| At A Glance | |
| Author | josh |
| Contact | kidlobotomy@yahoo.com |
| IAM | leviticus |
| When | Two years ago |
| Artist | Alva |
| Studio | West Side Tattoo |
| Location | Jacksonville, FL |
While I was attempting to put the needle through that stretchy flesh under my tongue, I was doing so by looking down over a mirror that rested on my lap. That is when I saw my uvula just hanging there. This was before I was fortunate enough to find BME, and other bod modders and I had no idea if piercing a Uvula was possible, or if anyone had ever had it done.
I have a rather long Uvula (as in, I can pull the darn thing almost to my teeth) that I hope one day to get cut and shortened, so I started playing with it, and poking it with the needle I was using to pierce my webbing. I felt no pain at all for this, and figured it would be a pretty painless piercing, but not one that I was capable of performing on my own.
I lived in a small town, and didn't trust any piercing shops enough to do something like this, so I didn't even bother asking around there, and it would still be a while before I was able to get this rare but amazing piercing done.
Skip forward a few years later. I have found BME, graduated high school, and I'm living in Jacksonville, Florida. The desire to pierce my Uvula is still in me, but I was still a little drawn back on it, because of the risks involved with this piercing that I have read about on BME. I hadn't talked to anyone that has had the piercing done, nor do I know of any body piercers that have done this piercing.
I decided that I was going to call every piercing studio in Jacksonville, in hopes of finding an artist experienced with this piercing. Let me just state that Jacksonville is huge, and I spent a good three hours on the phone just calling places, having only a two minute conversation with somebody on the other line saying "what's a uvula," or "are you nuts?"
Of all the places that I phoned, I got, I think three people saying that they hadn't done it, but had done research on it, and would like me to come in to talk about it. One of the places I went to I wouldn't even had trusted them with my earlobe, so they were out of the search. Another one seemed to have some knowledge of it, and I kept them in mind. I ended up deciding to go to Alva at West Side Tattoo.
I had previously gotten my Apadravya done by Alva, and I found him to be a very professional man, and I had plans on having him being my regular artist in Jacksonville, so I was happy to find that he might be able to do my Uvula piercing.
I went into the shop, not knowing if I was going to be getting pierced that day or not, but was hoping. We talked a bit about it, and he wanted to be very clear that he had never performed this piercing. I found this very good because I've known certain artists that would say that there was no risk involved just to get the business. I trusted Alva and we decided to do the piercing that day. We started with Alva poking around the back of my throat to measure my gag reflex, which didn't seem like it was going to propose a problem. After that Alva took some Foerster clamps and bent the head to an angle with pliers. I wanted a front to back Uvula piercing, and it seemed like this might be a bit more complicated than a side to side piercing. I rinsed and gargled with Listerine and then water, and we seemed like we were ready.
Getting the clamps on my Uvula was a pretty hard part of the procedure. Every time it was clamped, it kept slipping out of them again. After a while if clamping, I started gagging and Alva used hurricane spray to numb my mouth and uvula, and everything else back there. Even then, the clamping was tough. But eventually we got them to stay.
Alva was using a catheter needle so he would be able to keep the hole open without keeping a needle in the back of my mouth. The piercing itself wasn't painful at all, and I really don't think it had anything to do with the hurricane spray because it had pretty much worn off by the time we actually got me pierced. I was more aware of the needle going through with this piercing than others, but it felt just like that- something gliding through, rather than a pain.
It was now time to put the barbell in. This seemed like it was going to be extremely difficult, which it was. Unfortunately, while Alva was trying to get the jewelry in, the catheter fell out. He tried to get the barbell in the hole, but was unable to. I was no longer pierced, and we had to go through this procedure once again.
We waited about 2 minutes and then we started over. The second time around wasn't as difficult. The clamps were on and I was pierced once again. Using Mosquito clamps to hold the jewelry, we got it in and screwed the bead on. I was now one of the few people around to have a pierced Uvula!
The aftercare was pretty simple with this piercing, just like any oral piercing. It didn't seem to swell up at all, and it wasn't too sore at all. Eating wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but I did stick to soft foods and fluids for the first couple days. Though the piercing was pierced perfectly straight and centered, it did migrate a bit during the first month, and now looks a bit crooked. I have toyed with the idea of taking it out and getting it re-pierced, and also thought about keeping it in, and getting it pierced again at an angle and hoping it heals up to look like a side by side, front to back, double Uvula piercing, something I have not seen before.
I have had my Uvula piercing for two and a half years now. The cleaning on it was never really a problem until about 3 months ago. I started noticing plaque build up on the back bead and asked my current piercer for advice on this. She told me that I should try gargling with PLAX, which seemed to help a bit. I would like to take the jewelry out and give it a good scrub down, but I fear I wouldn't be able to get it back in, so for now, I'm just going to have to use PLAX and Q-tips to do the best job I can.
