Going on two months ago I got up the nerve to get my eyebrow pierced after wanting it for going on 4 years. When I discovered the pain was far less than I imagined and the healing process easy and comfortable I decided it was time to get something else done.
At A Glance Author Helen Contact Helen@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Darren Studio Skin FX Location Surfers Paradise, Australia I bought a tattoo as a christmas present for a friend so she decided to get a piercing for me in return. I agonised over what I wanted for a time before settling on getting my tongue done. I had never been interested in the procedure previously, due mainly to my huge fear of needles in the mouth (I used to whimper non-stop at the dentist!), but decided it was time I conquered my fears. I also could not get the labret piercing I was looking forward to due to work kicking up a stink about my eyebrow piercing (got to love retail).
I made sure that Darren was my piecer (he did an awesome job on my eyebrow) and went in at 10pm to get it done. I freaked out a bit before he called me into the studio, where he handed me a cup of mouthwash and told me to spit and rinse the lot. He then got me to poke my tongue out as far as possible and lift it up. Unfortunately I had great difficulty to getting my tongue out at the same time as lifting it up so he had to grab it and lift it with his fingers.
He then dried my tongue with some paper toweling and drew a dot on the topside with marker before telling me to lie down on the bench. Still poking my tongue out he grabbed the end with a clamp and pulled it taunt, then checked the underside.
Guess what? I couldn't get a standard piercing done because I have a blue vein running the length of the center of my tongue. However I'd already psyched myself up for the experience and wasn't going to let a little thing like that stop me. I told him to do it off center, after a bit of deliberating with the friend buying it for me.
Grabbing my tongue with the clamp again, Darren picked up the needle and slid it through the width of my tongue. The initial entry wound hurt with a sharp pain but the rest was little more than uncomfortable coupled with the alien feeling of having a foreign object in my tissue. Leaving the needle there he picked up the barbell, ready to insert it.
My chin started shaking at this point because I can't leave my mouth open that wide for such a long period, and I had to hold it still with my hand. I also began to withdraw my tongue with the needle still in it as a reflex motion. Darren laughed at me and asked what the hell I was doing to which I tried, unsuccessfully, to explain that my chin was shaking and I needed to stop it before my mouth closed on the needle. He then grabbed my tongue again and, with a little fiddling around, inserted the barbell and screwed the ball on top.
All done!! He handed me another cup of mouthwash to rinse and spit with, resulting in copious amounts of blood transferring between my lips and the cup. I then went to the mirror to check out his handiwork. My tongue had already begun to swell and was still bleeding, but it looked fine as far as I could tell.
It's been nearly a week since I got it done and the swelling has reduced quite a bit. Initially it swelled to the entire length of the bar, which made talking and eating extremely difficult. It wasn't painful exactly but incredibly annoying! Swallowing was difficult (I kept trying to swallow the ball on top) and eating required a huge amount of care and time. I am now used to the feeling and hardly notice the ball underneath (which initially was very agitating), and though done off center originally it has moved the center of my tongue. This means, because I have a crevice running down the center of my tongue (it is not flat), that this line runs around the piercing in a curve rather than running straight as it once did. The bottom of the piercing is still off center.
I am now interested in getting a second tongue piercing done to the front, sometime in the future. Darren inserted this piercing quite far back, leaving plenty of room for a second one without problem. I am going to wait until I have acquired the other piercings I am interested in first, to give the original time to heal.