Deathpoem's Web of Tangled Thoughts - Deathpoem's BodyArt Experiences

My Piercing Experience

The Tongue

I first saw a pierced tongue (live) at the Vizcaya Renaissance Festival when I was either 10 or 11. I thought that it was moderately cool, but looked like it would hurt entirely too much. I tucked it's image away in my mind.

After about a year, I started thinking about it again. I read up (on the internet) about different options, styles, and others' experiences. I toyed with the idea for about six months meanwhile also warming my mother up to the idea. She wasn't thrilled at first (she considers tatoos and piercings "outward signs of lunacy"). However, she considered the fact that it's rather discreet, and will heal up in a matter of days if I decided not to keep it (unlike a tattoo).

Once she finally consented, I checked around at the local tatooing/piercing parlors until I had found one with enough reputation and seemed clean enough. I talked with the piercist and learned not only about possible complications, but maintainence, pain levels involved, types of jewelery, etc. Although a bit "outwardly looney," he seemed pleasant enough.

I returned about two months after that with my mother (they won't pierce anyone under 18 without parental consent, and presence). At first, he wouldn't do it because I hadn't known that I had to have brought my birth certificate in order to prove that my mom was really my mom and not some neighbor standing in. Having driven all the way out to South Beach, she wasn't about to leave without some part of me gored, and therefore made quite a scene trying to prove that I was indeed her firstborn. They finally consented after photocopying my library card (the only form of ID that I carried...I was 12 for christ-sakes) and my mom's drivers license.

I signed the required form saying that I wouldn't sue them nor would I hold them responsible for any of the possible complications that could arise as a result of this piercing. I was then led into a room and onto a padded bench. A long double sided desk of sorts separated the room in half. On the opposite side a guy was having a Taz tattooed on the entire surface of his calf. When he asked me where my bottle of Listerine was, I told him that I didn't happen to carry one in my back pocket. He said that I had needed to purchase one from the market down the road, which I went and did.

When I returned he had already begun laying out the materials needed. I didn't get a chance to seem him take the clamps out of the packaging, but I did see a ripped plastic pouch next to the stuff. I rinsed my mouth with the listerine. He told me to stick my tongue out of my mouth and make it fat. I couldn't do the second part. He kept showing me what he meant, but I was having trouble. When I finally got it, he measured the width of my tongue with a micrometer and chose the appropriate jewelery. He made a mark with a sharpie and then asked me what I thought. I wasn't really sure, but I couldn't think of anywhere else that would have been better. It looked centered and far back enough that I wouldn't have any problems talking.

I lay down on the bench and he sat so that he was working looking down at me in the same direction. He told me to relax ( yeah right ) and that all I was going to feel was the clamp.
"If you move your tongue, I'll pierce your lip, chin, and maybe trachea."
And I think he was dead serious, so I willed myself with everything I had, not to move.

As the clamp slowly tightened with the addition clicks of the teeth, I winced a bit, but it wasn't very very painful, just very uncomfortable. I saw him pick up the needle, which looked like a a nail with no flat part at the end. I think that's when I closed my eyes.

He didn't warm me that he was about to shove the needle through, I just suddenly felt a large increase in the pressure of the clamp and the feeling like something was pinching the inside layer of my tongue-muscle. And then...it was over. He greased the barbell with some sort of water based lubricant, pushed it through, secured ends with the balls, and that was that. I sat up and imeadiately looked for a mirror. He handed me one and I must have looked for about five minutes straight. It didn't hurt and only the very rim of the wound was bloody.

After another gargling with the Listerine, I paid him and left to wait for my mom to pick me up, all the while bobbing it around in my mouth. I must have looked like a little kid chewing gum for the first time or something.

It didn't swell very much, but that night I didn't feel like eating much, only sucking on ice cubes. It didn't hurt, but it did feel like I had strained a muscle in my tongue, a kind of overall sore, rather than pin-point pain.

After about 3 to four months, it had fully healed and was my new source of amusement. Boring classes? Learned to click to it against my teeth in tune to songs! I can see many of you wincing and shaking your heads at me now.

The Tragus

About five or six years after I got my tongue-ring, I got that familiar itching again. It wasn't because my piercings were infected either (I know, ewww). It was my internal signal to tell me that I wanted another piercing. I had been browsing online piercing picture galleries and reading about others' experiences. I narrowed it down to either....a harpoon through my head, or a simple CBR on my tragus...the tragus won.

