Tongue Web

This post is two weeks overdue >.> But I’m still choosing to write this now.

So two weeks ago my new piercing needles came in, ten of them, for only $4.40 with free shipping, and needless to say, I had to pierce something that night. So the first thing I went with was my tongue web. (That’s the little thin fleshy thing under your tongue.)

I did pierce this myself and it came out fantastic, however, I don’t recommend you follow my example. Don’t pierce anything yourself unless you know exactly what you’re doing and have proper sterile equipment. NEW proper sterile equipment, I might add.

If you want to pierce yourself, please go buy actual sterilized piercing needles. And please don’t be an idiot and use a sewing needle or safety pin or another earring or anything else. This just ups your chances of infection and rejection.

Now, I’m not a professional piercer by any means, but I do give myself props on actually being educated on whatever piercing I intend to do to myself and knowing what to do, what not to do, and how to do it using sterile needles. I recommend you do the same.

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Anyway, why did I choose this piercing?

I’ve been wanting it for quite a while. It’s been on my list of piercings to get for almost a year, but I always ended up doing other ones before it, e.g., my navel, industrial, and cartilages.

But that night, I decided to pierce it(: And I love it :3

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Procedure:

Before piercing, I had washed my hands, brushed my teeth, and rinsed my mouth with alcohol free mouthwash. (Alcohol free because alcohol thins the blood and basically prevents healing.) I had also soaked my jewelry in my sea salt solution, which is just warm water mixed with sea salt. After that, I laid out one of my unopened sterilized piercing needles, the jewelry, tweezers, and a few paper towels.

I didn’t mark where I wanted to pierce, I just lined it up straight and went for it. The needles are razor sharp so they go through the skin like buttah(: Especially since the area that I was piercing is super thin away, it just went straight through it like nothing. I just pushed the needle through till there was just a little bit of it left, and then stuck the jewelry in the end of the needle and pushed the jewelry through while the needle was coming out. That sounds more complicated than it really is, but anyone who’s had or seen a piercing done knows what I’m talking about.

Then THE HARDEST FREAKING PART OF ALL, screwing on the little ball at the end. It took me forever to finally screw the ball on because

1. It’s in my mouth

2. It’s such a small area to work with

3. Drool everywhere

and 4. My nails are so freaking long and I can’t firmly hold the ball and simultaneously twist it on.

I was annoying how long it took. I tried for about twenty minutes before I found a way to screw it on that worked for me. I ended up using my tweezers to grab the end that didn’t have a ball, and pulled the jewelry forward till I could bite down and hold that end with my teeth so I could put the ball on. My teeth were the only thing I could think of that could possibly help me in this situation x)

So after thirty minutes and a pound of drool, I finally had the ball screwed on. It was a relief, and I’m extremely pleased with the job I did. And of course after everything was perfectly on, I rinsed again with my alcohol free mouthwash.

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It’s been two weeks since I’ve had this piercing and it’s sooo perfect. It seriously completely healed within the first three days.  There was nothing to it. For me, there was no swelling at all. Not the next morning, not a few days later, just none at all. There was a little bit of soreness the following day but that went away within the same day. Now I don’t even feel it unless I play with it. Which I do all the time x) And it’s not a problem. If I play with it it’s not going to come off or damage anything.

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Aftercare: As far as aftercare goes, just rinsing your mouth with alcohol free mouthwash everyday after eating and drinking anything that isn’t water, will do.

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So anyone who wants a tongue web piercing, or any piercing, really just wants to know about the pain level. Everyone seems to think this would be extremely painful because it’s skin in your mouth, but it’s really not painful at all. Honestly, I have a very high pain tolerance so piercings are nothing to me and I feel pretty invincible to pain when it comes to stuff like this. But seriously, if you want this piercing, get it. Go for it. It’s painless. It’s such a small little thin layer of skin, you literally don’t feel a thing.

Btw, there was no blood at all. I didn’t bleed, but there was tons of drool, so paper towels in your mouth and on the counter are a must(:

And as far as jewelry goes for a tongue web, the best one you could use is a surgical stainless steel curved barbell used for eyebrow piercings. It’ll be so much more comfortable than a captive ring, horseshoe, or straight barbell.

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Pain Level: -1

Needle: 14g E.O. Gas Sterilized

Jewelry: 16g Curved Barbell

Recommended: Yes, but by a professional piercer.

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Other things you should know:

• My only issue was getting the other ball to twist on. It was a pain, so if you choose to do this yourself at home, it won’t be easy.
• This is probably the easiest and simplest piercing to have and take care of, but it is known to collect a lot of plaque so it needs to be cleaned every two days, or to your discretion. Just use alcohol free mouthwash.
• Oral piercings don’t take nearly as long to heal, so an estimate for this piercing, at max, would be a month. Personally, I’m a very quick healer and mine was completely healed within three days. Everyone is different, but it shouldn’t take long at all.
• It doesn’t effect your speech or give you a lisp. But it may be a little swollen or sore the next day, but of course that goes away.
• You should always rinse your mouth with alcohol free mouthwash after eating to make sure it doesn’t get infected within the first week.
• Before getting any piercing, it’s smart to drink some soda or Gatorade or anything sugary because sugar thickens the blood, thus preventing excess bleeding, if that’s something you’re worried about.
• Sterilized piercing needles are only meant to be used once, so don’t reuse them.
• There is NO real way to sterilize piercing needles again. There’s no way to sterilize any kind of piercing equipment, so I recommend just buying needles new. They’re not expensive anyway. Soaking needles in rubbing alcohol, boiling it at the highest temperature, or using a lighter to heat it up, does not sterilize anything.
• As with any piercing, there’s always the possibility of rejection. If this happens, just take the jewelry out and clean your mouth well with mouthwash. Not everyone is meant to have all piercings. But it’s not the end of the world. If you still really want this piercing, you could always wait a few months for it to heal and close up and pierce it again.
• And lastly, and probably the most common scare is that if you do this piercing it can paralyze your tongue. This is false. And dumb. It’s a thin little fleshy thing under your tongue. Nothing bad will happen if you pierce it. People actually have their tongue web’s removed in order to have a longer tongue; piercing is not a problem.

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And I think that’s it for this piercing post. I absolutely LOVE mine. I think it’s cute. And fun to play with, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants one.

Have a great day everyone!(: