BME
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Didn't catch it Studio Plug Location Leicester/England
Ever since I had had a needle through my ears on a few occasions, I always have the urge for something new. After trawling BME for something interesting and hidden, I found lots of ideas. The majority were surface piercings and after being heavily advised that they take a lot of work, I thought I should give it a miss for the time being. Then I came across the tongue web. I'd always wanted my tongue pierced but after hearing some of my friends lisping relentlessly, it put me off a bit. Also if my mother had seen it – which she obviously would – I would have been in much trouble.
After reading up on tongue webs for a few days, I decided to phone my regular piercer. After just a few seconds, he told me he wouldn't do it. Shot down, I asked him if he knew anywhere that would. He gave me two names of local piercing studios and so I went in at the weekend to have a look around the places.
In the first place, everything seemed fine, except for when she showed me the jewellery she would put in. Not only was it black (I'm a silver fan) it was about 15mm and I didn't fancy having that under my tongue. I went to the next place and everything was better – clean, sterile, friendly; what you'd want in a good piercing studio. I told the guy (I didn't catch your name, sorry) that I'd be in next weekend.
After psyching myself up for it all week, judgement day came and I went into town with my dad and my friend to go to Plug to get it done. After talking to the guy for a few minutes about aftercare and after telling my dad I won't get any more piercings for a while, I went through to the back room with my friend, and my dad left.
I sat up on the chair and felt suspiciously like I was at the dentist. THAT didn't help my situation much. When he showed me the bar again – a 10mm straight barbell – in its sterilised packet and he got to work getting the sterilised clamps and needle out on the twice cleaned tray. He also changed his gloves twice which pleased me.
I gripped my hands together as he was asking me if I was ok with needles and as I agreed, he told me to open my mouth and put my tongue on the roof of my mouth. This was just awkward more than anything. And again, when he put the clamps on my web, it was just awkward having metal in my mouth, again re-enforcing the dentist feeling. Most people say that the clamps were the most painful part but my piercer just held them in place lightly so I couldn't feel much. He then asked me if I was ready and on my 'yes' he pushed the needle into the web. To say it hurt would be a lie, it wasn't pain free but it was only a slight discomfort. I don't like strange pains in my mouth so my eyes welled up. It annoyed me because it didn't hurt; it was just one of those strange things.
He took the needle out and trimmed the outer casing. As my mouth had been open for a while, he asked me if I wanted to swallow. My friend and I had a laugh about how I was swallowing, still with this tube of plastic sticking out of my mouth. My eyes had calmed down now and I was in no pain whatsoever. He threaded the end of the barbell into the tubing and pulled so the bar would go into my tongue. There was the slightest bit of discomfort when he was doing that as he twisted the web slightly, the unfamiliar pressure taking me by surprise.
The next part is the bit I was dreading. Getting the ball on the end. I'd read about how there were people who were in the studio for many minutes simply for the artist to get the ball on. Then again, most of them were CBR's and that's not what I'd chosen to have put in. It all went remarkably well and he managed to screw the ball on with no problems at all.
When we were finished, he asked me if I wanted a glass of cold water and I agreed. I looked in the mirror and because my web was so small and the bar was big, it looked a bit odd but he told me it'd find its natural placement soon. He told me that I need to clean it 6 times a day with green Listerine as its gentle enough to be used in such a sensitive area. Despite my friend (who is heavily into body mods herself) squirming at every point during the procedure and me talking about it beforehand, she agreed that it looked nice.
I was very very pleased with it, as I told the piercer, whose name I didn't manage to catch. Shame. He told me that I could go back in a few weeks and he'd check on it and possibly change the bar to a smaller one when the swelling goes down. I thanked and paid him the £25 we'd agreed and he gave me an aftercare leaflet for me to read through. Walking out the shop, I jumped off the front step and was so elated with my newly improved tongue. I took a picture with my camera phone and decided to share it with many of my friends.
Because I was out all day and evening, I needed to buy some Listerine from the local Boots and just try and just try and clean it as much as possible. I saw my friends in a shop and showed them – they squealed. They didn't really like it but the looks on their faces were priceless.
I was surprised at the lack of pain but in the end when just simply sitting in a cinema and not moving it, it started to ache a little bit. Nothing unbearable at all, just a small throb. I went into the toilets and rinsed my mouth with the Listerine. This again made my eyes water but that's always the effect mouthwash has on me. It numbed the pain in fact, which was good. Also, my web had swollen to about 7mm so the bar wasn't as loose and moving in my mouth.
As I was going to see Fall Out Boy in the evening, I was paranoid that I wasn't going to be able to sing. Talking was perfectly fine but singing is a different matter – your mouth and tongue having to work... 'Bigger', if that makes sense. But in the end, everything all turned out fine; I was able to sing my heart out and now, the morning after, it's just my throat that's in pain!
I would recommend this to anybody who is thinking about getting it done. I also recommend Plug in Leicester as the guy was very friendly, reassuring and safe. It looks beautiful and feels great, it heals quickly and is extremely well hidden. My mother hasn't noticed and I doubt she will – I have perfect speech and I can eat relatively well. I wouldn't advise eating anything sticky though. I attempted to eat a mars bar yesterday and because the caramel got stuck in various places, it was annoying to eat to say the least.