I retired my tongue piercing almost 8 years ago. I got it pierced when I was 18, and I loved it at the time. I made a deal with my parents that if I chipped a tooth, I would take it out. Two friends of mine got theirs pierced a month before me, and both had acrylic balls, so I planned to get some and not worry about it. Of course, I forgot this and less than a year later I chipped a tooth eating pizza. Strange, but the only time I ever bit the balls was when eating pizza. I decided to take it out, since it was a pain to try and find a barbell with acrylic balls in the small town where I lived at the time. I hadn't given it a second though until recently.
At A Glance Author Clovis Contact Clovis@bme.anon When It just happened Artist myself Studio my heez Location austin, tx I was organizing my jewelry box and had a single, lonely 18g ring. I never wear rings in my nose, so I was debating throwing it away. For some reason, I looked at the scar on my tongue, and decided to see if the hole was at least still open on the top. I washed the ring and straightened it as much as I could. I gingerly poked it into the old hole at the top. It seemed to go almost all the way through, I figured only the bottom was healed closed. Imagine my surprise when I lifted my tongue and the movement pushed the jewelry all the way through. After 8 years, my tongue still had an 18g hole in it.
I debated for a long time what to do with it. I felt like having the piercing again, but being poor I didn't want it enough to justify the expense of re-piercing. I asked around on forums, getting info on how to stretch the tongue. I didn't want to even try wearing an 18g or even 16g bar in my tongue, so I decided my only option besides re-piercing would be to try to stretch it to 14g. I'm not a fan of skipping sizes, but the top hole seemed a little loose. After thinking it over for a month, I decided to go for it.
I ordered a 14g steel taper. This was my first time using Industrial Strength tapers, and I highly recommend them. I already had several barbells, I chose to use one about 3/4" long at first, then if the swelling, if any, went down, change it to a 5/8". My 5/8" barbells were internally threaded, so I wanted to use those anyways.
I washed everything, then brushed my teeth and rinsed my mouth out with sea salt and warm water. I dipped the end of the taper in emu oil, and slid it into the hole. After a few seconds of gentle pressure it came out the bottom and stopped. I decided I needed a lot more lube, and slathered the taper in oil. I reinserted it, and about halfway through it started to sting a little. I let it rest for a few seconds, and pushed again. It went through smoothly, stinging slightly. I pressed the barbell against it, and it followed the taper perfectly. However, after a few seconds I realized that even if my tongue became swollen, this barbell was too long. I took the 5/8" barbell, re-washed the taper, and inserted that. The only time it felt uncomfortable was when I twisted my tongue to screw on the ball at the bottom.
So several hours later, my tongue is not swollen at all, although it feels tender on the bottom. The bottom half feels tighter around the bar. Apparently I also have a small tongue, because the 5/8 bar is definitely too long. I'm getting one that's 1/2" as soon as possible. It feels strange to have something there, I have forgotten everything about having one. I ate very slowly, and have been doing sea salt rinses after eating and drinking. I am trying not to talk more than necessary, or move it. It's not painful at all, just a little uncomfortable and tight, and feeling better by the hour.
Hopefully in a few days it will loosen and feel fine, and with the shorter bar I won't be constantly aware of it. I feel kind of lucky that I was able to do this. If it had been painful, I would have stopped. I'm honestly surprised I didn't have to, I expected it to not want to stretch. I never would have skipped a gauge in any other case, but I weighed the damage of a smaller bar against the roughly half millimeter difference. If all goes well, I may stretch to a larger size in the future, I love the look of larger gauge tongue piercings. I think that 12g and up are better for tongues anyway, since in the short time I had my 14g one, it loosened a lot from all the movement.