Graal Forums - Lycia's Piercing Experience

Name: Stacey
Nick: Lycia
Place of piercing: The Canadian Red Dragon Tattoo & Body Piercing Studio
Piercing Type: Center Tongue
Date: Friday, March 30th. 2001

It was a night of 1998 when I came accross a site dealing with body modification which is what you all know as BME. I read the site, and I became instantly fascinated with piercings. I already had my ears done when I was 6 or 7, but these other ones I saw such as tongue, nose, eyebrow, and so forth instantly won my affections. I had always been an oral person, chewing on pens, sucking on candy, and always having some sort of foreign object in my mouth to satisfy my oral fixation that I appeared to always have. So, without further adieu, I decided to make an educated decision on getting my tongue pierced. I researched everything I could find. Everything from bad experiences, good experiences, aftercare, what to do before you get a piercing, and what to do if problems arise. I even went so far as to converse with others on the Internet who had the same procedure done so I could get their take on the subject. So, with all this new found knowledge in mind, I decided to discuss it with my parents. I explained to them the risks, the pros, the cons, and everything that I had researched thus far. I then proceeded to inquire as to if I could obtain a tongue piercing. My dad vocalized a firm, "NO", whilst my mom, as all parents do when one parent makes a decision, said the same thing. It devastated me. Here I was, a seemly well-educated person on the subject of tongue piercing, and my parental units said denied me the one thing that would fix my oral fixation. So, I waited a year before bringing the issue up again with my parents. Once again, I was denied the freedom of getting my tongue pierced. So, I studied more upon the subject, and finally after 3 years of research, pleading, and begging, on Friday March the 30th in the year of 2001 C.E., I got my tongue pierced.

The day before it happened, I was calm, excited for the next day to finally arrive, and yet, I was semi-nervous, however, I wasn't going to let that prevent me from attaining one of my goals. That night, barely got any sleep, I woke up quite a bit, and it was pretty apparent that it was due to what was going to happen that next day.

The next day, all day through school, my heart was pounding a mile a minute, my stomach was turning in circles, and my hands were sweating. Reason? I was scared out of my mind!!! I knew what was going to happen in the afternoon, and it scared me. I didn't display my fears to my mother as I didn't want anymore delays. I wanted it today and it was going to happen regardless of what my mother said. *giggles* So, my mom drove me to the studio, and we walked into the establishment and I immediately noticed a strong, alcoholic smell. I knew it was some kind of sterilization product that had been sprayed or had been used to cleanse the place, and that calmed me down considerably. Reason? I felt they had taken the proper sanitary precautions and it made me feel better knowing that I was going to get pierced in a clean environment.

So, we walked up to the counter and the girl asked us what we wanted. My mom explained that I was getting my tongue pierced, and then the girl walked towards the back of the room to fetch a consent form from the plastic boxed folder that was stuck on the wall. She presented it to me with a black pen and told me to read it as I filled out each area. The form was pretty standard. It basically said that I was doing this of my own accord, that I wasn't under the influence of any narcotics or alcohol, and that I would be soley responsible for my aftercare. So, I signed the document, my mom signed as a witness to my signing, and she collected the paper, and filed it away. While we were waiting for her to finish with another customer, I began talking with another customer who was in to get her nipple pierced, and her friend had also gotten her tongue pierced, however, her parents made her remove it. My mom and I, after conversing with the girl, looked at the jewlery that they had on display in a locked box on the counter. They had some really nice stuff there. I was amazed.

The girl, then gave me the signal to come in the back room. I thought to myself, "This is it. I'm really gonna do this. I'm freaked out now. Help!!!" So, I walked in, she instructed me to sit in the chair, and she walked out to get two, white surgical gloves and slipped them onto her hands. She sat down, opened up the packages containing the forceps, and the needle, and she put my jewlery in some kind of purple'ish liquid which was contained in a small translucent cup. She explained to me a bit about aftercare, and then I noticed she put some kind of goo on the end of one of the tools she was going to use to pierce me with. I inquired if that was some kind of anesthetic, and she told me no. So, I waited while she finished preparing the instruments for my piercing, and she got a small cup of Listerine and a white styrofoam dixie cup, and she explained to me that I had to use half to rinse my mouth out with it. So, I did just that, and spit it into the dixie cup. She told me to stick out my tongue, and I obediently did just that. She put forceps on my tongue, which at first didn't bug me until approximately 10 seconds later when the pressure of the two of them against my tongue started becoming noticeable. She got a toothpick and applied some ink to the end of it, and she marked my tongue off, and then got a flashlight, clicked it on, and examined the bottom of my tongue. I can only assume she was attempting to get the needle in the dead center of my tongue, and trying to avoid the veins under my tongue. She placed the flashlight on the table beside her, and got the needle and instructed me to breath. I closed my eyes, and I felt a very quick sharp prick, and I could feel the needle inside me, and I'm assuming she put the post through because I could notice the size variance in the hole that was placed in my tongue. She screwed the balls on, and then removed the forceps, and told me to put my tongue in my mouth. She then told me to stick it back out so she could ensure that the balls were snuggly on the post and that they weren't loose. She gave me the remainder of the Listerine for me to rinse the blood that was in my mouth. I know you're all thinking, "Ugh, blood", but let me tell you. The Listerine nulls any flavour of the blood in your mouth. Its very strong, so you won't notice it. Anyway, I spit the Listerine into the dixie cup, and I noticed a lot of blood in the cup. She proceeded to pat my tongue off with a tissue, and told me that I was one of her best customers due to my calm, and quiet attitude. She instructed me on how to keep it clean, what not to do, what to do, and gave me two stapled pages on aftercare instructions. She told me to have a nice day, and I honoured her the same statement and I suffixed it with "thank you."

On my way home, I didn't notice much pain. My mom stopped at a grocery store, and we picked up some Listerine, yogurt, pudding, and jello. I kept playing with it! It was so fun to play with. I got home, and it started swelling up. About 4 hours after, I really noticed the pain. I took two Advil, and I ate pudding, and some yogurt and crunched on ice. Afterwards, I rinsed with Listerine. Its not too sore now due to the fact that I took some Advil and that I'm crunching on ice. Its not too bad to move around, but I am definately noticing that I can't say "th", "l" and "r"'s very proficiently. I'm sure that will correct itself in a few days.

I urge anyone who's thinking about getting one to do tons of research on it. Look up everything you can in books and on the Internet. Find a discussion medium such as ICQ, AIM, IRC, Newsgroups, webboards, anything, that will enable you to get some feedback from people who have actually had the procedure done. Don't think that a night of reading will prepare you for it. It won't. :-)

Anyway, I'd like to extend a thank you to The Canadian Red Dragon Tattoo & Body Piercing Studio. You made this experience for me enjoyable and not so scary. I'd also like to extend a HUGE thank you to BME for setting this entire thing for me in motion. You guys are true geniuses. Keep up the great work! Thanks again, guys!