I had really wanted to get my tongue pierced for a long time, and I had week off so on Monday I finally got up the courage to sneak off to a studio in Oceanside, CA without telling my partner, who I knew wouldn't approve. The place was very clean and the people there were real friendly. I am a bit older than most of the clients, so it was strange to be in the waiting room with several teenagers who also had a holiday and were waiting to get navel piercings. They were all sort of staring at me and giggling, and finally their friend came out with a new barbell in her belly button which looked kind of red and swollen and she said she needed to sit down because she thought she was about to pass out. They all gathered around to give her water and look at the piercing. Then they stared at me some more before it was my turn, and when they called me in I got up wondering if I was completely crazy.
At A Glance Author phoebe Contact phoebe@bme.anon When Five years ago Artist Melissa Location Oceanside CA The piercer explained everything and she was really nice and she spent some time finding exactly the right place because I have a small tongue and it turned out it was going to be near the front. So I took a deep breath while she did the disinfectant and got hold of my tongue with the forceps and before I knew it she had made the hole with a big needle. I didn't even fell the barbell go in and next thing I knew she was screwing the head on it. I was so comfortable I was thinking of asking her where she got her sandals! Then I had a rush of reality and thought about having to go to work the next week, so I asked her if I could get a no-see-um instead because I knew the people at the office would think I was totally nuts. She said no, it would have to heal first. I looked in the glass and it felt really strange but I was happy and real pleased with it. They gave me all the aftercare instructions and told me to come back if it was giving me any trouble. I went out clicking it on my teeth (I guess everyone does that at first). When I went back through the waiting room the navel girl was still there with her friends and looking kinda white, I always wondered if she was OK and whether her friends went through with it. I sort of floated out of there into the California sunshine.
My tongue didn't feel too bad, and I was in a great mood so I put the top down on my car and headed for some ice cream, which I buried my tongue in, it felt so good! Then I went by the drugstore for lots of Listerine. By the time I got home my tongue was starting to swell and I decided to say nothing and see if my partner noticed, which would be a good test for the office. By the end of the day I was really feeling it, and I made some excuse about having had a big lunch and only wanting soup for dinner, so that was OK except that I was starving! She saw me rinsing, so I mumbled "mouth ulcer" (Ha ha, it was an ulcer, OK!) and right then I decided that Listerine was going to kill my taste buds. The next morning when I woke up it was full blown swollen and I couldn't help playing with it and I accidentally caught it on my teeth which pulled into my tongue a bit, but I thought, this is probably normal and decided to just put up with the pain. I was alone the next day and I kept sucking ice and going into the ice cream. I started to wonder if tongue piercings were fattening. The second night my partner and I met a friend for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and they looked at me funny because I was unusually quiet and eating really slowly because every bite was killing me! I wasn't talking because I knew they would notice I had a lisp and start asking questions. I told them, yeah, the mouth ulcer's bad! They said, OK, Uh-HUH like people do when they kinda don't believe you. Boy, the salsa on the burrito, the salt on the chips and the Marguerita did a number on me!
The next night we were out again and when I laughed my partner saw it! She had a cow and started giving me a real hard time, like "You're too old for that, what were you thinking," etc for about half an hour. I almost had to sleep on the couch, but we made up and I kept it in for the rest of the week, but it ended up getting caught on my teeth a lot. While I was driving it finally pulled all the way through my tongue. OW! I could feel the hole closing up so I went back to the piercing place and they got it in again, but I was really sore and the next day I just had to take it out. I hated doing that! I really loved it in and some day when I'm crazy and have two weeks off I'll stock up on ice cream and do it again.