Two piercings at once

Last Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009, the girlfriend and I made plans to hit the movies, and then go to Shrap Metal to get my first piercings. We went and watched one movie, then snuck into another, then afterwards we went and had something to eat and went to the piercing studio. A few weeks before that she had told me how her tongue piercing was helping her with her oral fixation. Seeing as how I also have an oral fixation, I began to ponder the idea.
I was never really much for piercings, tattoos have always been more my thing, but since they are so expensive I can rarely go get ink done. Anyway, my main stigma against getting a piercing was mostly just because a piercing provides a point of weakness in a fight that I didn't want to risk, even though I haven't been in a fight in about a year. However, the tongue piercing was an idea I had never really batted around, and from what she told me, she never had any problems with hers. I decided to go for it, both to help my oral fixation, and for *other* reasons ;-).

So we set plans for Saturday. When Saturday rolled around I made sure to eat fairly well since I knew I wouldn't be able to eat afterwards, other than that I didn't make much preparation, I wasn't scared or nervous about the pain at all (well, I was more scared about the healing process than the actual piercing) because I knew no matter what the piercer did, a tattoo hurt way worse, and seeing as how I had such a high pain threshold anyway, I knew there'd be no problem.

I decided on impulse, that day, that I would get my labret pierced as well, because when I was younger I had wanted a labret. So I made the decision to get both the tongue piercing, and the labret at the same time.

I walked into Shrap Metal around 7:00 pm, they were getting ready to close in an hour so I knew the piercers were probably worn out. I had heard awesome things about the place so I wasn't worried. I walked up to the counter, filled out the release forms, and was greeted by Mike my piercer. We shook hands and walked into the back room. I sat down on the chair and followed his instructions. I swished the listerine around my mouth and went to spit it back into the cup. I ended up spitting with a bit too much force because it bounced off the bottom, out of the cup, and all over me. I laughed embarrassed, perhaps I was just a bit nervous after all.

Mike decided to do the labret first, then the tongue (I may be wrong about the order, but it's not important. Either way he told me to stick out whichever body part he was doing first, put the clamps on, then jabbed the needle through. There was only mild discomfort (but like I said, I have a high pain threshold). If anything it felt like having a paper clip jabbed through my lip/tongue. After both piercings were done I stood up, shook his hand, and said thanks. I was still able to talk fairly normally as my tongue hadn't started swelling yet, and there wasn't any pain, just what felt like two pieces of fishing tackle in my face.

When I got in the car and looked in the mirror, I noticed the labret was slightly off center, which annoyed me because this guy was supposed to have been an awesome piercer, yet due to my inexperience I didn't notice that he never marked where he was going to pierce. I decided to leave it in for awhile anyway. Long story short I took the labret out yesterday morning, not only because it was off center, but because the back plate had a tendency to snag on my teeth and gums. I liked the labret, but I like my teeth more, besides I didn't like the off center bit, so I took it out and it healed over within minutes. I may go back and get it re-done, just making sure it is centered.

Anyway, my tongue piercing is still healing as it is currently Wednesday the 11th of November, 4 days after the piercing. The swelling has gone down considerably, I'm slowly eating more and more normal foods, I haven't had a problem with biting the piercing, my problem was more about moving food around the piercing and getting it to the back of my throat; it was very awkward, and spaghetti was the worst about this because it wraps around the post. My tongue has turned a whitish color, but I think I may just be over-cleaning it. There is also a large crater in the top of my tongue where the ball sits, but I hear that's also normal and will go away once I put a shorter post in.

All in all, I love my tongue piercing, and am following the aftercare instructions to the letter, perhaps a little too much since I seem to be over-cleaning. I went to the mall after getting the piercings and picked out a package of stainless steel jewelry with pot leaves on the balls. I can't wait to change to the shorter post after 30 days with the actual jewelry. I plan on getting some dice jewelry, as well as a rather strange looking vibrating tongue ring for those personal moments with the girlfriend.
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