#piercing guide

-will it hurt? Yes, it's a piercing. But it won't be as bad as you think. And once it's over you'll be like "oh that was okay!"

-the aftermath of tongue piercings is swelling. Your tongue will be swollen for a few days, which can be annoying and painful, but you can take a painkiller and hold some ice to it.

-aftercare: so your piercer should tell you all this, but I will state it here too. Tongue piercings are a bit different in terms of aftercare. You will need to use alcohol-free mouthwash after every time you eat (but max 5 times per day). This helps keep everything clean!

-healing: tongues and mouths heal remarkably fast. I felt completely back to normal after just two weeks. BUT! You MUST not make out or give oral for 3 months I believe. Your piercer will tell you this.

-how do I eat?: so I didn't have to do like a full liquid diet for a whole week or anything. I started out with mainly liquids, but soft solids are fine too. (Soup, applesauce, smoothies, etc. are good) Take small bites, go slow, chew carefully (do NOT tilt your tongue in a way that positions the ball of your barbell between your teeth. Biting down hard on your jewelry will hurt you!). Just take it slow.

-placement: this is one piercing where you probably won't get a say in placement, because the piercer will be avoiding veins and also avoiding breaking through that little thing that connects the bottom of your tongue to the base of your mouth. As a result, it might be at an angle. But yeah, your piercer is deciding placement

-you will need to brush your tongue. Because stuff can't just scrape right down the middle of your tongue anymore, bacteria will build up. So make brushing your tongue a regular part of brushing your teeth!

-it might feel weird and take some time to get used to the jewelry in your mouth. Also you can't put anything right on the middle of your tongue, cause there's a ball there now!

-watch it carefully while you're healing. Piercers give you a longer bar to accommodate for swelling, but if it looks like the bar could be too small, go back and ask if you need an even longer one. Then, post-swelling, go back and get a shorter one.

-tooth damage: with any type of oral piercing you have to be vigilant of your tooth and gum health. My piercing does not rest on my teeth, or hit my teeth while I'm talking, so I've been fine. But just pay attention. And look at your gums regularly to make sure they aren't receding (on the inside especially).

-go to a professional piercer (I'm not joking, tongue piercings are supremely dangerous if you don't see a professional)

Summer's here! (almost) for Europe and America (Sorry Eurasia!), which means it's FESTIVAL SEASON! Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a festival newbie, keeping your modifications healthy and safe is always important!

There are many precautions you can take to prevent your awesome modification from morphing into an awful one, which is quite easy when you're in an environment full of dust, mud, sweat, bashing, crowds and lack of bathrooms! 

First of all, write a damn list. It might seem stupid, but your body will thank you for it when you remembered to pack your saline wash. 

Think about it, what piercings do you have that will close up if you lose the jewellery? Do you have spare jewellery you won't mind getting lost? Do you have a pair of plugs that are safe for long term wear that you don't mind losing? Is there a particular piercing that is pissy all the time? What salves and lotions do you need? Are you healing a piercing? These are all questions which you'll need to ask yourself!

Here's what my list looks like for a five day festival (I have 18 piercings)

4 1.2mm x 8mm labrets

6 1.2mm x 3mm balls

2x 12mm CBR's

Spare pair of plugs

Holey Butt'r

Salt solution in spray bottle*

2 nostril screws

2 curved barbells

Nitrile gloves

Navel curve

Spare 4mm silicone tunnel

That's quite a lot of jewellery to have, I know! A lot of the jewellery are pieces I purchased specifically for festivals/emergencies, or ones I bought and never wore.

In order to work out my list, I worked out how many piercings use the same jewellery. I have 5 piercings at 1.2mm that are straight! Same goes for all the other bits! The curved barbells are for my forward helices, and so on and so forth. You have a brain, you can work out what you need!

Now, for any music event, I wear tunnels. Why? I can put a CBR through them, and never have to worry about them falling out and losing it in a muddy field full of ick. It works! Make sure they're of a large enough diameter to fit through the tunnel, otherwise you'll waste money on something that doesn't fit. The balls make sense of themselves, loose a ball? Stick on a new one!

Now, the gloves might have some people confused, but you DO NOT want to be messing about with your piercings (especially new ones) with grubby hands. We all know, no matter how much you wash them at a festival, you can never get them clean enough. The gloves will protect your piercings from any toilet/mud nasties lurking on your fingers. 

Holey Butt'r, well, I don't want my lobes getting irritated or dry!

*The salt solution is optional, but I bring it just in case! It's easy enough to make. I buy a new empty pump spray bottle from Boots (Walmart will have some if you aren't in the UK, not sure about where else in the world!.) I then make up the salt solution in any way I normally would. 1/4 tsp salt to a mug of pre-boiled water, using a funnel, it then goes in the bottle. Carry on until it's full! Obviously you won't be able to use it warm so you won't get the best effect, but it's still a useful thing to have with you if you have any healing piercings.

Other points:

Sleeping with your plugs out is awesome, just, if you take them out, remember where you put them!

Don't take all your spare jewellery out with you from the tent. If you lose your bag, you also lose all your jewellery (not that it's the most important thing in a bag, but...), if you have an emergency, at least you have some knocking about back-at-base in the tent.  

There will always be jewellery and modification stalls at festivals*, which will always carry some jewellery. You can always buy some if you don't have any, but it is often very expensive.

*DO NOT get a piercing at a festival! It might seem fun and convenient, but ask yourself this: Do you want the pain to be on your mind the rest of the festival? Fancy having to deal with the aftercare? How are you going to keep it clean? How do you know the shop/truck/caravan/TENT?! will be clean and even adequate for piercing in? (protip, it probably won't be), how do you know the shop/tent/caravan/truck/cess-pit's got an autoclave and haven't just pre-prepared? You don't. Just. Don't do it, lest ye regret it for the rest of the festival!

See someone in a jewellery emergency that you can fix? Help the poor guy!

Oh, and have fun!