I had discussed the possibility of getting my tongue pierced for a while now, and decided that it was finally time to stop talking and to get to a piercing shop and get a hole stuck through it! Well, that may sound simple, however being away at college this put me over two hours away from my normal piercer back home! So, I did a little research on a place called Tattoo Charlie's in Lexington, a friend of mine had a tattoo done at, and decided I'd check the place out, and if I felt comfortable with the shop and the piercer I would get this done there.
At A Glance Author Dawn Contact Dawn@bme.anon IAM Dawnie When Three months ago Artist Chris Studio Tattoo Charlie's Location Lexington, KY We drove to Lexington, Kentucky to get to the shop, it was around eight at night and dark, so we had a little problem finding the shop and ended up lost. However, I had luckily called the shop to check pricing before I left, so it was still on the memory of my cell phone, so I called the shop, told them I was lost and they kindly directed me on my way to the shop.
So, I pull into the parking lot and my fiancé was in the car as well, considering it was Valentines Day! We get out of the car and embark on my next piercing experience! We walk into the shop, there are people getting tattooed, people checking out flash on the walls and someone in the piercing room getting pierced! So, Matt and I browse around the shop and everything seems to look okay. I am feeling rather confident in the place, now all I have to do is meet the piercer.
The piercer finally is available, and I go up and talk to him for a few minutes. He seemed like a nice guy and I decided that he seemed trustworthy. So, I told him that I wanted my tongue pierced, and he did some preparing in the piercing room, and then asked me to come in the room. So I did, had a seat in the piercing chair and let him set up. Now at this time in my experience I am feeling comfortable, yet not quite as comfortable as I would have been in my familiar piercers chair back home!
So, he is finally set up. He gives me a cup of mouthwash to swish around to cleanse my mouth, when I am done with it, he tells me to stick out my tongue, he then blots my tongue to dry it off before the marking, he examines my tongue on top and bottom to be sure I was suitable for piercing, as well as how he was going to position the piercing exactly. Since I had a vein that ran through it, he had to be extra careful to get the exact positioning correct!
He finally was able to clamp my tongue and mark a spot, at this point I am feeling fine, not nervous at all, however I am feeling a bit uncomfortable with my tongue clamped out of my mouth! So he prepares the needle and tells me to take in a deep breath, then in what felt like three steps through my tongue the needle was through. My fiance was standing outside the window of the piercing room and said that I made a horrid face, I must admit for some strange reason this piercing did seem to bother me a bit, maybe it was the three step process, I am not sure really what caused it! But it wasn't that bad, I would do it again in a heart beat! I have many other piercings, so I do enjoy the pain they produce and the whole experience, just seems so liberating and freeing to me.
Okay, so he slides the barbell in and I rinse with mouthwash once again. He goes over all of the instructions with me, gives me a card, brochure, mouthwash and I am on my way to pay! I pay and tip him, tell him "thanks" in an awkward manner and my fiance and I head back to the car.
At this point my tongue is all ready swollen, and I am quite uncomfortable, and can not talk all that great. I stop and get some ice on the way home to suck on and then take some advil for swelling. My tongue seemed to swell for almost a week, and I continued to talk less awkward everyday as the swelling continued to go down. I will admit this piercing was a pest when it came to eating food for the first week or so! But I managed to eat by placing the food on my back teeth and slowly chewing. Eating became a lot easier after the swelling came down and before long I became totally back to normal.
I must advise anyone who thinks about getting this piercing to use Biotene mouth wash, I absolutely loved it! It was very gentle, is alcohol free and has no sugar in it so it is good for your teeth, it is not to strong and tastes okay! It was also piercer recommended for both my tongue and lip piercing, so if you can, try it out!
It has been about two months and of course my tongue is totally healed. I had no problems with infections or anything during the healing process. So, I must say this has been a pleasant piercing experience! The only problem I have ran into at all would have to be the occasional accidental biting of the barbell when I ate at first!
So, this was my experience! I hope you enjoyed, and have been able to grasp any information you may have been searching for, if you have any questions feel free to email me!
Happy Piercing!