This is the story of the 19th superfluous hole in my body.
At A Glance Author am Contact am@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Christine Studio Utility Location Halifax, NS The other day I was cleaning out all the crap from My Documents. I came across all of the saved entries from my old IAM page and laughed at some of the ridiculous drivel I'd written. As I read through some of it, I realized...it had been 2 whole years since I'd last been poked! I immediately got the idea in my head that I wanted to get a new piercing, and when I get the itch, I have to scratch it. I get the idea and within the week I drive myself crazy enough to do it. It brews until one day I jump out of my chair and get it done on a whim. So this time, I initially had no idea what I wanted, but soon, it became pretty clear (and made me feel quite old).
Back in '96 I can remember sitting in my basement with one of my good friends, in front of my computer on my little 14.4k modem. We would sit forever in this one chat room, alternative chat, constantly refreshing the screen and hoping to get a "private message" from someone, asking our a/s/l or something equally ridiculous. Anyway, I remember talking to this one girl, Persephone, who had a black and white picture of herself as her avatar. She had a black, safety pinned dress on and she had her tongue pierced. I fell in love with the idea of piercing instantly, and thought that someday, I'd have that done. Well, 10 years and 15 OTHER piercings later, my tongue was still intact. That is, until yesterday.
Being an actor and singer, it seemed like there would never be a good time to do it, however, the life of *this* actor is such that it's all or nothing. Right now the only work I have is a weekly singing gig, and busking on the waterfront, so my schedule's pretty empty. So, yesterday I woke up and took the plunge and walked down to Utility. When I arrived I saw Christine, a lovely lady I hadn't seen in a long time. We chatted a bit and caught up on our oh-so-exciting lives, and then I told her that the visit was not purely a social call. I inhaled slowly and let out an "I think I want to do my tongue" with only a small shake in my voice. She was excited, I was excited, all was good.
The procedure was totally standard – filled out paperwork and paid while she set up, and before I knew it, it was time to head on back to the piercing room. The familiar butterflies returned to my stomach, and for a brief flash of a moment, I wondered why I was doing this to myself. That quickly passed as I swished with the mouthwash, had my tongue marked and clamped and then, before I could even think of getting nervous, the needle was through with very little pain, the jewelry was in, and I was done. I laughed as I carefully pulled my tongue back into my mouth with this huge foreign object in my tongue. A quick rundown of aftercare and a lollipop (which I'm saving for when I can actually enjoy it) later, I was practically skipping out the door, totally in love and surprisingly not in pain.
As I walked home, stopping to pick up healing supplies (a new toothbrush, sea salt and advil), I ran into a few friends and proudly – carefully - showed off my new acquisition. Reactions ranged from "finally!" to "oh...uh...that looks painful!" When I got home, I popped some Advil, started melting ice chips in my mouth like there was no tomorrow, and drank so much ice water I had to keep running to the bathroom! It definitely helped though, because swelling was extremely minimal throughout the day. I went to sleep with my head elevated, which was uncomfortable, and I didn't sleep overly well, but I was glad that I'd done it when I woke up this morning and the swelling still hadn't filled the entire ¾" bar. I don't really have to talk to anyone in the next two days, although I do have to sing a few duets tomorrow night, so I'm resting up for that. I sing in a Johnny Cash tribute band...I bet no one expects June Carter to have her tongue pierced. Haha. My speech is fine at the moment as long as I'm careful, although 's' sounds in the middle or at the end of words are a little slurred right now.
Overall, I'm loving it so far, but I can't wait for the swelling to go down so I can get a smaller barbell in there. This is a piercing I've been waiting to get since I was fourteen years old and it's just as awesome as I always thought it would be. Highly recommended if you can put up with a little discomfort – but I'm sure you can – we have to be a little masochistic anyway if we're paying people to hurt us!