At A Glance
Author	Chris
Contact	fooie@bigpond.net.au
When	A week ago
Artist	Janette
Studio	Acid Gear
Location	Australia

27th November 2005

Piercing time: 3.35pm

Current time: 7.00pm

Hello my name is 'Chris' and I live in Australia. Today, My birthday. I got my tongue pierced at the age of 16.

I have been wanting to get my tongue pierced for a few years now but my mother was always the same with the answer 'no' mainly because she thinks I was too young and she didn't think that me being 14 was necessary having it done.

So I kept on asking, and then I came out with "Well I'm 16 in 2 weeks and you only have to be 16 to get it done here so I'm just going to go and get it done" and to that she wasn't too impressed about, and then after a week said I could get it done, just as long as she were there.

I rang up on Friday to make the appointment for Sunday, 'my 16th birthday' so we were driving on the way to the piercing place at the shopping centre "I had heard good things about this place and everyone who had their tongue pierced there it always turned out well" so mum was thinking and decided to wait outside at one of the coffee shops to try and get over the fact that I was getting it done.

I walked in, and signed the form with my details and everything, there were about 5 other people getting pierced, a lady and her 2 daughters were getting their navels done. And then finally it was MY turn, so I walked into the room and sat on the bench.

I forget what the ladies name who pierced me was, she was only about 20 or early 20's but she asked me if I had any questions, and I said "yes I have one question, my tongue web is kind of close to the front, I was wondering if you could do it on an angle so that it would be a little bit back further" she told me to show her under my tongue and she said it was fine and that she could do it on a little bit of a angle of 2mm or so.

So now I'm sitting there, and not feeling nervous anymore because she was a really nice person and answered my questions. She then put on gloves and then washed her hands with an antiseptic soap on the gloves and told me to stick out my tongue so she could mark it, "while she was marking it she told me the bar was 20mm and that I would have to come back for a shorter bar after a week or two. Once she had marked it she told me to look in the mirror, it was about 2cm far back and I was happy with it and told her I was happy.

Okay, so now she put the clamps on, I didn't think that these hurt? everyone always seem to say that it does, to me it only felt like a little bit a pressure, she told me to breath in and out deeply and slowly, and then she pierced from the bottom up, I didn't feel the needle go through the bottom I only felt it go through the top, and then I felt her slide the needle out and put the bar in, and then she put the bottom ball on and told me to put my tongue back in carefully. She then asked for me to show her.

She then gave me a sheet and told me the aftercare details, and then made me swoosh with Listerine for about 4 minutes, and then I could have a look in the mirror, it was dead centred and everything was perfect and it didn't even bleed, and after the Listerine rinse it didn't hurt at all. I thanked her and was on my way. I then bought a slushie which felt good with the frozenness =).

I then walked out to greet my mother, and apparently I was walking dead casual like nothing had happened and she originally thought that I hadn't gotten it done, and then I showed her and she thought it looked cool but was a bit stressed out about it.. But she went and got me some Ibuprofen and Listerine.

So now 3 hours and 25 minutes later, there is no swelling and it doesn't hurt at all and the bar moves up and down without effort and no pain. So far I have been drinking water with about 6 ice cubs in it, to make sure that there will be hardly any swelling, well I have eaten chicken and salad so far without effort.

Healing Stage:

Day 1: 8.40am

I woke up this morning with no pain and I didn't find it hard to go to sleep at all, and I

wasn't playing with it at all, and it was just comfortable and wasn't really annoying me

any more, I had gotten use to the long bar.

First thing I did when I got up was brush my teeth and then did a Listerine rinse, Looking at my tongue. At 17 hours old, there was no swelling and no pain, at the moment I feel that it isn't even there, and I'm NOT playing with it, even though it is very hard to resist, also one good thing I have noticed that it hasn't effected my speech at all but I am still taking about 4 - 6 Ibuprofen a day just to help if there is going to be any pain or swelling which I haven't yet experienced which is all good.

3.39pm:

Still no swelling or pain, I have eaten Kebabs and then a Sandwich and that didn't really involve much effort, I was just being careful when chewing, and I only bit the top ball once and that was from getting a little over confident eating. I have noticed some white discharge like stuff on the top and bottom ball, apparently this is normal? I have just brushed it off with a cotton bud and then did a Listerine rinse, So far it's still not hurting but I'm still drinking icy water.

Day 2: 12.27pm

I have noticed that this white discharge only seems to be there in the morning when I wake up, and just gets removed when I do my Listerine rinse, this morning when I woke up my tongue hurt a little, but felt a hell of a lot better when I did a sea salt soak rinse.

Just then I looked at the top and bottom of my tongue, I have noticed that there seems to be this white skin growing around the hole, the bottom hole has a circle of it and then the top one has a half circle around it, I guess that this is normal? Forming the donut skin shape around the hole like on my labret. Good news though my tongue still hasn't swollen at all! And I can eat perfectly normal I'm still use Listerine when ever I eat something or drink something other than water!

Day 3: 12.02pm

I woke up this morning at 8.35am and the bottom of my tongue was really sore, but soon as I did a Listerine and Sea Salt soak it felt better as always, which is really good =). I am really getting sick of this bar, because it is really too long it sticks up about 6mm because I haven't had any swelling at all.

I can eat normally now, I don't even have to concentrate when I do, I've gotten use to the bar so it's all cool, I'm still cleaning it with Listerine after I eat, and it still has the whitish discharge coming out on the top and bottom in the mornings, but it's all good!

Day 5: 3.24pm

Oh, the joys of having your tongue pierced =).

This morning I woke up at around 10.30am *Late I know, but I went to bed at 3.30am* and I looked in the mirror to no surprise there was a little bit of puss/discharge on the top around my tongue, which was nothing compared to yesterday, 'Speaking of yesterday, I went out and bought some Difflam-C Mouthwash, it is the best, it's not only antiseptic but is also reliefs inflammation and makes your tongue/mouth go numb – even though my tongue wasn't swollen' I have already noticed from using it about 5 times a bigger difference in my tongue.

The only pain that I have experienced with my tongue, is the tenderness when I wake up in the morning which goes away after I do a 'Sea Salt Soak', so it's all good and my tongue is on it's way to healing =).

In Conclusion:

I think that my tongue piercing has been a very good experience and I would recommend anyone who is interested in getting it done, to go and do it! It is very fulfilling when you have wanted something to be 'pierced' for so long and then being able to get it done. I hope that everyone's tongue piercing experience is as pleasant as mine was =).

Regards,

Chris