After several weeks of research and psyching myself up I finally took the plunge and got my tongue pierced. It’s only about an hour old but so far, it isn’t all that bad.
The piercer had me rinse my mouth with Listerine before he opened the sterile kit. The kit consisted of a clamp, a rubber band, a cork, a tube, and a needle. He attached the clamp and the rubber band to my tongue and checked to make sure the target area was far enough forward of the tendon under my tongue. The clamp and rubber band combination sort of numbed my tongue and helped reduce the flow of blood to the area to be pierced. The actual piercing itself didn’t really hurt much more than biting down hard on your tongue.
He then put the jewelry (3/4″ 14g surgical steel) through the hole made by the needle. The stretching hurt a little bit more than the actual piercing. After the jewelry was in he had me rinse again with the Listerine. There was a little bit of blood, but, honestly, I’ve had more during a routine dental visit.
By the way, despite what you may have heard, Listerine is not recommended for cleaning oral piercings as it contains alcohol and can delay healing because it irritates the piercing.
In the not quite two hours since I had it done I’ve talked normally, though ‘h’ and ‘c’ are going to be a bit problematic for a while I think. The top of the tongue, where the barbell rubs the most, has a slight burning sensation and it pulls rather scarily in some instances when I talk, but, so far, so good.
Now I just need to get through my first meal.
More as the adventure continues.
Later that same evening…
OK…well, dinner was an adventure. It took me a full hour from setting the plate on the table to calling it quits to eat: one meat-style veggie burger (no condiments [ugh]), 2/3 of a cup of buttered pasta with salt and a tiny bit of pepper, cooked very soft, and one 6oz can of greenbeans. It never occurred to me before just exactly how big a fork really is.
Yawning…definitely not a fun experience.
More later on day one…sleeping half sitting up to try to prevent swelling is going to make me wish I had that LaZboy.