For the past couple of years, I have been contemplating the idea of getting my tongue pierced. It all began when I started listening to a lot of metal, death metal to be exact and going to a lot of shows where local bands played this kind of music.
At A Glance Author Eric Contact Eric@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Jorian Studio Metamorphosis Tattoo Location Kingston, NY As I began to absorb into the culture, feeling out of place became a more common feeling. Why? Because I was the only one without a tattoo or piercing. The hardest part was beginning the decision making process of should I or shouldn't I. The difficulty ensued upon this decision was a combination of insecurity of how my family would take it, the culture that I grew up in, and the company I work for.
My family is quite conservative, some more so than others. The insecurity came about during high school when I was under the pressure not to make my parents look bad and that I was a reflection of them prevented me from doing many things that I had wanted to do, and for fear that my dad may not get the top job at the company because of my actions. That fear that was in me turned out just be a side effect of the "reflection" of my parents that had been instilled in me; something that I though was commonplace in my generation whose parents had been members of the country club.
My real main concern was not that of how my parents would react to piercing my tongue, but how the people that I work with on an everyday basis. It is against company policy to any visible piercings when traversing customer oriented areas of the building. Working in the information technologies department on a full time basis I regularly make trips through customer areas fixing computers, printers and other broken technology puts me in the no piercing zone.
So one day last month, September 26th 2006, I said the hell with the policy and later that week on the 29th I paid a visit to Metamorphosis Tattoo Emporium on Broadway in Mid-town Kingston. All of my friends recommended that I go there.
The night of the 29th I strolled in about 8:30 and met with Jorian, the gentleman who does the piercings. After a couple of minutes reading through disclosures and signing my rights of legal recourse away, I was in the chair waiting for the needle to go through my tongue.
The first thing he asked me to do was swish an antiseptic mouthwash for about 30 seconds to kill any outstanding germs that may have caused infection. Then he brought out the old trusty roll of paper towels to get the moisture off of my tongue and began to measure. The hardest part at this time was keeping my tongue from not moving outside of my mouth. Not too much longer passed and Jorian was ready to plunge the needle through my tongue. I was quite shocked that it didn't hurt at all at first, but found out that my friends were right and said it would hurt like a bitch the next day.
After a few minutes, I began to have the biggest adrenaline rush that I had ever had. After the "wow" factor went away, we discussed the aftercare procedures, paid the fee, and then went home for a bit before going out to the bar.
This is when I learned that hard way that going to the bar was not the smartest thing to do. Even though Jorian said that I could go drinking as long as I had hard liquor with water. No fancy drinks, just pure liquor and water.
While I was having a blast that night, I forgot the one key thing not to do. Talk loud. I thought about this the next day when it hurt like and swelled up a bit. (Tip: don't sober up when you do this. Just keep drinking [don't drive, take a cab] and you won't feel the second days pain). I had had no swelling when I went to sleep about six hours later, but the next day the swelling had occurred and wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Thankfully, it didn't last very long.
I found that even though I could eat anything that I wanted with the exception of spicy foods that it was really painful to eat for a day or two afterwards. Not wanting to ruin the healing process by not eating properly, I went to the store and bought the following things: Assorted Fruits, Ice, and Bottles of Juice. I lived on smoothies and protein shakes for the first couple of days. The following Tuesday I began to eat solid foods again and quite surprisingly the pain was gone and I just had to eat slowly at first so I would bite the bar while chewing. I wasn't a 100% successful at that because it hurt something awful when I bit the bar the first time.
Needless to say, my fears of what was stopping me from getting my tongue pierced to begin with were quite relaxed and had no real foundation. Few people know that I've actually gotten my tongue pierced, others think I've copped out and it's my little secret and it feels great. If more know, nobody has said anything to me about it. The best thing I can say to anyone reading this is it's the best secret that one can have and nobody ever needs to know that you have your tongue pierced.