From the age of about fourteen or fifteen I wanted to get my tongue pierced but knew that I would not be allowed - my parents did not like body piercing. I wasn't really into the 'look' of piercings or people that have bolts all over pierce their faces, but I was extremely curious as to what it would feel like to have a needed poked through your tongue and then to like with a bar through it and two metal balls in your mouth.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Sheree Studio Bay Body Peircing Location Nelson Bay, NSW Australia As time went on, I grew old enough to get my tongue pierced but the practice of tongue piercing had become extremely common and cliché. At about 20 a friend and I were sitting around on a boxing day, bored because all the shops were closed for the public holiday and decided to get our tongues pierced to break up the time - what the heck, if I didn't like it I could take the piercing out and it would heal over in less than a day (as the tongue is a muscle it heals incredibly quickly).
We rang around the phone book to find a place that was open and to our delight a place called Bay Body Piercing in Nelsons Bay was open. We had been in there before looking around while visiting the Bay and knew the place was clean and sterile. There were also albums of work that Sheree (the piercer) had done before which made us feel better. So my friend and I went on a road trip to get the piercing done.
When we arrived I was excited and a bit anxious because I had no idea what to expect. The only thing I had every got pierced before were my ear lobes which hardly count, and the suddenness of our decision had left me with no time to contemplate what was about to happen.
Sheree was great and she had personality which made me laugh. I wasn't scared or nervous in any way, I have a pretty high stress threshold, as I mentioned, and the curiosity intrigued me. All the same, it was good that I was asked to gargle mouthwash and all that jazz. Great care was taken in the positioning of the dots on my tongue and then the seal on the needle was broken in front of me to ensure that everything was sterile.
For an unknown reason my tongue was shaking before as she took it with her forceps. I guess that even though I didn't feel nervous you body reacts as it will. So Sheree waited patiently and when the time was right she pierced my tongue. It did not hurt as in a stabbing pain, it was a weird sensation. The whole thing was over and done in a matter of minutes.
At the end of the procedure I instantly had a slight lisp, whereas my friend had no problems talking at all - you wouldn't even know she had had anything done. One thing we both had in common at the end of the procedure was that we randomly lost control of out tongues in that we kept accidentally biting the balls in our mouths cause our tongues would roll onto their sides.
At this stage of my life I was still a reasonably heavy smoker, so when I was informed that I shouldn't smoke for at least a couple of days I was like 'yeah, sure'. As it turned out, I lasted about an hour. I would not suggest people mirror this in the same position. I did not have any infections or problems with my piercing due to smoking. However I was very conscious of the need to rinse my mouth out after smoking.
I always planned to get my tongue pierced a second time, if for no other reason than to be slightly different. It was about another year before I could be bothered going back to get it done, another spare of the moment 'why not go now' ideas.
When I was sitting down talking to Sheree about getting it done, we were talking about my options on where I should get the second one bar. It is really good to find a piercer that you can talk to and that will show you all the options - especially if you're as indecisive as I am. Sheree showed me that instead of getting straight in front of my first bar, I could get it to the front left. I instantly fell in love with the idea of getting three tongue piercings in the shape of a star.
I was told that I could only get one piercing done at a time, so that day we did the front left hole and two weeks later I went back to get the front right whole done - I went from one to three piercings in a matter of weeks!
I love the front piercings much more than the traditional one in the middle. Even for people considering getting their tongue pierced once, I would go for a front and side piercing (or a horizontal one, they look mad)