Just Call me Metal-Mouth

Well, I did it

I suppose you guys want to hear the gory details...maybe not, but I'm gonna tell ya anyway

Wednesday: Payday !!!!!!

My co-worker Nicole arrives at my house to pick me up, along with Pisky and my younger son, Max who have both decided they want to come along for the ride, so to speak. Nicole is also coming along as she's decided that she too needs a new hole, so she will get a cartilage piercing done on one ear at the same time as I get my tongue done.


The atmosphere is lively, with the spark of excitement of things to come in the air. We go downtown to cash our checks then go to get some of the best pizza in town while we wait for Addictions to open. (We've been told it's important to eat before a piercing, especially a tongue)

After the pizza we head over to Addictions and I start to get REALLY hyper. Not scared yet, just way hyper and psyched and ready to get the show on the road. We go in and it's like entering another world. The place is run by a woman only a few years older then I am and I'm instantly at ease as I had expected that I would recieve strange looks being, well, FORTY and not exactly your common piercing demographic. But it turns out Emily has pierced people of ALL ages and socioeconomic stratas, so I don't stick out like a sore thumb after all. As a matter of fact I feel right at home.

She takes Nikoles and My IDs and we proceed to sit down and wait our turns. So we're sitting there and the girls that are ahead of us come out from their piercings and one of them has just gotten a piercing called an "industrial" which looks REALLY cool to me and I'm thinking "Hmmmm...maybe my next piercing".

But it's one thing at a time and I'm really focused on my tongue at the moment and Emily comes out and calls us back. So we all troop to the back room. Me, Nikole, Max and Pisky. Serious nervousness is beginning to overlay the excitement now and I'm getting the first twinges of fight or flight lol.

Nikole and I decided that I would go first as I wanted to get it OVER with and since she's already had several piercings, including her tongue, she said to go right ahead.

Emily tells me to sit in what looks like a dentists chair, which I do, while the rest of my moral support group goes and sits on the couch provided. Emily then launches into a little pep talk (she really knows her stuff, Emily, and I feel totally at ease with her at this point, in spite of the nervous tension), telling me about the after care, and what to expect during the procedure etc.

Then she finally decides I'm ready (I'm nearly peeing in my pants at this point with tension, thinking I just want it over with and she could tell me all this stuff after. But I know why she was taking so long, cause she knew I was a "virgin" and she wanted to pamper me a little, which WAS nice I admit) and hands me a cup of mouthwash to swish and proceeds to show me the forceps she will be clamping my tongue with.

It's at about this point where I suddenly become VERY scared and am about 2 shakes away from getting up and running out of the place. The mouthwash signified that the piercing was imminent and it freaked me out, because I didn't know WHAT was really coming or HOW much it was going to hurt, even though I'd read that tongue piercings don't hurt very much at all.

But I stand firm. I mean to do this, and if others before me could do it then goddamn it, so could I !!!

I finish swishing and Emily takes the cup away from me and tells me to put my head back, I'm going "Ohmagod ohmagod !!!" inside my head at this point but I do as she says. Then she tells me to put out my tongue out as far as I can, so I bite the bullet (no pun intended) and do it, knowing that there's no backing out once I do. I feel the clamp go on, then a couple seconds later I feel a sharp pinch, Emily tells me I have a pierced tongue now and that I'm almost done, but first she needs to screw on the ball at the end of the barbell. And that's it !

She tells me to put my tongue back in my mouth. I do, and I'm panicky inside because I still feel the pinch and the soreness (although it is FAR from agony, but it's PAIN after all and I am a HUGE wuss) and I'm thinking, "Oh please don't let it hurt more then this" (which it never did, thank GODDESS).

So I'm sitting there acclimating to this alien thing in my mouth. This incredibly awkward piece of metal in the middle of my mouth that wasn't there a few seconds ago, but is NOW and I know without a doubt that there's gonna be some adjustments getting used to it living inside my mouth.

It's strange. I love it, yet a part of me rejects it because it doesn't belong. It's like an unwelcome visitor that comes to visit you, where you wanted them before, then all of a sudden that person has overstayed it's welcome. Weird analogy, but there it is.

Anyhoo. Emily talks to me a few minutes more to make sure that I'm ready to stand up and walk over to the couch and wait for Nikole, she gives me a popcicle which I accept gratefully. It's weird sensation because I don't know HOW on earth to go about eating it. I end up having to put it on either side of my barbell and try to suck on it that way, then I try to bite it and end up biting a ball. Ouch !!!

Anyway, that was pretty much it. I sat and watched Nikole grimace in pain as her inner ear cartilage was done, which gave me pause for thought about having my industrial done on one ear. But the more I think about it the more I like it. Those are FUNKY looking. But that's for another day. I need to get used to my tongue first.

Later on I was hungry and whereas I had decided to stick to soft foods only, I decided that I wanted to try to eat the same even if it took me longer, which it did. My first meal after: A filet 'O' Fish and fries at McDogTurds. Which was delish cause I was starving, but the salt hurt and it took me about an hour to consume them lol.

Later on that night I started to seriously swell and I was just too tired, my tongue ached and I just wanted sleep. So I went to bed early.

Woke up to a very swollen tongue. In fact it was swollen so much that it looked like the balls were being swallowed up by my tongue.

Day 3: STILL very swollen. Emailed Emily to tell her my concerns about the piercing swallowing up the balls and she emailed me back within an hour to tell me to come in free of charge and let her look at it. So I went in and they looked at my tongue and said that some people just swell more then others and they changed my barbell for a longer one. Which was a relief immediately. I just hope my tongue doesn't swell anymore, or else I have to go back for an even longer one. But so far so good. So right now I have an inch long piece of metal through my tongue which makes manuevering food kinda challenging to say the least, but I'm dealing. VERRRRRYYY slowly.




[Edited on 5-6-2004 by KayEm]

Oh....my...God....

I fainted after having my ears pierced. I hate to think what would happen if I had my tongue pierced !!!! You are far braver than me !!!!!!

After seeing that, there is no way I will ever allow some bugger to stick bits of metal in me unless its to save my life.

The very thought of it makes me cringe. Plus you can't drink beer for two weeks - feck that idea !!!

Yes, it looks cute but since I have no reason to look cute, I can get away with not having a piece of metal stuffed in my mouth.

Time for more drink methinks !