My Hidden Fun

At A Glance Author Ben Contact beninutero@yahoo.com Artist Jim Studio Mark of Distinction Location Beeston, England

Well I'm from Nottingham, England, and I wanted to get my tongue pierced for about 2 years, unfortunately my girlfriend wasn't so hot on the idea so I put it off. Now we're through I decided to go spend my £30, and take the plunge. I had a few reservations about getting it done so I asked my mate who'd already got his pierced.

My first question was "does it hurt?"

"Yes, but it doesn't hurt like you'd expect"

"Will I be able to eat?"

"Nope, you will be eating soup and rolling pieces of bread up and throwing them in your mouth"

"How long does that last?"

"About 1-2 weeks"

"Will it swell up?"

"Well mine swelled up like a balloon, I couldn't talk or swallow properly for about 10 days, but then the swelling went down and I got used to it"

Satisfied with his answers I came to the conclusion that I could cope with the pain and suffering, after all it was only for 10-14 days so it'd be a small price to pay for what I was getting. I went to Mark of Distinction, in Beeston. I knew the piercer (Jim) because, I'd been there before for tattoos, and he was very professional and clean. I said to him I wanted my tongue piercing, his first remark was fold your tongue. He needed to see if the veins on the bottom of my tongue we're parallel, or if I just had one vein running down the centre. He informed me this is because the single veined tongues won't get pierced due to complications with excess bleeding and severe pain. Anyway mine has parallel veins so he took me into the back.

He told my to sit down and relax, then he told me to stick my tongue out as far as I could. This in all honesty was the most painful part because, I think I hyper extended the bottom of my tongue. He then marked the spot and applied the clamp. He hadn't shown me the needle (much to my disappointment) and told me to tilt my head back. This is when he pushed the needle through the bottom of my tongue, it went through the fleshy bit fine, but when he got to the surface layer with the buds, he really need to force it through, which I found really cool. I couldn't actually see what he was doing but he put the bar through top to bottom and screwed the ball on. Jim told me that I'd have to go back after 2-3 weeks to get a shorter bar put in, as the one I had in was to allow for swelling. He then decides to inform me that talking would be difficult and that it'd be awkward eating for the next 2 weeks or so. He gave me the aftercare leaflet and told me to go buy mouthwash and rock salt. I needed to clean 3 time's daily and mouthwash after food. I quickly found out how difficult talking was, and I also found out that I had to keep sucking in to stop drooling down my chin, the bar stimulates the saliva glands. That night I wanted to take it out, only because eating was VERY awkward, but I persevered and kept telling myself that the mouth heals really quickly. Within 4 days I was off of soup and on to solids; eating wasn't perfect but then I got the shorter bar in after a week. I went back, and he got a shorter bar out, then to my extreme surprise he gave the bar to me and said "you'll have to learn to put it in yourself so start now." I took the ball off the bottom and removed the bar, with the new bar in my hand I asked for a mirror and was told "you'll find it soon enough" so I casually slotted the bar through my tongue, it didn't hurt one bit and had healed completely. The ball was screwed on the bottom and now I can eat anything, my friends who'd had it done said it'd really hurt and that mars bars were out of the question, but I found it painless (getting my ear pierced was more painful) and I can still eat toffee and caramel. I showed it off to people I knew and got varying reactions from "I wanna be sick" (Mom) "that really suits you" (Jenn) "So when are you gonna try it out on me?" (Elaine). My work mate was so impressed with it that I convinced him to get it done. He said his really hurt, and he bled quite a bit but that only lasted a week so I suppose it depends on the person. All I have to do now is see if my new girlfriend appreciates it! Because if she doesn't she'll have to deal with it cuz I aint taking it out. I highly recommend it to anyone just make sure the piercer is qualified and clean.