Some piercings have always scared me. In fact there was a time when most scared me if i'm honest with myself, so I guess the best way to overcome those fears is to go out there and do the thing we fear. I overcame my piercing fear at the beginning of the year when I got my first proper piercing with a needle. Since then I've had a lot of work done. But the one that always seemed to worry me was my tongue.
At A Glance Author Gary Contact Gary@bme.anon IAM Soralan When Six months ago Artist stuart Studio otherside Location belfast
Don't ask me why, I don't honestly know, probably just because its something we are all very aware of having. We can feel it in our mouths and we eat and taste with it. Our ears? They are stuck to the side of our faces doing not a lot really, same as our noses, if we have a big nose we see the end of it (ok I will admit they have purpose, but we are not exactly as aware of them as out tongue). So the idea of getting my tongue pierced scared me just a little. What if it swelled up and never went down, what if the feeling of the metal in my mouth bugs the hell out of me? All these what if's spinning around inside my head. I was worrying over nothing, My tongue is now my favorite piercing for the simple reason it is in my mouth and I can always feel it. I can play with it and fuck does it feel good. I first started to realise what a fun piercing it was shortly after getting it done and I started to feel damn horny with it in there - yeah horny. Well we all know the other reasons people get there tongues done don't we? I couldn't wait to try it out and see what the fuss was all about.
So I visited my usual studio for getting piercings and was considering what to get done before I finally decided on the tongue. So money was handed over and the usual forms filled out, asking if I had any diseases or afflictions. I had been in the week before and the guys know me now so we joked about how I hope I had not caught anything in the space of a week. Stu ushers me into the piercing room, asking me to close the door behind me as always, before I sit myself down on the table/bed thing to get marked up. Im asked to stick my tongue out and Stu sprays some stuff on it to numb it before marking the top side, then asks me to curl it up so he can mark the bottom. He explains that he does it an angle so as to avoid my tongue web. He then says that he will be using clamps and shows me them in the autoclave bag, as well as the sterile barbell he will be using. Fuck it was big! It scared me when I saw how big it was. He explained that it was because my tongue would swell so much. He would be putting a shorter bar in when that went down and the hole had healed up after a few weeks.So he asks me to hold my tongue out while he lines up the clamps. will admit I couldn't get my tongue out that far, and the clamps were very irritating. Stu got a little aggravated with me and my tongue before he gently twisted my tongue slightly and pierced it. There was a short sharp pain and then nothing. It was done. As soon as it was done he handed me some paper towels, and rightly so, the drool that issues forth was quite impressive. I tried talking next and I was surprised, I was expecting to loose my ability to talk or at least have a slight lisp but I seemed to be ok. I took a look in the mirror and noticed how the barbell was standing up in my mouth. He says thats good, normally they take a while to sit like that. He goes over the aftercare, its really rather simple. Oral B twice a day, and after meals. Don't play with it and don't do this - he then gets his own and flips it out in front of his top teeth to demonstrate.
As mentioned I was to return to get the barbell changed, the receipt says after two weeks, I was told its more like four. So I return after three. Im told NO, my tongue has torn and im asked if I was playing with it. Well not quite playing. But I went to a gig and kissed a pretty girl that started talking to me, so that never helped. So a few weeks later and I return again. Its still torn but getting better im told. Try again in a few more week. In total it took twelve weeks to fully heal before he could change it. One of the longest he had seen he said but no harm it was all ready to go now and I had already fallen in love with my tongue piercing.
Since then (about 3 months) I have also stretched it up to 2.4mm, which didn't hurt to do, but about a week later it started to hurt, But this was soon cured with some oral B. I love it even more now its thicker. I think ill stop at 4mm, maybe 5mm but really im unsure.