It all started in my law class when my friend said I had an "abnormally large tongue web" and also stated that I could get it pierced. Me? Get my tongue web pierced? Was I insane? Probably.
At A Glance Author Through_My_Silence Contact punk_in_drublic3@hotmail.com When A week ago Artist A Guy Named Jeremy! :) Studio Artistic Impressions Location Ontario, Canada Now, being someone who doesn't have any piercings except for 4 holes in my ears (lobes only) the thought crossed my mind that it would be a different experience. A painful one, I thought, and a risk too.
But with my friend in tow we grabbed the bus and headed downtown to our local piercing and tattoo place, Artistics. The waiting room was full of people getting things pierced and getting jewelry changed to a bigger gauge and I thought my turn would never come. I filled out the paperwork in front of me then flipped through a couple of magazines to ease my mind a bit. The hardest part is waiting sometimes. My friend was planning on getting her bellybutton pierced and it was all good until she got in the piercing room and found she could not go through with it.
Somehow too quickly, it was my turn to get in the chair and get another hole in my head. I was nervous, I'll tell you that one. I thought it would bleed and swell up and be sore forever. I was shaking and nervous as I sat in the small room with the piercer and three of my friends. I'm going to be sick, I thought. But I swallowed my queasy feelings down and tried to act brave, even though I was not.
The piercer turned a light on over my head, which only made me more nervous and sweat a lot. He prepared his equipment and I gripped the arms of the black chair, my friends staying silent. I held my tongue to the roof of my mouth and felt the clamp be placed on it, and at that point I thought for sure I was going to call the whole thing off and forget about it. But the piercer asked if I was alright and to my own amazement I said yes and the next thing I knew he was telling me the needle was through and he was getting ready to put the ring on. It did not hurt half as much as I'd expected, and I was surprised at myself for not fainting or throwing up to be honest.
He gave me a moment to relax before putting the little black ball on, which seemed to be the most difficult part of the whole procedure that included pliers because I had a small mouth and he had rather large hands. Well we finally got it done and I was allowed to relax my jaw and tongue, the feeling of the ring rather unusual. I got to rinse my mouth with the yellow medicated Listerine, which in my opinion is the only bad part about having this because that Listerine tastes like liquid Vaseline! Yuck!
I was talking about five minutes after the procedure was done, which is not such a good idea, since it could force the piercing to migrate or develop gross scar tissue. I was not aware of that until afterwards. Imagine, a motor mouth like myself being as silent as possible for the sake of my new piercing. Everyone around me including friends and teachers were amazed!
And opposite to my belief that it would bleed and hurt a lot, there was barely any blood and the most painful part was probably getting it done. It did not swell very much and I could easily reduce it by using an ice cube but it could be uncomfortable. It impaired my speech a bit making me slur it a bit, but other than that, it's great!
Sticking to soft foods was too hard for me, so a day after I got my tongue web pierced, I decided to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken. Bad idea, really! After that experience I decided to switch to yogurt, ice cream and lots of cold water which in the end was the best thing for the piercing.
It's the fourth day after I got my piercing, and now it decides to swell up. I think Motrin works best for reducing the pain and swelling, but if you do not think about it, it will get better. I've cut my talking almost in half now since it is getting hard not to talk without a slur, but either way, I still love my piercing. If someone like me (scared of needles, my parent's reaction if they ever found out, and pain) could go through with this procedure, I'm sure many other people would be able to no problem. I think it's basically trying to look past your fears and just keep telling yourself that it will be all right. For me, overreacting was the worst part and almost made me pass up a great piercing.
But all in all, my parents do not know about it, which is a HUGE bonus (it is kind of hard to see this piercing unless you are staring down the back of someone's throat while they are talking and who does that?) I love my web piercing and it is a really unusual piercing to get, so if you have a big tongue web or your just feeling adventurous, get it pierced and enjoy! I sure am!