Thumbsucker gets tongue pierced?!
At A Glance
Author Abi
Contact Abi@bme.anon
When A month ago
Studio Shiva Body Piercing
Location Affleck's Palace, Manchester, UK
I thought I would give an account of my first week with a tongue piercing and some easy foods to eat for anyone reading around before getting one. My advice is go for it! Once the first week is over this piercing is completely hassle-free...

I'm 18, at university and I still suck my thumb, well, used to! Before I got my tongue pierced I just had my lobes and one cartiledge piercing, fairly standard stuff. I couldn't decide which to get: tongue or rook. Now I'm a competitive swimmer which involves 8 or 9 sessions in the pool every week. As much as I would love to get my rook pierced it would get knocked about so much underneath my hat I decided not to risk it just yet. One of the reasons I decided to go with my tongue is obviously so I would stop sucking my thumb. Also, I look very innocent (and certainly don't look 18) so knew i would love surprising people with the placement of this one. Plus, this was my first piercing where I didn't get my parents permission first, a kind of welcome to the big wide world thing!

Anyway onto the details (my first week with a bar in my tongue):

I had researched a couple of places in Manchester as I didn't really know the city that well and decided to go with Shiva Body Piercing, simply because it was the only one I knew the location of and it looked clean when I went in!

Day one (piercing day)

I made sure I ate a massive lunch of chinese noodles about half an hour before we went because with my previous piercings I've felt a bit faint (I know, I'm a wuss!). I told the guy at the counter what I wanted doing, he explained a little bit about the procedure then offered to check my tongue to see if it was feasible.

So, into the piercing room we went and it turns out my tongue is pretty short so it was going to be tricky but it could work. I forked out £35 (which included a down-sized bar), signed the legal stuff and went back in to have a needle stuck through my tongue. Because my tongue was short he didn't use clamps (which I was relieved about, I've heard they hurt the most!). He marked a dot on my tongue, checked top and bottom and adjusted a bit. I wasn't asked if the placement was satisfactory although if it was a tricky one I was happy to leave it up to him. He didn't give me any warning so it's a good thing I had my eyes open at this point. When he picked up the needle I closed my eyes and then felt the weirdest thing ever. The needle going through my tongue was painful (I didn't have it numbed) but as soon as the jewellery went through the pain disappeared and I had a MASSIVE bar in my mouth. All in all, I was probably in and out within 10 minutes, including sitting down afterwards with a cold drink. Weirdly enough there was no blood and I didn't feel faint at all! I got the usual aftercare instructions: dilute salt water rinses for a week then switch to mouth wash, nurofen for the swelling and pain, be sensible eating and to come back for a smaller bar in about 2 weeks.

About 4 hours after the piercing I went swimming and showed everyone, my coach was pretty surprised :). Swimming wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be, just had to make sure the bar rested comfortably before starting a set. Dinner was soup, couldn't even manage soggy bread! Woke up twice in the night with my tongue a little painful but I'd crushed a couple of ibuprofen and dissolved them in water to keep by my bed so both times I just took a gulp and went back to sleep.

Day Two

Woke up for training at 4.45am; it's bad enough trying to eat breakfast at this time normally even without a newly pierced tongue! Managed to eat half a mashed up banana in 10 minutes, hmmm.... mainly subsisted on yoghurt, soup and energy drinks today. Speaking's not too bad although I've developed a lisp. Not a lot of swelling but I can see teeth marks along the side of my tongue. I don't know if the chlorine from swimming last night helped at all but it hasn't swelled to the extent of others I've read about.

Day Three

Up for training early again, today it only took me 5 minutes to eat half a banana! Absolutely starving today. Swelling not gone down noticeably even though I've been taking iburofen regularly and eating ice lollies. After training tonight I was absolutely knackered - athletes, pick a light training week to get a tongue piercing! It's hard to eat enough so you train at your best.

Day Four

Swelling has gone down a bit so my tongue is a little tender from the bar moving about.

Day Five

My tongue is nearly back to normal size! I ate a sandwich for lunch today very carefully, I miss proper food! Told my mum, she thinks it's cool. I've spoken to my dad but not told him, I think he probably knows because I still can't talk properly.

Day Six

I'm back eating solid food now! Nearly chomped on the end of my barbell during lunch though.

Day Seven

I can talk, if not properly yet, then almost there. Tongue swelled up again today, I think it must be from talking more and chewing meals.

I went to get my barbell changed to a shorter one on the 10th day and I love it! The new bar seems so small. There were a couple of times in the past week where I've thought 'why the hell did I do this?!' but once I could eat properly and the swelling subsided I was so glad I did it. I haven't once sucked my thumb :)

Useful list of foods/drinks for first week of healing

First day

Oww!! Third day...

Fully healed with smaller bar

Disclaimer: The experience above was submitted by a BME reader and has not
been edited. We can not guarantee that the experience is accurate, truthful,
or contains valid or even safe advice. We strongly urge you to use BME and
other resources to educate yourself so you can make safe informed decisions.

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