Well, last week my boyfriend took his first tattoo design (from the cover of an Agoraphobic Nosebleed cover) to the local good tattooist's and while there hinted that he wanted me to get my tongue pierced, an idea I had toyed with before but decided against as my mate who got it done found talking hugely difficult - not something I would like to give up. But seconds after Pete (my bf) mentioned it aloud Lee (the tattooist) was also egging me on to get it done, so I though why the hell not. Apparently it is surprisingly easy to heal as saliva has healing qualities about it, and being a muscle is a priority for the body to heal and so happens very quickly.
At A Glance Author Laura* Contact closet_pirate@hotmail.com When It just happened Artist Lee Studio Artline Location Bedford, Bedfordshire, England So, I came back a week later (last saturday) for my bf's tattoo and my tongue piercing. My mate who also wanted it done but who is a coward let me go first then saw that I didn't even flinch when the needle went through and decided to go for it too. We waited around looking through tattoo books and taking pictures of my bf's cute facial expressions while having his tatt done...he was so scared, the cutey.
Before my piercing I asked some people hanging around in the shop what tongue piercings were like and they all said it was the easiest one they had got, which surprised me as piercing a huge muscle would usually strike me as just slightly painful.
Yeah, so...Lee checked my tongue for veins (he has his split so it was a bonus watching him make the tongue position...phwoaar. Apparently this is something that you could not possibly get done in England but can quite easily get on the continent (Europe), and saw that all was good and put some of this allegedly 'banana' flavoured numbing stuff in my mouth and told me to keep it in there til I went numb, which was pretty much immediately, and the stuff was pretty much disgusting though not unbearable...I tried to talk to people with the stuff in my mouth but resorted to using my mobile phone to communicate with everyone around or I would have started drooling.
After a few minutes of enduring the non-banana tasting stuff I spat it out, it felt likes there was loads in there - as Lee told me it would feel, clever guy (must have looked incredibly sexy at the time), and sat back and relaxed. I think I was too relxaed as Lee kept telling me not to cross my legs all the time - whch was difficult because those chairs are so very comfortable. I stuck my tongue out as far as I could and Lee pushed the needle through from the bottom to the top - all I felt was that somehting was going through my tongue, not any pain at all. Soon enough the enormous inch long bar was in and I was ready to go. All my mates were very disappointed that I had no speech afflictions, but I apparently have the perfect length tongue to pierce so talking was always going to be easy.
The important question I had to ask Lee was can I still drink, and the answer was yes but don't get drunk. Because alcohol is a natural antiseptic, so I plan to gargle with shots of vodka, hehehe.
Eating on the first day was so very difficult, because you can't use your tongue to push food back into your mouth or get food out of your teeth, so I stuck to yoghurts and jelly, I tried to eat some toast but I kept getting into fits of laughter, it was a bit like that thing where you try to make a fist when you've just woken up but with your tongue - yeah...so I got a lot of weird looks from my bf's paretns at that stage haha. The next day I looked in the mirror to find a huge bruised stripe down the centre of my tongue, which I wasn't surprised to see but its gone now (2 days later)I managed toast in the morning and later on a full roast dinner and havn't looked back since, so I'm doing quite well. Oh, lolli-pops dont do too well with it, but ice lollies are great - remember that.
I can also still smoke and kiss and do other things without a whole lot of pain too, so generally I would say if you fancy getting your tongue pierced go for it, its really easy to hide from unsuspecting parents, doesn't hurt and looks fantastic and sexy. It is also a particularly original piercing and I think that there is a possibility for myself to have additional tongue piercings the keep this one company...its alreay feeling lonely hehe. But anyway, next on the agenda is a labret. On friday. I will also say that this was my 15th piercing, having had 5 in each lobe, a helix in each ear, my nose, navel and now my tongue done...so I am no stranger to the world of piercing - this may be one for people with a bit of experience but I don't know everyone ofcourse.