"Tongue stretching, what kind of extreme pain are we looking at here?" I asked my body piercer, Quille DeSade (Absolution Body Piercing, Christchurch, New Zealand (http://www.absolution.co.nz/quille.htm) "well, I could go through all the technical details with you......but in plain English, this will hurt like hell" Quille replies, in an open, matter of fact manner. I am slightly put off by this but never the less, "hook me up" I say "pain is my middle name!", which is far from the truth.
At A Glance Author dj konstruct Contact e-Z-g@mail.com When Two years ago Artist Quille DeSade Studio Absolution Body Piercing Location Christchurch, New Zealand A little about me; I am 19. I am a graphic designer and a drum & bass DJ. I have been fascinated by body modification since my friend had 2 tongue bars fitted up in 7th grade. I now am the proud owner of 4 body piercings, which doesn't sound much, but when you take into consideration that the majority of these have been stretched to reasonably large gauges, and that I have pierced all that I ever wanted to in the beginning, then it all seems worthwhile. I have both lobes stretched to 5 mil, a Prince Albert at 0 gauge (8 mil) and my tongue at 00 gauge (9.5 mil), which I will now continue to tell you about.
"Pain is my middle name!". So then Quille asks me "how large would you like to go?". I had already been planning the stretch for months, so the answer was clear and precise, "I want a 10 mil bar in my mouth!" I replied. He was a little surprised because he had never stretched anyone's tongue that far. It was safely possible but not widely practiced (at least not in this studio). Anyhow we decided to stretch two mil at a time, and see how we went. The jewelry had to be ordered from Wildcat in the UK, and shipped into New Zealand through Glamuzina Corp. So all I had to do was wait.
Two weeks have passed, I finally get a call from Absolution, "come on down, lets do this thing". An appointment was made for that Friday morning. Just a note, I love to get piercings / stretchings in rainy weather. I have no idea why! I think it has something to do with bad weather bringing me down, and body piercings / stretchings making me extremely happy and feeling great about myself! That kind of rollercoaster ride of emotions is and interesting experience.
Anyhow, I arrive on Friday morning, and having eaten some heart attack causing fast food, I felt good and smelt worse! Quille invites me into the 'operating studio' and closes the black, vinyl curtain behind him. This is THE cleanest studio I've ever been in. White tiles and walls, black décor and all sparkling clean. I take a hesitant seat on the black leather bed (noticing the reassuring Guinness World Record on the wall), and watch Quille ready his instruments (mainly a taper, and lubricant).
"ok, get comfortable", I lie back slowly, closing my eyes, and attempt to imagine yellow flowers, green grass and blue cloudless sky (don't ask, seems to go more 'peacefully' when I start this way!). "Alright, stick your tongue out". I do this, unscrewing the jewelry quickly and handing it to Quille. He changes his gloves once again, and clamps my tongue securely (this is moderately uncomfortable, as I can feel my tongue wanting to pull back into my mouth). He then slips the taper comfortably into my 12g hole and says "alright, I'm going to stretch on 3, ready?". I mumble an understandable yes, "OK, here we go, 1.....2......3 (by this point my heart is beating incredibly fast but I'm exited). He pushes the taper through, very steady and not to fast. The only way to describe the sensation as I can remember it is quite painful but at the same time, kind of uplifting! Sounds strange but that seems to describe it well enough.
"...and we're all done". Relief floods over me as the jewelry is screwed in (internally threaded barbell). I raise my hand to my forehead and realize how much I am sweating. Quille is saying something about how well I did, I am just drinking water and trying not to faint, which seemed quite a real possibility at the time (don't laugh until you try it!). Finally I stand up, ready to go, walk back out through the black vinyl curtain, and pay Quille what I owe him. I congratulate him on an excellent job, mention that I'll call him when I'm ready for the next stretch, and vacate the premises. (Wow, that was intense huh!)
Anyway, now comes the part where I am surprised that I have healed fully in about two and a half weeks! I call Quille and he isn't so sure, but I come in and he checks it out and gives me the thumbs up! We proceeded to stretch my tongue two mil, every two weeks. The final stretch (from 8 to 10 mil) was done a week before my graduation from college. By this time I had gained a reputation for being crazy and a little insane! But they all supported me and were stoked that I was the only one getting this done. It's great when you find a group of people that are not that much into what you're doing, but support you no matter what. It's a shame that it doesn't happen more often.
Continuing on, I was only able to make my college graduation speech because I was dosed up to the eyeballs on anti-swelling medication and could talk properly (as opposed to going drug free and lisping all the time!). Nobody noticed the difference and my family only found out that Christmas (3 weeks later), which didn't go down too well, but they got over it, eventually!
Kids, the moral of the story is; follow your body. Don't go stretching two mil every two weeks, if there's any doubt whatsoever, don't go ahead. I'm just one of those people that seem to heal faster than others. But everyone is different and if you follow what your body tells you then nothing can go wrong!
I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I hope it helps out a few people in making the right decisions. It can be fun and life changing when it's done right. Feel free to contact me with any questions or feedback.
Thank you and goodnight
edward J. scarf / dj kOnStRuCt