Abruptly, several months ago, I decided that I wanted to get my tongue pierced. I am unsure what brought on this newfound desire; only that, seemingly overnight I went from having no interest at all in having a barbell through my tongue, to having an almost unbearable desire to have one. In the past, the idea of swelling and not being able to eat or talk put me off of the idea, but suddenly these things no longer mattered to me.
At A Glance Author Vampyremage Contact Vampyremage@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Mike Grante Studio Universal Location Victoria, British Columbia Not being the type to do anything on a whim, my first action was to view as many pictures and read as many experiences of tongue piercings as I could. Originally I was interested in a plain old center tongue, but then I found venoms and fell in love. I had to have these piercings. I would have gone and done them that very day, however I had promised my boyfriend that I would wait until after our vacation...which we weren't going on for nearly two months. The wait was agony.
Two months finally passed. Our vacation over, I made my appointment at Universal to get my venoms done. It was recommended by the piercer that I get both of them done at once. As he explained, it would be easier as far as swelling went. If I got them both done at once I would get all the unpleasantness of early healing done at one time as well. In addition, if I got them done separately I would either have to keep the longer barbell of the first piercing in longer than necessary, or reinsert the longer barbell when I got the second piercing done to accommodate the swelling.
Upon arriving at the studio, boyfriend accompanying me for moral support, I noticed that the studio was both very clean and quite busy. I had to sit there for about 5 minutes while Mike finished with another piercing. Finally it was my turn. The piercing room was around the corner and around the stairs from the front area where all the tattoos were being done. The room itself was fairly small and very clean, with a hazard bin in plane sight for used gloves and needles to be dropped into.
Once we arrived Mike checked my tongue for veins and spent about 5 minutes marking and remarking my tongue, to ensure proper alignment of the piercings. He then proceeded to put a drool bib onto me and got me to sit in the dentist chair type thing. By this point I was very nervous. The right side of my tongue was done first. First my tongue was dried and then the clamp was put on, which was uncomfortable but not to bad. My piercer told me to breathe in deeply and then breathe out in the same way. On the exhale he pierced me. The piecing definitely hurt, but not to badly. As per usual, with me, the nervousness before the piercing was worse than the actual piercing. Unfortunately I was only half way done.
I was left to sit and get used to the new piece of metal in my tongue for a couple of minutes while Mike changed gloves (one of my times) and prepared the clamp and needle for the next piercing. Then, once again, he clamped and pierced me. Breathe in deeply, breathe out deeply, and pierce. Unfortunately it was far more painful this time around. I think that by this time my tongue had begun to swell, as it seemed to take twice as long as the first one. Still, it was nothing that I couldn't handle.
At the conclusion of the second venom, I was given my aftercare instructions. I was told that I should be able to eat most things, but to cut them up really small in order to do so. After every meal and non water drink, I was supposed to rinse with Oral B mouthwash or a sea salt solution. I was also given a handy written copy of my aftercare instructions. In about a week I was supposed to return and get a shorter barbell. Aftercare taken care of, I paid, tipped and left.
My tongue swelled to about twice the size it normally was, filling the complete length of the barbell. Immediately following the piercing I had a little trouble speaking, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Rs and Ls in particular were difficult to say. I was told, however, that it wasn't all that noticeable. For the first 4 or 5 days eating was a fun adventure (insert sarcasm here). Although I was eating solid food immediately is was painful to do so and took a very long time. I had to cut it up into little tiny pieces and shove it into the sides of my mouth. My tongue hurt to move, so eating was not very much fun.
The swelling itself lasted longer than I expected. It wasn't until the 7th day after getting the piercing that it began to go down at all. Its now 9 days after getting it done and, although the swelling has finally began to go down some, its taking its sweet time about it. Now that the pain is gone and the swelling is slowly disappearing, I am finally able to appreciate the joys of this piercing. With every day that passes I am loving my new tongue more and more. As long as you are willing to endure a week of swelling and difficulty eating, I would recommend this piercing to anyone