Just to set the standard for the rest of this little essay, I have not had any piercing, or in fact any other body modifications until getting my lingual frenulum piercing.
At A Glance Author Ben Contact Ben@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Carl (I think...) Studio In 2 Skin Location Manchester My story starts out with a fair few weeks of thought. But surprisingly, not about a piercing. I wanted a tattoo, but, I couldn't decide on anything I liked enough to have inked onto me, for the rest of my life, so instead my mind wandered onto a piercing.
Now, I know nothing about piercing. So much so that I didn't even know what I could get done, but after seeing a girl at university (you know who you are) with this piercing, I decided that it was the one for me. Now normally, I am not the type of person to go and get something done on a whim, but this time was different. Once I decided that I wanted this doing, up and off I went. Now there are about 3 studios nearby, (all by Affleck's Palace, if you are interested), but only one of them offered this type of piercing.
The Studio
When I walked in, the whole place was like some sci-fi esque set up, with pipes painted silver, random crap hung from the wall. It half reminded me of "The Futuristic Zone" from The Crystal Maze, and behind the counter stood Carl, the dreadlocked 'artist'.
He was pretty calm and polite throughout the whole thing, which helped me a great deal, as my nerves were through the roof right now. And he didn't even laugh at me when I called this piercing "that flap of skin under your tongue", so I knew I was onto a winner...
About 10 minutes, and £30 later I was sat on the little bench in the back, eyeing up his equipment, (I mean the autoclave, you filthy people!), and this strange poster on the wall, which only bewildered and confused me. I believe it was from a comic featuring scantily-clad prosthetic-limb wearing ladies (if you know the title, email me!). So right now my nerves were through the roof, and I felt my self shaking, expecting it to be pretty painful.
So I opened wide, closed my eyes, stuck my tongue out, and followed the guys every instruction, and before I even realised it I had a shiny piece of metal stuck underneath my tongue. He did say to me that it would be painless, but to be honest I didn't believe him. It is at this point he gives me some aftercare instructions, and I walk out in a bit of a daze thinking to myself "wow, I actually got a piercing".
The First 2 Weeks
So everything went smoothly at the studio, and I went home to show my mates what I'd had done. They seemed pretty impressed, and it worked well as a talking point with all the ladies. Except, for the first 2 days I could hardly talk. Not because my tongue was swollen, but because it kept getting stuck on something in my mouth causing me to gip every now and then, but I got over that and found eating to be my next obstacle.
For a few days peas and other small spherical food stuffs did not agree with my piercing, but eventually, I got used to eating with it in, and food was no longer a problem. Until a week later. This time the culprit was a crusty baguette. I don't quite remember what happened, other that feeling this 'ping' of the ball flying straight out of my mouth... (Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration it just fell off) Now I tried my damndest to get the thing back on but no matter what I did it just made things worse. It felt like I needed about 3 pairs of hands to try and get it back into place, so I decided rather getting my flat-mates to put their grubby mitts inside my mouth, I went back to the studio, only it was shut.
"You look gay, mate"
So, I ended up in one of the dodgier looking studios inside Affleck's palace, where I got my sexuality questioned by some tattoo covered brutes. I couldn't tell if they were taking the piss, or hitting on me... But anyway, after a little ridicule, the guy put the ball back on, and I went on my merry way. All went well, until around a week later when the ball came flying straight out of my mouth again, except this time ricochet off 2 buses, a taxi and a lamp-post and ended up killing the little old lady, god bless her soul.
This time, I went back to the original studio, where Carl happily swapped it over for stainless steel (I think he said), rather than haematite. No problems with this one as yet!
So my first experience of piercing has definitely been a good one, and I am looking forward to getting a second, although I can't quite figure out what I want to get.
And if you are in the Manchester area, I would definitely recommend "In 2 Skin".