At A Glance Author Me*Shell Contact iris_entropy@yahoo.com IAM Meshezebel When N/A Artist Me I don't know what drew me to pierce the little flap of skin under my tongue but I knew I just had to do it. It was a fairly typical day in my world, woke up, went on my computer, and logged into IAM. This lead to looking at the pictures in the tongue related section. I don't know what it was, maybe because a tongue web piercing is not visible unless you want it to be, or because I have a serious oral fixation, and enjoy having things in my mouth that I can play with (don't let your mind wander too much on that one), but it was likely both.
This was about a week before I actually had the supplies to do it. I found some oral antiseptic from a medical supply store when I was picking up a few pairs of prepackaged sterile gloves. I also went down to a local piercing place to get the jewelry I planned to put in my tongue web autoclaved. About one day later, I decided I was in the mood and the house was empty and quiet enough to go for it. I brushed my teeth for about two minutes, flossed, rinsed my mouth out with distilled water, and swished with the antiseptic for about a minute and a half. The funny thing is that in retrospect rinsing with the awful tasting antiseptic had hurt much more than the piercing itself.
I assembled all of my 'equipment,' a pair of latex gloves, still in their sterile waxy paper package, a sterile 14 gauge medical grade needle and the recently autoclaved captive bead ring. I had considered using a clamp, but I only have two hands and it didn't seem all that necessary for me personally. One swift poke. It was painless. Well relatively painless, I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt, but it was not so much a painful feeling, than a strange indescribable feeling. The needle slid through my tongue web like a hot knife through margarine. I had expected it to be slightly difficult to find the other side of the hole, but as it turned out I had no trouble putting in the cbr. I rinsed out my mouth, again with the antiseptic, and called it a night. I felt different, it wasn't so much the satisfaction of having something pierced that no one would know about unless I chose to show them, it was as if I was seeing everythin g around me in a new and alternate way. It is a bit hard to describe. At the time I felt enlightened, but now I blame the endorphins.
When I awoke the next morning it seemed that the events of the night before had been only a dream, as the area didn't hurt at all. My tongue immediately started playing with the ring. I tried to restrain that urge but noticed that whenever I was doing nothing, or thinking about something else, I was playing with it. I rinsed it with antiseptic and tried to leave it alone.
About a two weeks later, I noticed that there were while spots on either side of the piercing. That was not a good sign. I spoke with a women on iam who also had her tongue web pierced but it had rejected. She spoke of similar symptoms. For some reason (I really do not remember why I suddenly decided to switch) I decided to stop using the "antiseptic mouthwash" (not the same thing as the initial antiseptic) so religiously and instead use a sea salt and water mix. And to my surprise the white spots disappeared, and I could 'feel' the piercing healing better than before. I think that may have had to do with the alcohol content of the nobrand "antiseptic mouthwash." Since alcohol is an irritant, and so what I thought was helping the piercing heal, was only making healing more difficult.
Since then it has been a few weeks, and my piercing is showing no signs of rejecting. I have switched to a 7/16" titanium bent barbell after I chipped a very small part of one of my front teeth when I was going down a water slide and bit down on the ring after getting scared. But that was a freak accident, and isn't too horribly likely to happen to someone else. (though there is always a chance.)
I also realized another potential problem with this piercing on the same day. So just as a warning, if you have a kissing partner that happens to have a barbell in their tongue, and you have a ring in your tongue web, there is a chance that the two of you could get stuck together in a not so nice fashion. (which also led to the changing of the cbr to a barbell...)
I have some advice to those that are considering piercing themselves. Please! for your sake, NEVER use a safety pin. I've read several experiences where a person has done a piercing themselves with a safety pin, but has then regretted doing it after their piercing became infected. Safety pins aren't sterile, it doesn't matter if you soak them in alcohol, bleach, boil them, whatever. Don't use a safety pin. I recommend visiting a medical supply shop and purchasing a few needles or ordering them off BME. Make sure you have all the necessary supplies beforehand. When piercing you can never be too prepared or too clean.
If you are considering doing this piercing yourself, make sure you know what you are doing first. Research is essential. The tongue area is a very sensitive place and is full of veins and vessels, and one false move and you could have a serious problem on your hands (and in your mouth. ha ha)
If you aren't willing to put in the effort of making sure your piercing environment is safe and clean, then go to a professional that will.