When I was about 12 or so, I overheard two girls talking about getting a tongue piercing, and I remember thinking to myself "why the HELL would you want to do that?!" Fast forward 14 years and about forty (yes, 40!) piercings (many self done), four tattoos (more pending) and a handful of mods - including subinscision (self done) and scarification - and I'm now trying to find out if I can make a play for the worlds largest stretched tongue piercing. My, how we change!
At A Glance Author aphid_greene Contact aphid_greene@bme.anon When Five years ago Location Glasgow I decided to get my tongue pierced at 18, partly to celebrate being 18, partly to celebrate getting into uni and partly to "rebel". Not much of a statement, considering that I got my septum done at 15! Needless to say, my mum was less than thrilled about that one...
Anyway, the tongue piercing itself was easy and much less painful that I was prepared to endure. Healing was worse (a fantastic way to diet. Get used to soup!) but about 3 weeks later, I was twiddling the bar in my mouth like an old pro! Though I suggest plastic beads if you do that a lot, as metal tends to chip tooth enamel very easily.
These days, I only have 10 piercings still in permanent residence, though all are stretched (2x navel @ 5mm (4ga), nipples @ 6mm (1/4"), tongue, septum @ 4mm (6ga), 2x ears @ 20mm (4/5"), 2x ears @ 2.4mm (10ga)). Somewhat bizarrely, my ears were the last things I ever got pierced. I guess I like to start at the end...
Most of these piercings have actually been reduced to make them easier to maintain; my septum was 7mm (2ga) at it's largest and I got my nipples to 11mm (7/16") before I decided that "nipple sag" was not something I wanted to look forward to in later life. I dare not get any facial piercings (though I had my left nostril done for a while) because I know I won't be able to resist the urge to stretch them too, and unfortunately my profession (I'm a chef) makes getting new piercings, visible ones at least, a bit of a no-no. However, I'm looking into implants, which can be easily covered. And tattoos, of course.
My tongue was the first piercing to be stretched. Early stretches were quite easy, though by the time I got to 5mm, things started to get difficult. I routinely split the edge of the opening with violent, taper-less stretching, and probably made a process that could have been performed in a few months, last years, due to additional healing times.
All that changed when I got to 12mm (1/2"). Tapers became obligatory. Finding suitable jewelery became a hunt for Lord Lucan. I finally settled on the slightly fiddley, but still current, method of using plain acrylic plugs. As a single plug was too short, but 2 stuck together was too long, I would wear the double at night, or when I knew I wouldn't have to speak, and the single during the day, as it served to keep the piercing at size for acceptable lengths of time without affecting my speech significantly.
Each stretch between 12mm and 19mm (3/4") was about the same in terms of difficulty and pain (i.e, tolerable), though for no apparent reason, I made quite a mess of getting to 20mm. Perhaps it was the psychological barrier of achieving such a large and significantly round number (I saw 20mm as a sort of threshold event, particularly as it coincided with the end of my battle with depression and an eating disorder). Anyway, that one stretch took three attempts over the course of 8 months from first try to "yep, it's definitely healed now!"
I have now passed 21mm and am speeding on to 22mm (7/8") and beyond, thanks to a new method of stretching* suggested to me by a pro piercer, with no signs of stopping. I hope to reach 30mm (1 & 1/5") by the end of 2007/ early '08. If that's not a shot at the record, I don't know what is!
*He suggested that I wrap layers of high grade electrical tape 'round the plugs to give intermediated diameters. A genius suggestion!
USE ELECTRICAL TAPE WITH CARE! Check that you won't have an allergic reaction to the tape, or the adhesive on it. Use only unused, clean tape straight from sealed packs. And for goodness sake, make sure it's the SMOOTH kind!
The tape I use is exactly 0.2mm thick, which means I can put five layers on gradually over the course of a couple of weeks to achieve millimeter increments with no mess and no fuss. Admittedly it is rather wussy, as it is completely painless. The whole lot of tape has to be changed every few days for obvious hygiene reasons (I guess it's good news for 3M though!), which is very time consuming, as each layer requires two and a half strips of tape to be precision cut with a scalpel blade. However, as it facilitates lightning fast gradual stretching with no healing times (yeah, I know it sounds too good to be true, but it really does work!), I'd say it's worth it!