I've been into piercing and "subculture" for almost 4 years (I'm 14 now). I suppose it all started when I got my cartilage pierced for the first time on my right ear. I thought I was really cool to have this piercing, because no one in my year at school had it done. But, obviously, I was a loser with an extremely popular piercing. I soon noticed it, and started to look for other, what I thought to be, extreme piercings. I pierced my lobes again myself, so I had 5 piercings in total. And then I found BMEzine.com. So I looked up various piercings and when I was 12, I got an tragus, followed by a navel piercing, and many other lobe/cartilage piercings. About a year later, I decided that this wasn't enough, and got my nose pierced, tongue web, an industrial and lower navel. As well as stretching my lobes up to 8mm and 5mm.
At A Glance Author Laura Contact urge_cleanse@hotmail.com When A month ago Artist Lynne Studio Brian Carville's Location Berkshire, UK. And after about a year of constant whining to my parents, they allowed me to get my tongue pierced for my 14th birthday. For some reason, I became really worked up (excited and scared) about getting pierced. It was the first relatively dangerous piercing I'd had, so I guess that just added to the suspense. I couldn't get my tongue pierced on my birthday, as I was staying at my Auntie's, so about a week before it, my parents took me to the piercing Studio. I'd had a few piercings done there before, so I knew the lady and trusted her.
She brought out the consent forms for my mother to sign, my father waited in the car because he didn't want anything to do with it. For some reason, he's totally against me getting piercings, but still agrees to them after a while. I think he's starting to notice that even with piercings, I'm a nice person, if not nicer, and that piercings aren't just for "criminals" and "drug addicts".
I had to wait about 20 minutes before I could get pierced, because Lynne was finishing off the outline on someone's tattoo. So I just waited and looked at all of the flash on the walls, and made conversation with George her daughter. George had her tongue pierced about 3 times, and said it didn't hurt... But I still didn't believe her.
The person with the outline walked into the waiting room, and I realised that it was now time for me to get pierced. I was really, really worried by now. I'd heard from people that it REALLY hurts, and I'd also read all of those scare stories about how the piercer hit a blood vessel. So I walked into the room, and sat down on the chair. I took some deep breaths, and just tried to keep myself calm. I was doing really well until I saw her take out the clamps, needle, jewellery, and numbing solution. She put this gel stuff that numbs onto the clamps and then clamped my tongue, and waited a couple of minutes. I really didn't feel a "pressure" or pain at all during this... Even though people say the clamping is the most painful part of the piercing. And then it was time for her to actually pierce me. It took me a few attempts to get my tongue fully relaxed, as I was nervous and the tip just wouldn't relax... But once it was relaxed, she got the needle, made sure it was straight a nd pushed it through. I didn't feel anything at all. In some weird way, I was kind of disappointed. I expected some pain at least, but I could just feel the needle going through. It was strange. She then put the barbell through, and screwed the ball on. I didn't dribble at all, but sprayed when I spoke... I'm a dork :">
I paid her the £35 for it, and she told me to come back in a couple of weeks to get the bar downsized. I started off with a 14ga 25mm bar, and am now down to a 12mm, which I still feel is too big. I think my tongue's vanishing away to nothing :| Swelling wasn't really a problem, but I couldn't eat hard food for about 4 days. After that I could do anything really. The big bar was awkward, and I never got used to it... My father wanted to see it the next day, to my surprise. So I showed him, and he cringed. It made me giggle a bit, buut it was nice of him to show some interest in what I was doing to myself.
Ever since, I've had no problems whatsoever with my tongue, and I still do salt soaks every couple of days just to make sure food isn't getting caught and doing something nasty :"> And... Feel free to e-mail and ask questions about any of my piercings. I *will* reply... I'm just lazy and it might take a while...