***note - a tragus is that small triangularly shaped piece of cartilege in your ear that rests in the center, facing the back of your head***

I approached my mother again(I was still a minor)and asked if she would have a problem with me getting it pierced. She thought it over, sighed, and granted permission. The next step was finding a time to get it done. Apparently the piercer leaves the place closest to my house at nine o'clock, and so I had to make it there by that time.

On the chosen day, I called Jeff ( the piercer at Tattoo's By Lou - Kendall) up and questioned him about the pain levels as well as complications and all of that. He said that it hurt so much, he had to have his taken out after a couple of months. I told him he wasn't doing a very good job of trying to sell his wares. He told me he also didn't want to trick me into thinking that it wasn't going to hurt. After I had hung up, I started thinking a little harder about this. Did I really want to be doing this? Some of the stories I had read had the people compared it with the pains of childbirth. But I decided...
"How much could it really hurt?"

Going in with my mom last time was more of a hassle (paper-work wise), but this time, she was a bit more inquisitive, I think she really annoyed the guy behind the counter with her incessant (nervousness based) jokes, not to mention, that by the time she got me there, the piercist missed his ride home.

The girl up before me was having her tragus done as well, so I was able to watch her...she didn't even wince. This buoyed my confidence a lot. I was most at ease sitting down on the chair when it came to be my turn.

However, as he layed out his tools of torture, my heart fluttered a bit. He held the needle up the light and then layed it in a dab of lubricant on his (fresh) glove. He took the clamps from the packages, and asked me to bend my head at an accessible angle.

My boyfriend (whom I had taken along for moral support) had taken my camera and got into position. I had asked him to snap the pics as it was happening, and as soon I have them scanned, I'll put them up. Jeff (the piercer) told me to count to three, exhale, and he would pierce on the exhale. Counting to three, I exhaled, raked my fingernails on the underside of the chair and scrunched up my eyes. I could hear the crunch of the cartilege as he pushed the needle through, but the pain wasn't that bad...just an intense pinching. The first thing I said was

"Not so bad," as my eyes smarted, and turned a bit red. He said he felt sorry for making me cry. I felt bad for having even felt like crying as the pain didn't seem to warrent it...it was more involuntary. I picked up a mirror and checked it out...except for a small ring of blood around the hoop, it didn't look bad. I got up off the chair, he handed me a card, told me about it's care and then I left. We got one more picture of the immediate-after shot and left.

I didn't feel woozy until we were in the car and the whole side of my head was throbbing. That night, and for the next month after, I could not sleep on that side of my head, nor could I answer the phone with that ear. If I did, the caller was awarded with a sharp sqeak, a
"Dammit!" and a "hi, sorry 'bout that."

I have since changed the ring to a rainbow niobium CBR (captive bead ring) with a blue tiger's eye bead. It looks pretty nifty, and the bead doesn't fall out as easily as the surgical steel one did, although I'm not sure why...perhaps more of the ring fits into the indentation in the bead.

At this point, I'm thinking about having my nipple done, but I'm still debating that one...so, possibly more to follow...If anyone would like to email me with their nipple piercing experiences, I would appreciate that. =)

The Nipple

Well, okay, I did it. Actually, at this point, I had it done two years ago but never got around to writing about it. Here goes: My [now EX...whoohoo...I'm playin' up the singles scene] boyfriend and I had talked about what kinds of tattoos and designs we thought were interesting...we then started talking about people that get mutual tattoos...which thoroughly disgusted me. I cannot, for the life of me imagine why ANYONE would want to get someone else's name tattooed on their body. Not only is that mark on you for the rest of your life, but its cheesy and tacky as hell. Names should *not* be included *ever* on a tattoo (and that is my personal advice to anyone reading this and considering a tattoo with a name on it....and oh, by the way, this includes your own name).

So, I told him I had always thought about getting my nipple pierced and how I kind of found one nipple piercing sort of sexy on a guy (thats only if the guy had a nice chest to begin with). My [ex]boyfriend said he thought it wasnt such a bad piercing, and is easily disguised
TO BE CONTINUED

Places I'd recommend for tattoos and piercings in Miami, Fl