When we got there she came out to let me know that it would be a
few minutes, they were just finishing eating their supper. They were
having fish and it just didn't smell that great when she opened the
door! She asked me to stick out my tongue as far as I could so she
would know if she could do it, and she said it wouldn't be a problem.
She went back into the kitchen to finish eating, while we sat in the
waiting room looking at different jewelry and the books of tattoos.
About 5 minutes later, she came into the waiting room, had me fill out
some papers, then told me that she was ready for me. She lead me into
the room that they had recently moved around, and gave me a little cup
of Tech2000 that I was told to take to the bathroom and rinse with for
30 seconds. I did that, then came back to the room with that familiar
dentist like chair. I sat down while she got out her supplies, (needle,
clamps, gloves, bib thing, pen...) and she explained to me that I would
probably drool a lot while being pierced, not to worry about it, it's
very common. She attached the bib around my neck, then her husband came
in to give her a hand. (For some reason she can't do this piercing by
herself... I found that to be kind of weird). They both put gloves on,
then she had me stick my tongue out so she could mark it. She had her
husband check to see if it was well centered... she ended up having to
move it a bit, so she wiped off the first mark with an alcohol pad
thing, was a very unpleasant feeling to have on the tongue. The second
mark was perfect. She then had me stick my tongue out as far as I could
so she could put the clamps on... her husband took those and pulled my
tongue even further out, it seemed to be a lot further than it's
supposed to go, because that hurt like hell! I couldn't believe it. I
was drooling so much and was very thankful to have that bib on, my eyes
were watering like crazy as well. She told me that on 3 she would push
the needle thru. She counted, "one, two, three" and in went the needle.
That was the least painful part. Then the follow thru with the jewelry.
She had the hardest time to get the ball on after, my tongue was ready
to fall off by the time she was done. She then gave me another cup of
Tech2000 to go rinse with. When I came out to the waiting room, she
gave me 2 Ibeprophen, with a glass of water to help with the swelling
and the pain before it even got there. She gave me my bottle of
Tech2000 and I paid her the $65 that I owed her. I thanked her, then we
were off to buy some alcohol free mouthwash for when I ran out of
Tech2000.
By the time we got to the store, which is about 5 minutes away, I was in so much pain, I couldn't bare to talk.
The first week I lived on apple sauce and other things that were easy
to swallow and didn't involve much chewing. I took advil for the
swelling, and sucked on ice cubes.
I had been told to tighten the balls daily, but because there was so
much swelling, I couldn't stick my tongue out far enough to tighten
them, and I couldn't get my fingers in either, so I just hoped that
they wouldn't fall off. But 3 days later while eating breakfast, the
bottom ball managed to unscrew itself and fall off... I tried and tried
to get it back on, but it was a hopeless case. I tried calling my
piercer, but she wasn't picking up the phone. I did my best to brush my
teeth, then we got into the car and drove to her house. The sign said
that they were closed, but I knocked anyway and waited 5 minutes. When
I finally realized that they must be gone to a tattoo convention or
something, we got back into the car. I was just about ready to die, I
didn't want to lose my piercing. Then I remembered that there was
another place not too far from there, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to
go there to see if they could help me.
When we got there, I told the girl at the counter what had happened and
she lead me into the room in the back in front of everybody else that
was waiting. She got out the clamps... I prepared myself for that
horrible pain again, but this time a worse feeling, having a swollen
tongue squished and pulled. She told me that the bar they had used
wasn't long enough for the swelling, but that she'd try to get the ball
back on anyways. She got it on in 5 seconds, I was really surprised.
She made me tighten it myself, and told me that no matter how hard it
was to do, to make sure I did it every day, or I'd probably end up back
there. So I did what I had to do.