Does it really hurt to pierce your tongue?

No it didn’t hurt. Afterwards was the most uncomfortable part. Very swollen. Took about a week or two to finally be ok. I had a bad habit of biting on the barbell, so not good for your teeth. It creates lil cracks in your teeth that turn into bigger problems. I only kept it in for a few years. I bought a bunch if cool barbells and even ones with clever sayings on them. But once I hit a certain age I knew it was time to take it out.

Your dentist will love you for piercing your tongue. He/she will get big bucks for the dental reconstruction you are going to need.

True story – a family friend who is 17 got his tongue pierced and it got infected to the point where he needed surgery and they had to cut out a good section of it. He now speaks differently and always will. Do you really want to risk infection??

As My wife runs a Tattoo & Piercing shop I asked her this question – Here is her reply:
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I have had my tongue pierced 7 times. That is because I have my own studio and need to understand the different placements of piercing and how it feels with and without anaesthetic. Most places don’t use anaesthetic, so don’t expect it.

The actual piercing varies from person to person. The main thing is to relax. If you tense in any way, it makes it harder for the needle to go through the tissue, and will make it painful. If your piercer is experienced, they should do the piercing quickly. The needles are sugical, so very sharp and therefore cause the least amount of pain.

To stop swelling after piercing, the main thing is to keep your tongue as still as possible for about 24 hours after getting the piercing. You should eat soft food such as soup, yoghurts, etc. This will keep the swelling to a minimum. 10 minutes after getting the piercing, it feel absolutely fine and people immediately start playing with it and showing it off – this causes swelling.

Remember that everyone perceives pain differently, so what someone finds ‘sore’, someone else will find ‘uncomfortable’. The best thing to do is make up your mind if you want the piercing, and if you are sure, then go for it!

Good luck.

I just asked my GF. And she seconded what scotsbloke said. The piercing was easy, healing, not so much.

I have three tongue piercings. It stings just a little and gets a bit swollen for a couple of days. No biggie. Just relax when it’s done. It’s done in a jiffy.

I think it depends on the person, i had mine done and the day after ate a roast dinner!
I obviously don’t recommend that, you should eat soup and jelly! I just heal fast.
I did use those Nurofen Meltlets, they melt on your tongue and take down the swelling. If you can get hold of them :)

I thought the actual piercing was fairly painful, but worth it. My tongue was really really swollen for about a week. Most people I have talked to about it weren’t swollen that long. I used Listerine several times a day and kind of got addicted to it. I had my tongue done about 11 years ago and I think I’m paying for it now. I have had a lot of trouble with my teeth lately and I wonder if a lot of it isn’t from damage done by the barbell.

I have 7 Piercings (besides my ears) and my tongue is pierced twice… Its actually not too bad to have pierced – It really seems worse than it actually is :). The swelling of your tongue that comes later can be annoying and uncomfortable but if you just chew some ice and take some IBU you will be absolutely fine while its healing.

We just spent 4 hours and some bucks in the Emergency Room today due to problems with my son’s ear piercing – somehow the earring ended up inside his ear lobe. According to the ER personnel this is a common mishap with all sorts of piercings, but when it happens with a tongue piercing it gets pretty hairy fixing it.

Do you really want to get your tongue pierced?

@Darwin I have never heard of that actually happening to a Tongue… EVER. I have on the other hand, heard what happened to your son several times & have seen it happen to 1 of my neices.

@LethalCupcake – Who am I to say the ER folks are wrong or even exaggerating? I had never even heard of it happening to an ear before and was surprised to see the ER staff considered it to be commonplace for both ear and tongue piercings to have this problem. I could go into the details they gave me, but someone reading this might be eating.

In any case, there are a number of reasons not to pierce one’s tongue, and as far as I can see only one reason to pierce one’s tongue (it is fashionable, aka “cool,” and freaks out one’s parents). Weighing both sides I would have to say it doesn’t seem worth it.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with them – a ton of people I know have them, & like i said I have 2 – I’ve never had any complications. I’m sure that if you don’t take care of the piercing after – then Absolutely something could go wrong. But if you just keep it clean during healing – You’ll be fine!

I got my tongue pierced at 17 when it very first started becoming popular, and it hurt like a bitch!!! If I had any idea that it hurt that bad, and for that long, I would have never done it. They hold your tongue with what looks like smaller spaghetti tongs, then (my piercer) manually stabbed the needle through my tongue. That part happened so fast I can’t say it hurt much.

It took a month to heal to where my tongue wasn’t painfully swollen in the morning, so much so that I couldnt move it.

I had to eat soft things, like refried beans, and use my finger to hook it around the piercing & swallow. I also lost weight…it was not fun.

Once it healed it was “cool” at that age. I promised myself to keep it in a year, and ended up keeping it in about 5 or 6, off an on two more after that.

I’m 27 now and a mother, and have decided it looks trashy in my new role (but I still think it’s cute on the younger 18/19/20 year olds, especially if you do a white diamond and match it to your earrings or belly button ring), so I took it out. It never healed all the way closed, only half way since I’ve had it out a year (longest before I went with it out without having to break skin to get it back in was about 8 months).

But to each their own! Good luck if you decide to get it done!

Note: I also have friends who’ve had it, who had no pain at all. It seems to be 50/50 – either horrible pain, or minimal pain. Go figure!

Oh yeah, it ruined the gums behind my two front bottom teeth. Wore them down to where you could see the curve of my tooth. I may have problems with that when I am older. I think it could have been prevented by a better fitting barbel (I looked online and ordered an off size which helped with that pain).

Also if you have any surgeries or visit the dentist they will make you take it out, and most people’s tongues will have started healing by the time you can put it back in so that hurts as well.