I've had a passion for body modification since I was 9. Unfortunately i'm not able to pursue much in this area due to my parents, "No more piercings until you're moved out of the house". Currently (excluding my sub-lingual) I have only four piercings; two in each ear on the lobe. The bottom ones are stretched to 00g at the moment and the second ones are at 6g. I'm hoping to get my ears to 1/2" by the end of the year. I've been planning out what piercings I want for when I am 16 (won't need parental consent) and looking at ones that I wanted which weren't easily noticed. Then I found the sub-lingual (tongue web).
At A Glance Author Jess Contact oblivious_nothing_@hotmail.com When A month ago Artist Myka Studio Xhibit Location Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, B.C, Canada About a month later I decided upon piercing my own tongue web. I went and bought a thick sewing needle and salt without any iodine, I didn't have enough money to buy any suitable jewellery to put in. I am aware of all the risks involved in doing your own piercings, especially in the absence of proper equipment, but i'm stubborn and don't want to wait until I move out, and I just had the need to be pierced (I'm a slave to the needle).
After school I boiled some water and put the needle into the water for an hour to sanitize it as much as possible. I placed the earring stud in a container with the salt water formula and retrieved the needle. (Yes, I am aware how awful it is to use a cheap earring for this). I swilled my mouth with some salt water and made sure that I wanted to go through with this... OF COURSE I DID!
The piercing didn't hurt at all, but it took a really long time. The skin would keep on stretching with the needle so it wouldn't go through, eventually I stuck my fingers in and pushed the skin so the needle was able to go through. I played with that for a while, the needle looked neat by itself but it would constantly slip out or stab my gums. I left the needle in while I got the jewellery. I took out the needle and quickly put in the stud, it took over 30 minutes to put the backing on! It's extremely hard to get the tongue to stay in the correct position without the backing slipping out of my fingers. There was A LOT of excess saliva (drool). I once again swilled my mouth with the salt water. The piercing was a success and I didn't feel a thing, now I had to hide it and try and talk as normal as possible.
I did have a speech impediment for about a week and half, I would try my best to talk normally when my parents were around (which hurt) but I don't talk to them very often so it was fine. Eating was a bit of an obstacle though, I made sure to stay away from acidic and spicy foods but I would get my tongue caught on the stud while chewing or food would get in it so eating was awkward and a bit painful. Also, the backing on the stud was scraping away at my gums which stung, I really wish I had had the proper jewellery.
I went down to Xhibit (my favourite studio) once I had enough money to afford a CBR (six days later). The studio is the best one on the island and I had been there before and so had some friends and they were very clean and professional. I showed the guy at the counter (Myka) my piercing and he said it looked fine (aside from the jewellery). We talked for a while about dermal punches in ear cartilage and nostrils and then asked about jewellery for my tongue web. I chose my CBR (12g) and the bead for it (translucent red) and Myka put it in, all in all it cost about twenty-one dollars (somewhere in that range). He changed his gloves numerous times during the procedure and used an auto clave to sterilize all of the instruments being used. The whole process of closing the CBR took over 45 minutes! I was extremely happy with the results though and a week later I came back and tipped him ten dollars because I had to leave right away or else I would have missed my bus.
It's been a bit over a month (my parents still haven't found out) and it's doing great. There's been no irritation or any problems and it doesn't look like there's any signs of rejection. I recommend this piercing for anybody interested (though you shouldn't do it yourself). It's fun to play with but I probably shouldn't incase I rip it out. For my next piercings i'm going to be getting my nipples pierced with vertical barbells, but i'm getting those done professionally. I'll be doing that to celebrate my sixteenth birthday!