I was traveling to Big Rapids, taking a friend there for her tattoo appointment at Desired Skin in Big Rapids, Michigan. I knew I wanted to get two or three piercings and wasn't completely sure what I wanted. My ideas ranged from tongue, to tragus, to helix, septum, another nostril, labret, and more. All of these piercings I knew I wanted to get, I just wasn't certain as to when. I inevitably chose septum and tongue. This is about the tongue piercing.
At A Glance Author Char Contact Char@bme.anon IAM superchar42 When A month ago Artist Austin Studio Desired Skin Location Big Rapids, Michigan Austin had just finished piercing my septum and we were preparing to have my tongue pierced. I was swishing with Scope mouthwash for longer than I ever had in my life, and he brought his rolling metal table with the instruments, jewelry, and needle over. He said that I can take as long as I'd like preparing and if I don't want to do this, then I can back out at any time. I spit the Scope out into a cup he gave me, he disposed of it, washed his hands, and came back. After he put on another pair of gloves, he continued talking to me.
He handed me a paper towel to dry my tongue off with, and he marked it. I wanted the barbell placed as far back as possible, but since I have a lot of tongue webbing, we decided to place the pierce at an angle.
My nerves started telling me this was going to be painful and I asked Austin how it is going to feel. He said that most people feel nothing. The hardest part is keeping the tongue stuck out.
I said I was ready, and he re-dried my tongue. He had the needle ready and put the clamp on my tongue. I freaked out. Somehow I knew this was going to hurt a lot more than what I had been told even though all logic went against this. So I had to prepare myself for the pain. I've had twelve piercings before and I've donated blood countless times (I have my gallon pin), not to mention the many times I've had to give blood samples. A needle going through me one more time shouldn't phase me at all. I couldn't let my nerves get in the way of this. Pain is only temporary, and I can handle practically anything that he'd consider doing. Back to the piercing.
He asked if I was okay, and whether or not I wanted to continue, and I took a few deep breaths and grunted, "uh-huh." I closed my eyes and tried to think of anything else possible. I couldn't. But I tried so hard. My mind kept thinking, "pain pain pain!" and I couldn't shut it up. But I told myself, "This is NOT going to be painful, everyone says it'll be fine, and I can get through this because he's done tons of tongue pierces, and mine shouldn't be any different than anyone elses, and he said nobody has ever said it's been painful." Then my thoughts countered themselves, "There's always a first time for everything!" If I would have let my inner self go on and on like this, Austin would have been with me, there, all night long, with a needle in his hands, looking at me in a confused manner as I talked to myself inside my head. So I just bit the bullet. I apologized about taking so long to re-mull it over, and that I knew I wanted to have it done, I just have to get myself mentally prepared.
He asked me to take a deep breath in, and then let it out.
Excruciating pain! I tried to stifle the sounds I made but I doubt I did a good job. It was not nearly as bad as getting nipples pierced, but worse than the septum or any of my conches. My tongue was wanting to go back into it's safe haven of a warm, moist mouth and I couldn't let it because it currently had a needle stuck in it. Austin quickly put in the jewelry and let my tongue go. He went over the aftercare instructions with me and highly recommended Biotene mouthwash because it helps restore the antibodies and to good bacteria in the mouth, doesn't taste really bad, and is non-alcoholic. He stressed having ice in my mouth for the next three days, "The only reason to NOT have ice in your mouth is if you're eating, sleeping, or talking, which you shouldn't be doing much of the last one."
I asked if he had any ice, and he said no, so I went to go get some ice water from a gas station (which took a lot longer than I thought it would since I didn't know the area and everything was closed), and immediately started sucking on ice. I knew that the next few days would be filled with sinful, frozen pleasures and it was a good excuse to later indulge in some ice cream, but I would stick with ice for now. I wasn't in a rush or anything, but I kept feeling the barbell in my mouth. It seemed so foreign, and that I couldn't ever get used to it. Then I was thinking about what could happen if the barbell loosened and went down my throat. I decided to stop making myself panic and enjoy the ice. I ended up eating a lot of it during the next week and my tongue never swelled up to an unmanageable size. Eating wasn't that difficult either.
It still hurts every once in a while, but not much. The swelling has gone down significantly and in a few weeks I'll be getting my smaller barbell. I'm excited to have something smaller in there because it's still quite large, but not so foreign. It, recently, has just started to feel like it's a part of me, and it's about time.