Okay, so I followed the crowd, I turned 18 and decided I had to do something now that I legally could. I have an intense fear of needles and pain, so I ruled out a tattoo, I knew I wouldn't be able to do that unless I was unconsious and that wasn't allowed, so i decided on a piercing (really BIG needles).
At A Glance Author Cassie Contact Cassie81@hotmail.com Artist Devo (Dave O) Studio Adambomb Location Milwaukee, WI I'm still in high school and I have gym so if I have a piercing it is required that I take the stud/barbell/thing holding my puncture wound open out, so it had to be an indiscreet piercing and I already have my ears pierced several times, why put another whole in them? After many long conversations with friends (most of them guys) and a lot of research, we voted on the location of my piercing, 19 out of 20 voted on my tongue. So I called Tie Me Down to make an appointment, but they closed on 3-5-01, 11 days before I wanted to get pierced, I was really upset, but they told me to call Devo because he was the only reputable piercer in town (they had horror stories about all of the other places).
The next day I called Adambomb to schedule my piercing, I was really scared, I knew that if I had an appointment I wouldn't back out of it. When I called I actually got to talk to Devo, he was wonderful, he asked me a lot of questions and answered all of the questions that I had, and he tried really hard to calm my fears, and I made my appointment on my birthday, with a reminder from Devo that I could cancel and I had a lot of time until I got pierced (I made the appointment like 3 weeks in adavnce).
In the weeks before my piercing I talked to Devo 3 more times, twice to move it back, it went from 6 o'clock to 8, and then he called my because he needed to change the time because he had another job that was interfering with his schedule, so it went back to 6:15. Every time I spoke to him on the phone we had at least a 5 minute conversation,and he remembered things from our past conversations, he found out I'm afraid of needles and pain and that I was really nervous about this, I found out his birthday, and that he pierced his own tongue 3 times (multiple tongue piercings were popular, who better to practice on than himself?) and each time he told me what to expect, he even said that he would scare me a little by preparing me for the worst (dentist's websites had successfully done that already).
On my birthday I had a lot of coffee, I am a major caffine junkie, (I was told that coffee was a no-no during the first week or two after I was pierced) and it made me really jittery and I was really nervous. When I got home after school, I made sure my friend was still going to go with me, and I sat and waited, it was the longest 3 hours of my life.
I got to Adambomb a little late and was afraid that Devo wouldn't have time for me (maybe I was subconciously trying to be late so i would have an excuse not to go through with it). While I filled out my paperwork, he set up his piercing stuff, then he took my ID and checked the papers and told me to follow him. When we got into the little room, he put on gloves and put the dot on my tongue and had me rinse my mouth with Listerine and opened the packet that had the barbell in it, etc. While he did all of this he talked to me and gave me care instructions, small talk kind of stuff.
Finally he was ready to pierce my tongue. He put the clamp on, and warned me that pulling my tongue away or kicking him, would be very bad things to do. When he picked up the barbell he "palmed" it so that I couldn't see it, because he knew it would make me flip even more than I already was, he told me to take a deep breath in through my nose and out through my mouth and to look him in the eyes. As I exhaled he stabbed my tongue, I thought I was going to die, not from the pain or fear, but just the sheer pleasure of knowing that I had done it. And it was over, the whole thing, from the paperwork to having a piece of metal in my tongue and making sure I wasn't going to pass out, took 20 minutes.
While I was getting final instructions and a congratulations from Devo I felt no pain, just awe, but after 20 minutes it started to ache, it wasn't unbearable, but it felt as if I had just bitten my tongue really hard. So we headed out and bought all the cleaning chemicals and pain relievers (he suggested Midol because of the antiinflamatory qualities of it).
It's been a couple days and I think it's the best thing I have ever done. It's still a little sore (possibly my fault, I didn't follow the rules, I had normal food, I drank with a straw, and I play with it, etc.) and I have a slight problem with S's, but I can sing and speak without a noticable difference, and all problems should disappear when I get a smaller barbell.
I can't praise Devo enough, I don't think I would have done it if it weren't for him. Because of the way he treated me I trusted him to do this, he seemed to care about my fears and thoughts on the subject, and the way he talked and behaved with me was really sweet and gentle, at times it was almost as if he was talking to a lost kindergardener, but it was never insulting. I imagine that the way he behaves towards all of his costumers is different, he probably wouldn't be "sweet" with a big scary guy, but I would tell any of my friends to go to him if they were to ever have anything done.