So, my piercing curiosity all started when I got my Vertical Clitoral Hood Piercing. Yeah, funny how that was my first piercing ever [other then my lobes], but it was my mile stone to my first year in college. I had wanted to get my tongue pierced, but didn't know how I would be able to pull it off from the parental unit. However, looking at the ways I would be able to hide the piercing for church and from the parents, I decided to go for it.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Tigger Studio High Priestess Piercing Location Corvallis, OR When winter term of 2007 started, I wanted to get the piercing once and for all. I made a call up to High Priestess Piercing [same place where I got the VCH] to see if they would have a piercer available. Surely they did so I just walked over after class since the shop was literally across the street from my last class of the day.
My friend wanted to come along since she never saw anyone get anything pierced before. Plus she could be there to video tape the whole thing. Tigger, my piercer for the day, handed me my forms to sign and off we went. The place was clean as usual and always friendly. Tigger walked me into the piercing room and had me hop onto the "doctor's table" to rinse my mouth and get marked. I have a rather large vein so my piercing had to be pierced using the "pierce and stretch" technique. Meaning; pierce at a ½ gauge smaller then stretch to the 12 gauge that I desired to minimize bleeding. My web semi got in the way so my piercing was pushed towards the tip more, but not funny looking. After making sure the piercing would be as close to the center as it could be without running into my vein, it was time to start.
Tigger gives my friend the cue to start video taping and off we go! She had me lay down on my back so I would not drool all over myself, or her. She carefully placed the clamps on my tongue, being very alert on where the clamps were. I read a lot that the clamps were painful. In my experience, I thought the clamps were at the right pressure. Lucky me I guess. So she lined up the needle, again, making sure she would not run into the vein. Presto! I was pierced. You hear me go, "huh..." in the video because I anticipated that the piercing would hurt more. It truly felt as though I just bit my tongue but not as bad for the pain was at one spot instead of the whole tongue. After the needle came the jewelry. This part stung more because of the whole stretch technique but very bearable. After the bar went all the way through, I sighed in relief and excitement.
After the ball was screwed on, I stuck my tongue back in my mouth and relaxed my jaw a little bit. When my tongue was finally comfortable and moistened, I stuck my tongue out and took a look in the mirror. I felt really silly because the bar was pretty long and awkward in my mouth. The initial jewelry was long for the swelling. I paid my dues and will be going back later this week to get the shorter bar. I will also be getting the "Hide-Its" which are a transparent pinkish half-dome ball to minimize the look of my piercing for church and family. Yeah, Catholic Asian families are hard to impress.
*AFTERMATH*
Now the fun stuff. First few days, chewing was difficult but manageable. I had soft things to eat like pasta, but had shells instead of fettuccini and other similar pastas. AKA, STAY AWAY FROM THE STRINGY STUFF! Soup was good to eat, but make sure it cooled down a little bit so you don't burn your tongue. I drank lots of water and avoided dairy products. I also took about 800mg of Ibuprofen for the swelling.
My tongue did get slightly swollen, but I was still able to talk clearly so it was no real big deal. I would rinse my mouth with non-alcoholic mouthwash in the morning and at night, as well as rinse my mouth with salt water after meals. I did not like the idea of not brushing my tongue when I brush my teeth, so I carefully brushed the parts around the piercing. It took a while to get used to it, but it beats having stinky breath.
There you go! I think the Ibuprofen really helped a lot, but I'm no doctor; just a student studying to become a Pharmacist. Still wondering if you should get the piercing or not? Go to YouTube and look up tongue piercing. You'll find lots of videos and maybe you'll find mine. Have a good one!