At A Glance
Author	larryisgood
Contact	larryisgood@bme.anon
When	It just happened
Artist	barry
Studio	Matalmorphosis
Location	Dublin

Day -1

The place was freakin closed at 23:00 on a Friday, wtf?

Day 1

Next day I went back inside and there was this guy with spiky hair and a whole load of facial piercings. I told him of my desire to have metal things shoved into my tongue. He seemed to like my photoshopped passport, took a look at my tongue in a back room and told me he could do it.

"Go eat a chocolate bar or something, get your blood sugar up"

So I went next door to subway and got myself a chocolate muffin, thinking this was probably the last solid thing I'd eat in a very long time... which it indeed was, I dream of bagel. I took some merocaine, which numbs up the mouth.

He took me back into that fluorescently lit room with the stainless steel walls, with the dιcor like something out of some sort of futuristic porn shoot, come to think of it, that's the vibe I get from a lot of piercing places. He did everything I knew to look for, washed his hands, took out the forceps and needle from a sterile back and donned new gloves.

He stepped over to my, told me to stick out my tongue, he lightly grabbed it with the ring shaped ends of the forceps and stuck the needle through the bottom, out the top, and left the needle there, one end resting on my chin and the other on my lips, it just felt like getting an injection, only bad because you know what's going on, not the pain.

So I sat there like that, looking dignified, with this thing poking through my tongue while he got the barbell. He got it, stuck it through and screwed it in.

"You feeling okay?"

"Yeah actually its grand, is it bleeding then yeah?"

"No, none of our piercings bleed"

I had expected to pass out or at least get dizzy. I laid down for a few minutes until I realized I wasn't gonna pass out so I paid the guy. €52. I could talk right away, though it was awkward.

To the party...

Day 2

My friends party went amazingly well considering, I LIKE pesto. Next morning I had work, so little swelling that I could talk completely normally.

Parents got home from Brussels tonight, they didn't notice a thing. I was damn sure they'd see it.

Day 3

First day of school, sorta odd mood, it's off putting to be putting up with constant pain, like a headache. Probably not fun to be around.

Then tonight my parents were like "Hooray! We made EXTRA spicey food for you!" This was unfortunate, especially as I don't like spicey food even when I don't have open wounds to rub the spice in.

Day 4

Tongue piercing doing odd things but apparently its all completely normal. For those of you itching to know:

• ring of dead skin forming around top barbell, this along with the swelling sorta makes it look like the top barbell is sinking into my tongue cus the bar isn't long enough. Something that wikipedia tells me is a bad thing.

• tongue turning brownish

• inability to say the letter 'r' in mornings

• inability to say the letter 'l' the rest of the time

• grooves in my tongue cause its swollen and pushes against my teeth all day and night

• the roof of my mouth behind my top incisors is sore

• ridiculous amounts of saliva

• as a result, rapidly plummeting social status

• also, sore saliva glands

Decided not to talk in school today after my tongue bled this morning while brushing. Didn't invite questions on my voice and prob helped with healing. Got some more merocaine and neurofen meltlets, which taste nice.

Was talking to a friend of mine tonight, she had it done a month ago, she told me a bunch of stuff, like don't eat dairy.

Day 5

Made my porridge this morning with water instead of milk, and had some mashed up bananas. So far my diet has been:

• green tea with crap loads of honey

• merocaine

• 2-3 PINTS of ice melted on tongue each night

• ibuprofen

• soup

• porridge

Still a little nervous about the amount my barbell is sinking into the tongue, I've spent

the last few nights consulting these diaries to see if it's normal, I'm told it's probably fine but still... it's my freakin tongue...

Also I went into the piercing studio and the guy that pierced it said it looked normal. For comparison when I got home today , I looked in the mirror with my head raised, looked along the top of my tongue, you can't see the barbell anymore, its that sunk into the crater.

Ibuprofen and merocaine seems to help.

Day 6

Woke up this morning to find white stuff sort of "growing" over the barbell on top. It's only dead skin, lymph, and plaque methinks. Had school again today, talked little, probably the worst day at school so far with the piercing, novelty has worn off and I'm just left with a lisp and worrying about it healing.

I've found that if I push my tongue down it forces the top barbell out of the closing-over crater, which gives a little round the perimeter. I'm still a bit nervous about this, though it still doesn't hurt and I'm probably just being paranoid.

My parents got extra spicy Indian tonight, I still haven't told them about the piercing yet so its pretty funny. Gonna go wash my mouth now...

Day 9

On day 7 I finally bit the bullet (pun!) and went back to the piecing place and I asked the girl if it looked normal, she was a bit grossed out about the closing over thing, and she pierces people all the time, so you know its got to have been bad. So I guess the moral here is that its better to be a hypochondriac.

She gave me a much bigger barbell on top and a longer bar. It felt more clumsy but way better. Getting it put in wasn't too groovy, it wasn't like getting it pierced cus my tongue is already swollen now. I had to go to work about 5 mins afterwards, ew...

So today my tongue is STILL damn swollen and tender, the girl at the store told me the new bar probably set the healing back a few days.

Day 11

...and it did! I tried going day 10 without ibuprofen but 'twasn't nice. My tongue is now an attractive shade of brown! Check ME out ladies. Still a good bit of swelling but the bigger bar seems to have stopped that gross sinking in thang.

My parents have started to notice my odd liquid-orientated diet, resulting in awkward silences and me suspiciously shouting "It's just cus I like having ice every night! Get off my freakin back!" *crazy eyes, runs up to bedroom*

Now I'm just trying to talk normally to people, doesn't seem to work. And given my disdain for all instant communication (bebo, msn, texting and whatnot) I haven't had as much contact this week with people. *sniff* Less drooling though lately, which is good from any perspective. Bring on the ice...

Day 22

So my new bar is... good! Swelling still sort of around but i can pretty much eat anything i want. Parents have seen it though they didn't realise i actually got my tonuge pierced, i told them i was eating a piece of ice or something cunning like that. I'm just glad i didnt develop trigeminal neuralgia, it sounds nasty look it up.