My boyfriend was gone for two weeks (on tour with his band) so I decided it was the perfect time to get my triangle pierced. Next to that, I've always wanted some oral piercing, but not a visible one, so tongue-web was the way to go. But I'm more a "one-piercing-at-a-time"-person. However, man0whore had his tongue-web done a couple of days before me, and he convinced me that it was a breeze, plus it was pretty cheap. So, I decided to get my tongue-web as well.
At A Glance Author psychonautje Contact psychonautje@bme.anon IAM psychonautje When It just happened Artist Roel Studio Lifestyle Location Maastricht, The Netherlands I dragged along the singer of my band for mental support and to be my photographer. I picked her up and off we were to Maastricht. First we had lunch and ran some errands, and then we were off to Lifestyle. We went in and I told Isabelle (the floor-manager) that I wanted a triangle and a tongue-web. We discussed aftercare for a short while and then she told me to go to the piercing room and my piercer Roel would be there in a minute.
Me and my friend went into a room with a dentist-chair-type-o'-thing. I thought that was weird because I assumed that we would need a medical-bed-thingy for the triangle, but I sat down on the chair anyway. Roel came in and asked me to go to the other room. And in that room there was indeed a bed-thingy. I asked Roel what he'd suggested to do first, and he said the tongue-web because it was the least painful. Roel adjusted the bed so I could sit upright and my friend got the camera ready.
Roel checked if my tongue-web was suitable for piercing, and it was all good. We decided on a CBR (16ga I think). I swished with Listerine while he explained that it didn't really make sense to show me where it exactly would be, and I told him to just clamp it and go for it. So there I was, with my mouth wide open and my tongue up against my mouth. Roel clamped my web, which was kind of sensitive but not really painful, and my friend started taking pictures. Breathe in, breathe out, needle through. I felt a slightly painful little pinch but the feeling subsided right away. Roel cut of the ends of the canula.
Almost done, you would think. NOT. Roel has big hands, I have a tiny mouth, so putting in the jewelry took a lot of tries. First he tried doing it with his hands, but gave up after fiddling around and pulling on my fresh tongue-web for a while, and dropping the CBR in my mouth several times. My jaws started cramping from keeping my mouth open and my tongue up. My tongue started trembling too. Roel grabbed a little clamp to help guide the CBR through and succeeded after a few times. I could feel the CBR slide through, but it was not painful.
Only the ball left. My jaws really started hurting and Roel kept pulling and tugging softly to try and get the ball in. That was actually the most painful part, all the tugging hurt way more than the piercing itself. The ball fell a couple of times, but after a few minutes it was finally in and I could close my poor tortured jaws and put my tongue down. We discussed aftercare: swish a bunch of times with pure Listerine a day. I decided not to do that as Listerine is way too harsh on a fresh piercing. So I use diluted Listerine after every big meal at a "I-just-poor-something-in-a-cup-ratio", but definitely more water than Listerine. Maybe that's still too strong, but it should be fine. During the day I use some salt-water solution to swish every now and then.
The first hours it felt like someone was constantly pulling my tongue-web, and it felt weird to have a piece of metal under my tongue. It reminded me of how it felt when I just had my braces. I had a slight lisp, too, but that went away pretty quickly. The first few hours my saliva production was higher than usually, I suppose because the ring rests on the salivatory glands. I ate soup with some bread that night, which was fine, no troubles eating. I kept thinking that there was some food left underneath my tongue though. Also, the movement of my tongue was kind of restricted because it hurts to stretch out the web.
The day after I woke up and the pain in my jaws was gone. It still felt weird having that ring underneath my tongue, I could especially feel the ball very well. My tongue-web seemed slightly swollen, but not any redder than usual. The feeling that somebody was constantly pulling my tongue-web was still there but a lot less. I'm eating some sandwiches right now and that's no problem, though I eat a little slower than usual. It's not more painful than not eating.
I hope it heals well and doesn't reject, even though it is a completely useless piercing. It's just my funny little secret!