I remember the first time I had ever seen a tongue piercing was on Scary Spice, and I thought they were disgusting. As I grew older, I decided that maybe they were not so bad after all, and after seeing someone at a concert with one, I decided that yes, I would get my tongue pierced. I had told all my friends at school that I was going to get it done, so when the day of my appointment came, I could not back out, otherwise they would all think I had chickened out.
At A Glance Author cow_and_chicky Contact cow_and_chicky@bme.anon When Two years ago Studio Essential Beauty Location Adelaide, South Australia I caught the bus into the city with my best friend, Kat, who was completely against the idea of me getting my tongue pierced, so she was great support, when it happened to be one of the hottest days recorded in Adelaide. We walked into the Essential Beauty and I started to freak out. Kat left the shop all together because she did not want to watch.
I was taken into a little room, and the piercer (who's name I don't remember, because I had it done so long ago) told me to stick out my tongue. He made a dot in the centre and asked me if that position was ok. It looked good to me so we proceeded. He made me lie down on the bench, with my mouth open, and tongue out. I thought he was just going to put the clamp on my tongue, line the needle up then push it through, but he pushed the needle through at the same time that he put the clamp on. My first reaction was "ow that hurt for a clamp" then realised that it was the needle and it was all over. My tongue was now pierced. It didn't take long at all. I could not believe that I had actually gone through with it and kept looking at it in the mirror. It was awesome. I felt a bit woozy afterwards, so once I was at the cash register I just handed over my card, not really caring how much they were charging me for. It was meant to cost $60 for the piercing then another $25 for the tongue bar, but when I checked my account and the receipt, they had only charged me for the tongue bar. This was fine by me, but gave me the impression that to forget to charge me for this was pretty dodgy.
It started to swell instantly, and I could not talk. I had to write messages in my mobile and show it to Kat so she knew what I was trying to say. We got an ice drink, and sat in the city for a while. Sucking the drink through the straw was rather painful, and as the day progressed, the pain got worse. I had a terrible headache and felt completely out of it.
The next day, after not sleeping particularly well, I woke up to find my tongue had completely filled my mouth and was a purple-black colour. After rinsing my mouth with the solution that Essential Beauty had given me, most of the colour drained away, and it was just slightly purple. I had a terrible lisp, which disappeared after a week or 2, but to this day my friends still pay me out about it.
I did not eat well for the next few days. My attempt at eating a bread roll took at least an hour. So I decided eating was too painful and stopped. Another one of my friends mum's found out I had not eaten for a couple of days, so she force fed me yoghurt, which went down alright.
For the first week I was obsessed with it. Just could not stop looking at it. The biggest problem with that was that to see it properly I had to poke my tongue out, which was actually rather difficult and painful, and then every time I pulled my tongue back in, the bottom ball would get caught on my teeth, which I had to manually move with my hands. Another painful moment.
I was 16 when I got my tongue pierced, and had not asked my dad permission to get it done, I just did it. He did not notice it for 3 months, until my uncle saw it and pointed it out. My dad went ballistic at me. Told me it was a stupid and pointless thing to waste my money on, made me love it even more.
I love my tongue piercing, it's a part of me now and my friends now think it's weird if I don't have a bar in for one reason or another. I also got it done before it became an ultra popular piercing, where now i see that every second person has it done, so i feel that it's not as special or unique anymore. I do want more piercings, but unfortunately, because I work with food, I'm unable to have any more than 1 sleeper in each ear lobe, and that's it. Technically speaking I'm not even meant to have my tongue pierced. I am currently looking into surface piercings.
As much as it's a part of me now, I don't think I would go through with it again, now that I know what to expect. Advice for those of you who are thinking about it would be to find a good piercer you can trust, and research it. I did not do anything like that, just waltzed in and got it done, not knowing any of the risks involved. I was lucky because I did not have any complications. And if you are under 18, ask your parents, or at least let them know. I got it done without telling my dad, because I figured if I just did it, then he could not stop me from doing it.