Ever since I saw one of my friends with a tongue piercing my freshman year of high school, I wanted one. But unfortunately for me, my parents were against pretty much all body modifications at the time. So time passed by, and I was able to convince them to let me get a tattoo, but that's another story for another day. So I graduated high school, joined the military, and started living on my own. So pretty much every year since I got my first tattoo, it's been a tradition of mine to get a new body mod. For the past 2 years the mod has been a tattoo. I was talking to my friend one day, this happened about a year ago, and I told her that I wanted to get my tongue pierced.
At A Glance Author Britt Contact Britt@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Dont remember Studio Artistry Location Roseville, CA I'm not usually afraid of needles, but the thought of getting a piercing has always freaked me out for some reason. I thought that tongue piercings were the coolest thing in the world, yet I was too much of a chicken to get my own. But one nite at work that all changed.
I was talking to my friend and I mentioned that I wanted to get my tongue pierced, that it has always been something that I have wanted to do. And she was like "Oh that's cool, I've had my tongue pierced before...and it's really not that bad." So we were planning on going to get it done that same weekend, but do to scheduling conflicts we had to plan for another weekend.
For the next couple of weeks I became like Oprah to every single person that I knew with a tongue piercing. I would ask them all questions like "How does it feel?", or "Could you eat normal foods?"...the usual nerve racking questions that one would ask when they plan on getting any kind of modification. After I realized there was nothing to be scared about I scheduled a date with my friend, and then I just counted down the days until my first piercing.
Finally that day came, which was on Thursday. We had already decided that I was going to be going first since it was my first time. We got to the shop and filled out all of the consent forms, and then we just sat around and waited until it was time for me to go. Finally the guy came out, and he took me to the back and sat me down on this chair that looked like it was straight out of a doctor's office. We made light conversation, and finally he put a bib on me, and gave me some mouthwash to clean out my mouth. After that he marked my tongue, making me lift it up and down about 5 times to make sure that he had it marked evenly. Finally he pulled out the dreaded clamps, and told me to stick out my tongue. Luckily I have a pretty long tongue so it was pretty easy for me to stick it out. So he clamped my tongue, told me to inhale, stuck the needle through (which by the way, I barely felt), took the needle out and inserted the barbell with what seemed like one fluid movement, and voila, I was done! And oh yea...I exhaled after he stuck the barbell in. When he was done with my friend he gave us both our aftercare instructions and we were on our way. The aftercare instructions pretty much consisted of making sure that we clean it everyday, try to avoid smoking, salty and spicy foods, don't share drinks and eating utensils, no alcohol:(, and absolutely no oral contact for at least 2 weeks. I plan on sticking to the instructions because I don't want to end up with some nasty looking fungus or something on my tongue because I didn't properly take care of my piercing.
It's been 3 days since I got the piercing...and it hasn't been too bad. My attempts at eating solid foods have failed so far, so I've been sticking to soup and ice cream. Talking is not an easy task, but after a couple more days I should be used to it. The swelling has gone down a little, and I keep myself busy sucking on ice. I clean it 4 times a day, when I wake up, after breakfast, after lunch, and before bed. I've also been taking plenty of Motrin, which helps with the pain. I've found that the drinks from Sonic are a savior, because they not only have the oh-so-convenient crushed ice, but they are ice cold and delicious!
All in all I can say that my first piercing experience has been great so far. Once I re-master talking and eating things will be even better, but for right now I'll just sit back and enjoy my new, and first, piercing:).