Piercings come in all shapes and sizes, extra information should always be welcome as it helps you make better decisions. In our blog, we try to give you all information about piercings. We discuss all types of piercings and this time the tongue piercing.
The tongue piercing is incredibly popular with both men and women. Pinpointing the origin of the tongue piercing is rather difficult. There certain myths and stories about old cultures where they would slice or pierce the tongue. That such practices were permanent is highly unlikely. This because tongue piercing materials would have been required that they simply didn’t have back then. Therefore, it is assumed that the tongue piercing (as we know it) has to find its roots somewhere in the 80’s.
Read this if you would like to know more about piercing materials.
Although the reasons for getting a tongue piercing can be diverse, you often hear kissing or oral sex being mentioned. Whether a tongue piercing has stimulating effects is dependent on several factors. Things like the placement on the tongue, the type of ball and the way it is used are all important influences. That’s why you hear stories both confirming and declining stimulating effects.
Getting your tongue pierced
As this goes for all piercings it definitely applies for the tongue piercing: get your tongue pierced at a recognized and professional piercer. Piercing a tongue requires experience from the piercer to spot the main blood vessels. When big blood vessels get hit the bleeding could be continuous and require a doctor. This shouldn’t be a problem for any experienced piercer, though.
Once pierced you will first get an extended bar. This because your tongue will start to swell. This swelling will continue for a day or five. During the swelling, talking, drinking and eating will be a bit difficult. As soon as the swelling goes down the extended bar will be replaced by a shorter (normal) bar of 19 or 16 mm long.
During the healing process, it is important to take good care of your ‘wound’. This means no smoking, no drinking (alcohol obviously) and no oral sex. You’ll also need to rinse often with a special mouthwash. You should be able to get this mouthwash from your piercer.
Carrying a tongue piercing
A regular heard negative association to the tongue piercing is damage to the teeth. This association didn’t just appear. A lot of people tend to play with their tongue piercing, like clicking their tongue piercing against the back of their teeth or biting on it. Playing like this will damage your teeth and your gums. We strongly recommend not to play with your tongue piercing!
A tongue piercing is meant to serve a styling purpose, it’s not a toy. The type of material is also a big influence. Replacing your steel tongue piercing with an acrylic tongue piercing will strongly reduce damage. This might be a good idea if you simply can’t resist playing. This way you are more likely to damage your tongue piercing rather than your teeth.
Not playing with you tongue piercing should result in no damage at all at your teeth.
Which piercing as a tongue piercing?
On the site of Piercing Mania, you will find both barbells and tongue piercings. At first sight, they might seem to be the same.
The tongue piercing standard size is 1.6 mm thick with 16 mm in length. Depending on the tongue, a bar of 14 or 19 mm might be more comfortable.
You will notice that you can search on ‘piercing types‘ and ‘based on body part‘. If you search in the category ‘tongue piercing’ based on the body part you’ll find barbells that are meant to be worn as a tongue piercing.
When you search on piercing type in the category ‘barbells’ you’ll find similar results. However, not all these barbells are meant to be worn as a tongue piercing, despite matching sizes. The continuous exposure to the saliva in your mouth wears certain piercings down. The gold plated barbell, for example, will lose its golden layer rather quickly, it might also discolor. The same goes for certain barbells with a coating that simply isn’t strong enough to be in your mouth.
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