A little background: About four years ago I got my tongue double pierced for the first time. It was something I had wanted for a long time, and I was thrilled to get them done. Healing was hellish. There was a lot of blood, huge swelling, and every morning I would wake up with an 1/8 inch coating of gummy dried blood on my tongue. For some reason I assumed this was normal. My piercer had told me to expect some blood, and I figured, they're through the muscle, unlike a center piercing, of course it's going to be worse.
At A Glance Author thea_na Contact thea_na@bme.anon IAM thea_na When It just happened Artist Didn't catch his name Studio Avant-Garde Location West Allis, Wisconsin At one point I started worrying that he had pierced through the vein, but I talked myself out of it, and the piercings did eventually heal beautifully, with no more problems. Now I am convinced that he did in fact go through or at least nick the vein badly, but my body managed to heal it, it was not the catastrophic thing some people make it out to be, merely unpleasant.
Fast forward about three years: I ended up in the hospital, where they removed all of my piercings. By the time I was in possession of my faculties enough to demand all my jewelry back, my tongue piercings had totally closed (although I did manage to save everything else. The nipples were a bitch, though.)
My mouth felt naked without the piercings, and I decide to get them repierced as soon as I had the money. With one thing and another, nine months passed. Then one day my sisters were both over and mentioned they were going down to Avant-Garde to get their napes pierced. I had them bring me along, figuring it was finally time I got off my ass and got my tongue fixed (in my mind, it's not right without piercings.)
For the record, Avant-Garde is also where I got my tongue pierced the first time, by Brent, and even though I think now that he nicked the vein the first time, I would still trust him with any piercing on me.We got to the shop, along with one other friend who wanted her nostril pierced, and after a lot of gabbling, got it sorted out who was getting what, and everyone signed and paid up. At Avant-Garde the highest price for a piercing is $35, which is what my sisters each paid, their friend paid $35 for her nostril with a stud instead of a ring, which would have been $25, and I came out worst, with $70 for two tongue piercings. Sadly, you get no discount even when you're getting them done at the same time. I was expecting this, and managed to cough up the money, with a little help from my sister. I was given a card good for two shorter barbells, to use in three weeks, when the swelling was gone, and my tongue superficially healed.
On to the piercings. In the time it took us to all get sorted out, everything was set up for us. Brent came in to do my sisters' napes, and the other piercer called me over to do my tongue. I was a little surprised, as I had been expecting Brent, but it was fine with me. He was pretty quiet, and I didn't get his name. He had me swish with Listerine, put a drool bib on me, and started to mark where the piercings would go. I told him to put them outside of the scars from the old piercings, as they had always looked a little too close together for my taste. He did, and had me check it out. When we were satisfied with the placement, he had me stick out my tongue as far as it would go, and had the first side clamped and pierced in the blink of an eye. (Their technique is to tell you to take a deep breath, and then pierce on the exhale.) By this point I don't get the least bit nervous before a piercing, and the pain was just what I expected. I've never had a center tongue piercing, so I can't compare, but with venoms, to me the feeling is a little more localized than with other piercings, you can almost feel the needle tearing through each layer of flesh. That said, it was still not very painful at all. He quickly got the barbell on, and moved on to the other side. The right one went through with a little more of a "pop" than the left had. Shortly after he had that barbell in, tightened them both, and sent me to check things out in the mirror. I was very happy with the placement, but noticed that on the underside the balls were placed a little more forward than they had been in my previous piercings. But everything was symmetrical, and I was happy with them. There was just a little trickle of blood, mostly from the left piercing, less than I had expected. I thanked him, my sisters got finished up and we left.
Now the aftercare: I am of the "leave it the fuck alone" school of aftercare, which is pretty much all you can do for a tongue piercing anyway. I have been using Listerine after brushing my teeth, just because my breath is so god-awful during healing. The most important thing for me is to drink tons of water. When you are dehydrated, your tongue swells up, and since it's going to be swollen anyway, you don't want anything adding to it. I drink lots of water throughout the day, and a huge glass just before going to bed. And of course, I am just sensible about eating – nothing sharp or really crunchy, eating small pieces, slowly.
I was expecting much worse during healing. So far there has been pretty much no blood, and minimal swelling. I should note; there was a little bruising that showed up the second day, which looks really bad, but is normal. I am used to having barbells in my mouth, so it was a lot easier to get adjusted to eating and talking around them. The starter barbells are really long though, so I still have a little lisp that will go away when they're changed. One thing I have no explanation for is that the right side does not hurt at all, where the left is a little touchier. I can only attribute this to the placement in relation to the old scars, or maybe the way I hold my tongue in my mouth puts more pressure on that side. Either way, the pain is only occasional, and very minimal. I was a little worried when I found that because of the forward placement of the barbells on the underside of my tongue, they were rubbing against my gums on the inside of my lower teeth. However, as the swelling has gone done it has all but stopped, and I think after the barbells are shortened, it will be fine. If it isn't, I would consider putting disc ends on the underside, before getting them repierced, because I am otherwise happy with this placement, and wouldn't want to go through healing again. It's not terrible, but not exactly fun.
Overall, I've had a very good experience so far, much better than my first time.