About a month ago I made the utmost impulsive decision to have my tongue pierced over spring break. This gave me time to hide away at my grandmother's house for the allotted two weeks of vacation from school. This placed me at a safe distance from my sub-tyrannical father who had already referred to me as a "pin cushion" for having a handful of various ear piercings.
At A Glance Author jay Contact bananyboy@aim.com When A month ago Studio Tattoo U Location Bayonne, NJ Being as I am underage, I would bribe my, otherwise, useless maternal entity to grant me permission and bring me to have the procedure done. Sure enough all I had to do was mention an impressive, ficticious report card, and she agreed. However, she, like myself, was worried she would be in trouble with my father. Confident enough that I could hide this piercing successfully, I assured her no trouble.
About a week later, the first Monday of my spring break vacation, I headed into Jersey City to my mother's house. I was relying on making my usual walk-in routine at Chilltown Tattoo and Body Piercing located right around the corner from my mother's house. But to no avail, there as no answer to the phone, and a visit revealed that the door was locked.
Option B was to visit an equally reputable shop in Bayonne for the first time. The upside to this journey was that it was located in the same city as my grandmother. After a reassuring phone call with a friendly man informing me to bring photo ID and a parent or legal guardian we were off on the #10 bus to 16th street to Tattoo U.
The shop itself was reasonably shabby on the outside. Once we walked in we fell into an immediate trance with a foyer full of art work and cases of jewelery. A tall man with long hair suddenly appeared from a back room to ask if we needed assistance. I told him I had called in reference to a tongue piercing and he informed me that he was just finishing up with a tattoo patient and would be twenty minutes. Much to my pleasure, I continued viewing the artwork until my turn was up.
After showing valid ID and signing a release form I was off to the back with the funny man who had already prepared the room. Unlike Chilltown, he hadn't showed me the sterile packaging, or allowed me to view the autoclaving of the jewelry. This made me nervous, but not enough to knock me from going through with this desperate desire of mine. The jewelery was a LONG (to accommodate swelling) Stainless Steel 14 gauge barbell which I was perfectly fine with, as I had no preferences other than to have a whole in my tongue in the end.
The process went as follows: 1)I rinsed with Listerine for 60 seconds. 2)I sat sideways on a dentist-like chair. 3)I was pierced without agreeing on a placement (although center was assumed).4)Rinsed again.
The pain,honestly, was bad for what I had expected. I had always been honest with people when they asked if piercings such as my tragus hurt,by saying "no". I could not say the same about this piercing. I blame this on my fear of oral pain; especially when I go to the dentist.
Aftercare was simple. The Aftercare sheet given to me made it even simpler including tips to reduce swelling and tips on eating. I was advised to brush and rinse with Biotene after every meal for the first week or so. After that rinse sparingly.
A month later, the only problem I have had, aside from terrible initial swelling, and a horrendous lisp, is a dead flab of unsightly tissue on the bottom exit hole. I attribute my success to my excessiveness in aftercare regulations. I plan to get the bar changed some time this week, actually. And, fortunately, my plan has been 100% successful; my father hasn't noticed at all. Perhaps this is because I speak as if I have lockjaw around him. Nevertheless, he hasn't realized.
Much less to my aspirations, the piercing has faded into just an accessory to me. What once was a joyful fantasy turned out to be nothing more than a satisfactory addition to my body. What I crave in getting pierced is feeling in my own odd way that that part of me was destined to be modified. Perhaps this can be explained by this particular piercing's mainstream popularity amongst my peers. To me the piercing symbolizes lingual supremacy. Decorating my tongue, the source of expressive output through speech, to me is exhilarating...nothing half of my peers may understand fully anyway.
Without rambling on, I would not only advocate having this piercing done for the right reasons, but I recommend it. Also, I would highly suggest both Chilltown Tattoo and Body Piercing and Tattoo U if you are in the local vicinity.