As you may know from my post regarding my septum piercing, I am a fan of piercings that can be hidden. I am one of those people that flits between preppy and punk (and everything inbetween) like it ain’t no thang, so I like the flexibility of hidden piercings.
I actually got my tongue webbing/frenulum piercing before my septum. My best friend had gotten it pierced and I thought it was so cool and badass that I decided I wanted it too. We headed over to a piercing shop near our college campus in order to do the deed.
Septum & tongue webbing piercing
As I was waiting, I got pretty nervous. This was my first non-traditional piercing and although I have a high pain tolerance, I am not one of those people that gets a weird enjoyment or adrenaline rush out of piercings. I was calm and ready, because as Kelly and the piercer (and my research) had told me, this piercing is “one of the least painful out there.â€
I put quotations because that was NOT the case for me. Actually, it wasn’t a painful piercing, I just had a really not-so-good experience.
So. I walk in. I pick out my jewelry. (Usually you can choose between a curved barbell, full hoop ring, or a horseshoe. I chose barbell because it accommodates swelling the best and is less likely to show since it doesn’t protrude towards your teeth as far.) The piercer walks me and my friends back to the room, sanitizes, and has me rinse with an antibacterial mouthwash. Under his instruction, I open wide and lift my tongue up like I’m trying to touch it to my nose. He clamps my webbing and off we go.
So, the piercing itself was a piece of cake. It was a dull ache and then got warm and began throbbing – there was no sting or sharp prick feeling. The problem was that my tongue did not want to accept the jewelry and the piercer could not thread it through properly. He kept trying, but the longer I strained my tongue and mouth with a needle through the bottom of it, the more pain I was in. Dull, but it was pain nonetheless. After five or six minutes of trying and failing to get the jewelry in (normally the entire process takes about 2 minutes), he asked if I wanted to continue. While I was extremely uncomfortable, I knew that the hole was already there and I would probably never come back, so I told him to just get it done, whatever it took.
About three minutes later, the jewelry was in. Again, during this time I never felt any sharp pain – the kind that people usually associate with needles. Had the jewelry gone in easier, it would have been a very easy piercing. But, as it were, I ended up getting super light headed and pale so the piercer had me rest and eat some food. After a few minutes I felt better and left.
I won’t lie, it was fucking SORE. The bottom of my mouth swelled and I had a little bit of a lisp but I just kept rinsing with the mouthwash I was given and assumed it was normal. (I stupidly ignored the instructions to avoid spicy food for the first week — bad, BAD idea.) After two or three days, it was worse to the point that my entire jaw and neck hurt so badly I could barely talk. Apparently, I had already been coming down with strep, and the trauma made my lymph nodes go berserk. After only one dose of antibiotics, I was a new person and my piercing pain subsided. It was still tender, but very bearable and pretty much what I expected.
I went through all that and I never regretted it once. Eventually, two more of our friends got the same piercing…because we’re cool like that. For them, it was also painless but a much easier process overall. If you’re considering it, here is what you need to know from MY experience:
- You will swell a bit and maybe lisp for a day or two.
- Don’t go with the horseshoe or hoop if you aren’t allowed to have piercings because they are more likely to be noticed. They also are more likely to click against the back of your bottom teeth and potentially cause decay, or even get caught on your teeth.
- You WILL play with it. If you have a tendency to bounce your legs, twiddle thumbs, etc. you might end up developing a nasty habit of noticeably playing with it without realizing. My other best friend who got the same piercing decided to take hers out because she was always messing around with it.
- It will build plaque, just like your teeth.
- You can’t (or at least I can’t) remove it yourself. A professional piercer must remove or change it for you.
- These migrate/reject fast. Mine is still going strong after 2.5 years, but if you know you tend to reject piercings, I don’t recommend this one because frenulums affect your speech and tongue movement. It will heal back up, but it would be weird for awhile.
- The piercings are rarely perfectly straight or even and no two are the same. Since the tongue is such a big muscle and spasms involuntarily, each piercing will be a little off kilter and different from the others.
Also, just a side note: when you get a piercing in your mouth, there are rules for what can be put in your mouth in the weeks following the piercing. These rules are in place to protect the piercing and your health. I don’t know if I remember all of them, but the two that come to mind are spicy foods and oral sex. I know that’s a bit weird to think about, but because you have essentially an open wound in your mouth, it’s very dangerous to have someone else’s body fluids in there. This is just something to think about if you’re considering it.
Overall, I am highly satisfied with my piercing and definitely recommend it. As always, just make sure you go to a skilled, professional piercer and follow the rules!
