I've actually had two tries to get my tongue piercing right. The first one was during high school after my eighteenth birthday. I knew I wanted to get some kind of piercing done, but couldn't decide what place to get it. I didn't want to one in a place that would leave a noticeable scar once I took it out, and I finally decided on my tongue as the perfect place.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When Two years ago After consulting tons of friends and checking info on the internet I went to a random, no name tattoo shop somewhere around Huntington, NY. The girl I went with had her tattoos done there and at least said the place was clean and everyone there was nice. Rather than have a major case of nerves, I was really calm (probably because of the anticipating of sticking it to my parents) and once they told me to stick out my tongue, it was over in a second. The whole experience was really quick and almost totally painless. While I couldn't eat or talk very well, I made sure to follow the whole Listerine mantra and pretty much ate nothing but soup for a week. Everything was fine for the first week until one night, probably after the 8th or 9th day, I woke up in the middle of the night with my mouth filled with blood. I had no idea what happened and rushed to the bathroom to check it out. Apparently, while I was sleeping something happened and the barbell had ripped a larger hole. Maybe it got stuck to the roof of my mouth (Listerine does dry it out really badly); maybe I bit down on the ball without knowing it. I still have no idea what happened. So, at 3am I spend the next few hours in the bathroom, frantic, trying to unscrew the barbells. I suppose because my tongue was so swollen (and not to mention all the blood gushing out of it) I couldn't get a good grip on the balls and the barbell refused to come out. Obviously the last thing I wanted to do was wake up my family to ask them to drive me to the hospital and get an "I told you so" lecture, but that's exactly what I had to do. I admit, walking into the emergency room with a bloody towel shoved in my mouth was pretty embarrassing, not to mention having my dad discuss my disobedient behavior with the attending doctor. I was totally mortified, but at least the barbell was out and I could go home and pretend that none of that had happened.
After my impromptu mini-surgery my tongue healed up just fine. There was a large lump of scar tissue in the middle (it felt like a little ball), but that was about it. I couldn't help but think that as soon as I got to college (I was leaving within a few weeks after all this happened) that I had to find a place to get my tongue pierced again.
So, a month later after I got to college, I researched the tattoo and piercing places in the area and decided on one just down the road from my school. I set a day and ended up heading to a class placement test, finishing as fast as I could, and headed down the street to the tattoo shop with one of my new roommates. I wanted to make sure because of the earlier attempt that my tongue could even be pierced again so I asked as many questions as I could (that's when I found out what possibly could've happened to cause the tear in the first one). Once again I stuck out my tongue, felt almost nothing, and it was done. I had no problem with the whole experience, but my new roommate was totally grossed out. We headed back to campus, with a cup of ice of course, and I made my way to the second exam of the day. I think I stayed for only 30 mins and left, presumably failing and landing in the lowest math section.
After that I followed the same instructions I had received before, not too many solid foods, lots of soup, ice, and Listerine to disinfect, and within a few days all of the swelling was gone. Absolutely make sure you take good care of your piercing!! Within a week I could eat harder foods again, and the sound of my speech was SO much better (I no longer sounded like Mike Tyson)! I had a little lisp until I fully got used to the metal hitting my teeth and roof of my mouth, but it was pretty insignificant. After that, I had no problems at all, and kept it in for another three years until I just outgrew it. Granted the first mishap was kind of bad (and pretty scary) I totally loved the piercing and would do it all over again :o)