I'd wanted my tongue pierced for a good 6 months, since about my 17th birthday, but every time I came close to actually going through with it I chickened out. I was scared of the pain, not doing the after care properly and getting a major body part filled with an infection and how badly my parents would flip when I did it. I have laid back parents who tended to think along the lines of if they stopped me doing it I'd do it behind their backs anyway but it didn't stop me worrying about being chucked out when they found out.
At A Glance Author Lexy Bleu Contact Lexy Bleu@bme.anon When It just happened Artist A Nice Looking Piercist Dude Studio On Sackville Road Location Bexhill, East Sussex
More recently, I'd been doing my homework, reading BME and asking my old piercist about tongue piercings and my fears were slowly being eased. I spoke to both my parents about it to avoid any rows about me doing it behind their backs, and they both said it was my tongue and I could do what I wanted to it (yay!). A girl my mum and I work with had her's done and I think that eased my mum's fears about it a bit. The main concern was infection or the piercist hitting a major vein during the piercing.
I decided on a day to have it done and I convinced my best friend to go with me for moral support (I'd given up trying to get her to have her lip pierced) so we headed off on a hike to the tattooists that I'd heard were good at piercings and the same place as my work mate had had hers done. After my friend and I went the wrong way down the road and ended up walking for about 15 minutes in the opposite direction I was close to giving up, feeling I was just not supposed to have my tongue pierced!
We walked into town and I said I wanted to have a quick look at a new body mod studio I'd heard about (the name of which I can't remember!) and I went in and started enquiring about prices. £30. Seemed reasonable, same price as the other place and it was a lot easier to get to if anything did go wrong or when the time came to have a smaller bar put in. So I decided to do it then and there to stop myself thinking about it and talking myself out of it again.
The guy walked me through to the back and I lay on a sort of couch thing like you get in a nurses room. He told me to stick my tongue out (which I got wrong, you'd be surprised how many ways there are to poke your tongue out!) and put the clamps on (which I thought looked suspiciously like kitchen tongs). I closed my eyes at this point coz I knew what was coming next, I felt something go into my tongue and a tiny bit of pain when it came out the other side which was just enough to make my eyes water (I hadn't had anything to numb my mouth!) but I was shocked at how pain free it was. I decided it hurt less than when they give you injections at the dentist and the pain afterwards is similar to having bitten your tongue but a lot, LOT milder. I bled a bit but I was expecting that. The bar felt huge. I gave the guy my money and he said to come back in a fortnight to have a look at it to see if the bar could be changed to a smaller one and to buy myself an ice lolly to help keep the swelling to a minimum and to wash it with salt water and Listerine every day to keep it clean.
I went to see Keane at a beer festival afterwards and I felt no pain at all! I slurred like mad which didn't look too good after having been to a beer festival and I have a slight lisp but other than that everything is fine, I'm starting to get used to it being there and it's affecting me less now. I even managed to eat a pizza for dinner and I only had it done yesterday! It was a bit slow going though, you don't realise how much you use your tongue for swallowing till you have a bar though it!
I'd totally recommend tongue piercings to anyone, I was so scared that I was shaking in the studio but I'm so pleased I went through with it. It's kinda like you're own bad ass secret, you can look as pure and innocent from the outside but only you know you have a metal bar in your mouth.
The horror stories you hear about people bleeding excessively are rare, and I barely felt a thing without being numbed!
If you're really serious about having it done, do some research on other people's experiences and talk to your local studio, but I can honestly say they're not as scary as you think they'll be!