This is the story of my tongue. It's pretty gory, so if you're squeamish, don't read it.
At A Glance Author Kelly Bailey Contact fifi_the_flea@netzero.net IAM Fifi_the_flea When A month ago Artist Jeremy Fuentez Studio Ace in the Hole Location Dallas, TX My interest in piercings began right here at BME, when I was 15. It wasn't very long ago, but it's been a pretty interesting three years, especially for my tongue.
When I was a junior in highschool I decided I wanted to get my tongue pierced, but I didn't have any money. My friend, Kelley, had a piercings barbell from her original piercing, and at the time I was very depressed and didn't really care what happened. I let her pierce me, and it healed very quickly and very nicely.
A couple months after that, I decided to go for a second one instead of going to prom.I went to a guy who ended up being a well-known hack, working at a decent piercing place. Just bad luck I guess. He was probably high when he pierced me, so it bled pretty bad, and got very swollen, so I removed the original bar.
A few months later, I started getting really depressed that there was so little metal in my mouth, so I got two more bars in the center of my tongue. This time I went to a really great place called Skin and Bones in Dallas. I got one of the bars right behind the original, and one more behind that. The placement of the piercing wasn't so great, though. My webbing tried to grow over the bottom ball of the back bar, and when I stretched the middle one, it kept getting more and more crooked, so I said "fuck it," and took them both out. I was afraid I would never get my pretties back, but then my life took a turn for the better.
I got a job working as a waitress at IHOP! It was fantastic! I worked with rad people, and made cash every day! I became really good friends with this guy named Brian, and we decided to go downtown and get pierced and tattooed (he pierced, me tattooed). So, we set off on our journey, cheerfully. One detour, though....we had to take his friend's speedfreak stripper mom by the titty bar and drop her off. So, we went to his friend's house and waited...and waited...and three hours later, I was bummed out of my mind and asked him to take me home. My plans were effectively ruined.
We got in his car, he took me home, and we haven't spoken since...oh well. So, I get home, and I call my friend, Andrew. Andrew comes to pick me up, and we head on to Skin and Bones...well, Pair O Dice, since I was getting a tat. We got there really late, though, and the place was closed. I was pretty set on getting some ink, so I went to the one place that was open. I talked to a guy about my design and he decided to be a dumbass. So, I almost left...BUT THEN! I saw my highschool friend, Miranda's brother. I decided, I would do it...I would get the venoms. The gorgeous venoms which I had wanted for so long. This excited not only me, but Andrew and Jeremy as well.
Jeremy took me into the room, Andrew following behind, and we began the long, difficult task of marking the piercings. He marked one, then the other...then the other again...then the other again....and again....finally it was marked. He gave me a mirror, I looked at it. I okayed it, and he kept drilling me, "Do you REALLY like it? You can be picky, you know." And after a few minutes convincing him the placement was bitchin, he started to mark the angle of the bars. That wasn't so bad, but then the clamps came out. Oh, the clamps. I know them all too well. He had me lay down and he pierced the right one, and slipped the jewelry in. It bled, and when he slipped the jewelry in, my feet curled up because it hurt. Typically, I'm not much of a wuss, but I had just been pierced through a muscle. He had me sit up, and he applied some pressure to it, and the bleeding stopped pretty fast. I only spat blood once. On to the next round...
Jeremy positions the clamps onto my other markings, and the needle went in. I swear, I almost started screaming. It was horrendous pain. I can't begin to describe it. My blood began filling with blood, and after the jewelry was in, Jeremy had me sit up. I couldn't bear to shut my mouth, so I left it open. Got yelled at by Jeremy, so I spat into a cup. The cup was full blood, and soon after, so was my mouth again. So I spat, and rinsed with listerine, and spat half listerine-half blood. Then Jeremy did the worst thing ever (pain-wise). He took a couple paper towels from his roll, and put pressure on my freshly pierced tongue. Ouch. After about three minutes of my screaming as quietly as I could, he let me take a rest. My mouth was fast filling with blood again, so I spat. This time it was even better...half blood, half clots. Chunky, and liquid at the same time. I was starting to get pretty frightened that I was losing too much blood, so Jeremy put pressure on my tongue for a bout another twenty minutes. I couldn't take it any longer, so he let me leave.
Andrew drove me home, and we were talking ( I was trying at least), then we got to my apartment. I smoked a cigarette...my left side started bleeding. I rinsed my mouth. I spoke to my mom...my left side started bleeding. I rinsed my mouth. I did some drugs (drugs are bad, I've learned...not ONLY when dealing with piercings)....my left side started gushing. It took about half an hour to stop that time.
The next day, I woke up to the most painful after-piercing of my life, which lasted about two weeks. After a week or so, the swelling went down alot, and it's pretty well healed now. I'm gonna wait to change my barbells for about another month. All in all, the discomfort was worth it. Not only the discomfort and healing of the venoms, but all my other tongue piercings, too. So far, my project's moving along nicely.