up - I'd swallowed a few to many times, making some of the numbing stuff (I'm good with words, can you tell?) go down my throat and numbing it. It was not a nice feeling.
When the pads came out, it was time for the last step...
I've got to say that the actual piercing didn't hurt as much as I expected or remembered. I closed my eyes, started shaking a bit apparently, and felt the needle go through my tongue from the bottom up. I wasn't particularly worried about retracting my tongue before the piercing, but I was a bit nervous about accidentally pulling my tongue in when I had to swallow during the jewellery insertion. It all went ok though, and I was left with a siny new tongue piercing. We went downstairs to the reception, paid up then headed on our merry way. JP said I have enough room at the front for a third centre piercing, should I so desire in future ;-)
3 days later, and there hasn't been a lot of swelling and the only time I've really noticed the new bar is when I'm eating or trying to do something dexterous with my tongue. Baby food and Ready Brek have been my friend, and bbq ribs have been my enemy, but overall, it's been much better than the first time. I'm waiting till the swelling goes down before I draw any conclusions on the placement of the new one, but it looks ok so far. I'm now investigating getting some vibrating barbells, just for a bit of fun.
For anyone looking for a studio in the Nottingham area, I highly recommend Access All Areas. Very professional and they totally know what they're doing there. And to anyone who wants a second tongue piercing, I'd like to recommend that too, but I won't - because if you get it done I'll be less special!
Seriously though, do it, it looks fantastic and doesn't feel any more different than having one.