First off, I'd like to give a short background of my desire for a tongue piercing. When I was 14, I saw my first tongue piercing ever. I was completely fascinated by it. It seemed like it would be such a neat thing to have in my mouth, and since I always had a problem with biting my nails, I figured it may be a way to curb that oral fixation. After I saw it, I knew I wanted one. I read every bit of information on the internet that I could find, looked in piercing and tattoo magazines, and asked anyone I knew about as much as I could. I wanted as much info as possible on this, because I wanted to do it right.
At A Glance Author Josho Contact Josho@bme.anon When Two years ago Studio Zebra Location Berkeley, CA On my 16th birthday, I had finally gathered the courage to ask my mom to sign and give me the OK to get my tongue pierced. I spent tons of time researching and brought it to her in an educated, well thought out manner. Unfortunately, she gave me the same answer I had heard many a time before when asking her for certain things, which was "when you're 18 and out of the house, you can do whatever you want." So, I was stuck another 2 years waiting until I moved up to college.
So in May of 2003, I decided to take the plunge :) A few friends and I drove out to Berkeley and took a walk down Telegraph. Since I was planning to go to Zebra and get my tongue pierced, I got in my last bit of solid food for the next few weeks at Fat Slice - two nice, big slices of pizza :D. So after filling up, I could barely contain the excitement.
We walked down to Zebra and I discussed getting my tongue pierced. They had about a 5 minute wait, and got me right in. Everyone there was friendly and knowledgeable, and it looked like a clean place, so I was very happy with the environment. They walked me to one of the back stalls and got everything set up. I did the usual mouthwash deal, and was ready to go. After marking the spot where the hole was to be placed, the piercer clamped my tongue and started poking the top of it with a toothpick, where the hole was going to be placed. I can honestly say I was so distracted by the little pokes of the toothpick, that when the needle was pushed through, I didn't even know it. The barbell was inserted and secured, and I was told I was done. I looked at my piercer with surprise and said "I am?!" (Note, my tongue decided to swell up right before I tried to utter those words out, so they ended up sounding like a bunch of garble.) So with a smile on my face, and a barbell in my swollen tongue, I was on my merry way :) Healing was a breeze, I loaded up on plenty of ice and ice water, as well as some Aleve to help with the swelling. I did, however, make the horrible mistake of attempting to eat Top Ramen on a healing tongue. I will advise, don't ever try this, the noodles LOVE to get stuck on the barbell, and you're stuck trying to swallow something that just doesnt want to go anywhere :). Other than that, I had no issues with healing, and I was fully healed in about 2 weeks. I haven't regretted it for a single day, and if asked if I'd do it again, hell yeah!
I enjoyed my tongue piercing every day, and it brought a whole lot of fun for me. Also, I nearly completely quit biting my nails whatsoever, but I loved to play with my barbell, nearly all the time. I bumped up one size to 12g, and enjoyed it, but anything above that was too big for me, and it was constantly hitting against my teeth. One thing I never did get to experience, however, was kissing someone with a tongue piercing as well. I was always told it was kinda like a sword fight, and I thought that sounded like loads of fun! After I got my shorter barbell, I never had a problem with chomping on it, and fortunately I never had any problem with my teeth.
Unfortunately, about a year ago, I took my barbell out for some stupid reason or another, and my tongue closed up tight enough in a day to prevent me from getting my barbell back in there. I was deeply saddened, as this was the first piercing of mine to begin a number of others, but I'm sure in the near future I'll be going back in for a second round :)