A little disclaimer. I do not advocate self piercings. They're not safe. I repeat, they are not safe.
At A Glance Author Anonymous Contact Anonymous@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Me myself and I Studio My room Location NYC Just to start, I am an 18 year old female living in New York City. I have not always been fascinated with piercings or tattoos. But when I began highschool, I noticed that alot of people there had different body modifications. Stretched lobes, multiple piercings, and tattoos. My parents have always been against body modifications of all sorts, especially my dad. My mother has 3 holes in each ear, so when I asked to get my ears pierced again, it would be a double standard to say no, so she let me go ahead with it. I now have 4 holes in each ear, one of which I did myself. (I know, stupid stupid me.)
I also have a self pierced navel, which was kept a secret for about 3 months, until my dad found out and made me take it out and throw it away. I didn't think that was very fair at all. I begged to get my eyebrow pierced, even though I knew he would say no...which he did. Begged for a tongue stud...also a big NO. After talking to a friend of my parents who had her nose pierced, and convincing my parents that the nose studs are so little, I got the okay to get my nose pierced, but freaked out at the last second when I realized the place I went to did it with a gun. Hmm, I guess there was something weird about that place when the price was only 10 bucks for a nose piercing. Needless to say, I did not go through with it.
I did a Google search phrase for "piercings," and came across the BME site. I've never seen a site like this before, about anything. Finally, a site made up almost entirely of stories and pictures submitted by different people all interested in the same thing, body mods. I was searching through it getting ideas on piercings I could hide. Nothing I saw was...me. I didn't want to get a tattoo, because they are permanent, and piercings aren't.
Anyway. I was sitting home one night, reading the experiences on BME, when I came across tongue web piercings. They looked so cute, and I knew I could keep it a secret if I had one. I read all the experiences, and looked at a number of photos. I did alot of research on them. I called a number of studios in my area, and none of them did tongue webs. I was very discouraged. A few days later, I again, was reading through the experiences on BME, unconciously playing with one of my earings. It was a barbell, the kind used for a tongue. I bought it in the hopes that I would get my tongue pierced, but I soon was wearing it as an earing. I took it out, and went to the bathroom.
I knew I could do this. It took me a few minutes to decide where the perfect spot would be. I used some Listerine, and I tried a few seperate times, but it was either too high, or too low. I used some more Listerine, and using a [new] sterilized safety pin, I started to push it through the right side of my tongue web. On the other side, I held the barbell. The safety pin went through, with a little bit of hesitation. As I started sliding it out the opposite way, I slid in the barbell. I was amazed that this entire process didn't hurt at all. Just a little pressure, but otherwise, no sharp pains.
Anyway. I had gotten the barbell all the way through, and the safety pin completely out. It took me a while to screw on the ball, because my hands were so slippery. I was getting frusturated. That's when the barbell fell out, and I paniced, cause I didn't want the hole to close up. But I got the barbell back in, and screwed on the ball. It looked sooo awesome.
I used some more Listerine, and went to bed. The next morning, it was a little sore. My friends thought it was the coolest thing. (The piercing itself was cool, not the fact that I did it myself). It remained sore for the first 3 days, then it was fine. I used Listerine about every 3 hours. Now, 6 days later, it is perfectly healed. My parents still haven't found out, and I really hope they don't. I like my piercing, and I'm very proud of it. Even though this piercing has a happy ending, with no infections and whatnot - not all experiences are like this. Please take caution with piercings, and do ot perform them yourself. Have an experiences piercing professional do these. Stay safe, and happy piercing.