Too Cool to the Rescue!

At A Glance
Author	anonymous
Contact	anonymous@bme.anon
Artist	Lenny
Studio	Too Cool Body Piercing
Location	Abilene, TX

O.K., this is how it all started: I decided to get my tongue pierced to surprise my boyfriend. He's got one, and I'd decided I'd like to return the favor. : ) So, I went to this other place and had the actual piercing done. Everything seemed fine, except the obvious feat of getting used to this thing in my mouth.Then, on the second day following the initial piercing, as I happily munched on B.K. fries, I swallowed the top ball of my new piercing! I was three hours from where I had the piercing done, so I got into my truck and raced to the Happy Dragon Tattoo studio, home of Too Cool Body Piercing.There, I met Lenny, most definitely one of the most professional, caring people I've ever encountered in the tattoo/piercing business. He took a look at my problem and broke it down like this: the "artist" who had pierced me had cross threaded/and/or over tightened the ACRYLIC ball, basically stripping the threads. He hooked me up with an internally threaded bar, and pushed it against my existing bar, and threaded it through the hole, effectively saving me from losing the piercing all together with. I couldn't have been happier, although I wished I had gone to him to start with. Of course, if it hadn't of been a surprise, my boyfriend would have sent me there in the first place! I have had absolutely no problems since, and Lenny and Too Cool are assured to receive all my future business. Also, for one reason or another, I experienced only a TINY amount of swelling during the healing process. Here's what I did, and I hope it works for any of you who plan on getting a new tongue piercing: I rinsed, as directed, with Listerine first thing in the morning, and right before bed, and with Rembrandt during the rest of the day.The first day I had the piercing, I took 400 mg of Advil three times. On the second and third days, I took only 400 mg right when I woke up. I ate normal foods, but took small bites, and drank lots of water. I didn't smoke or drink alcohol the first few days. (When the swelling was supposed to be the worst) I also didn't play with the barbell. I figured it would just make it stretch and irritate the new hole during the initial healing. I only talked funny the first night. As a matter of fact, I talked so well, my friends and family thought I hadn't gone through with it at first! They actually came over to see for themselves. It was great, I was able to go on with my life, and I was able to hide the piercing from those I didn't think needed to know about it. I even taught a class on the third day following the piercing, and none of my students noticed. So far, my tongue piercing has caused me no pain, only a mild discomfort at first where the top ball was rubbing against the roof of my mouth! If I talked a lot, I noticed my whole tongue would get tired, I guess because it had to work differently to accomplish the same tasks. I definitely don't have the flexibility I used to, and prying pieces of lodged food from between my molars is temporarily out of the question, although everyone must have a goal! By the way, my tongue never even got close to swelling the length of my first barbell (3/4) and I couldn't wait to get my shorter bar on. The long one is a pain in the butt. I read a lot of stories and everyone said the procedure was relatively painless, which it was. I wasn't too worried... I figured it couldn't be worse than that needle the dentist jabs into the roof of your mouth. But everyone said it hurt pretty bad and swelled immensely in the days following. I think proper aftercare makes all the difference. If it's a good clean piercing, which it ABSOLUTELY should be, and you keep it clean and don't screw around with it too much, there's no physiological reason for it to swell that much. So far I can honestly say the greatest difficulty has been learning how to chew food again. I realized of a slob I used to be. I end up eating a lot less, because I am not inhaling my food any more, and that's helped me lose a few pounds too! Oh yeah, whistling and spitting were hard at first too! Thank you so much Lenny for your help and your excellent advice!!!!!