By way of background, this is the account I wrote several hours after I got pierced by Hannah Cherry at Fatty's Custom Tattooz in DC. (It originally went on Yelp).
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DO NOT GET PIERCED HERE. I had one of the worst experiences of my life getting my tongue pierced by Hannah at Fatty's. Not just one of my worst experiences with piercings, but one of the worst experiences of my life, full stop.
I normally go to the excellent piercers at Chameleon in Cambridge, MA. I'm no stranger to piercings - I currently have a nostril, industrial, both nipples, two inner labia, and a VCH, but I was in DC and due to work schedules, had to get my tongue there if I was going to get it done. We (my partner and myself) did some investigation on Yelp and settled on Fatty's as the best option. (NB - I have used Yelp a lot but did not join until now and did so specifically to write about my experience with Hannah, because this situation rises to the level of a health and safety risk).
A warning bell to start - everything appeared sterile, but she grumbled that it 'wasn't shop policy' to let us see sterilization procedures, etc. in advance. The cost was a relatively pricey $75 total.
She did appear to follow proper procedures in regards to sterility, but that's where good practice ended. After doing the markings she had me lie down and put on the clamps. The clamps were unusually tight and uncomfortable. Then she did the piercing, no warnings, and it was *excruciatingly painful*. Now, I've heard a lot about tongue piercings, and in fact my partner has two and my boyfriend has one. So I know that tongue piercings are not usually ridiculously painful. What I experienced was far, far worse than anything I've had previously, including my nipples, which are notorious.
After she was finished and was inserting the jewelry, she fumbled and dropped one of the balls, which almost went down my throat. She tried to root around for it (which didn't exactly help with the pain I was feeling) and then gave up. Fortunately I didn't swallow it, and spit it out when she was done.
After she finished I lay there in incredible pain, not sure what was happening, or why it was so painful. I tried to sit up, but felt very woozy, and had to lie down, at which point I think I passed out briefly. As I came to, I noticed that the pain was mostly on the underside of my tongue, and extended from the exit hole to my saliva glands back to what felt like my lymph nodes. I spent a while curled up on her table, unable to move, sweating profusely and coming in and out of consciousness, and after maybe 15 minutes felt good enough to sit up and look at it again in the mirror again. It was then I saw that it had already swelled so much that the bottom ball had disappeared into my tongue! She had used 7/8'', 12 gauge (my understanding is that 1 inch is better, but I hadn't quibbled) but the hole on the underside was so large and/or the barbell was so short that the ball had been subsumed completely inside my tongue. She said 'hm, haven't seen that happen before' and at this point I freaked and asked her to take it out.
We left with me distraught, and they didn't apologize or even offer to refund us for the piercing. When we went outside and looked more closely at the remaining holes, I discovered that she had pierced it much too far back, right through the frenulum! If you are curious you can see a picture at http://www.flickr.com/photos/51408292@N02/4736330079/ This is, as confirmed by my regular piercer, and the placements of all my friends' tongue piercings, very far off from the correct placement, about 1/2cm too far back.
At this point I started worrying because I was unsure whether removing the piercing immediately had put me at a greater risk of infection. My saliva glands were continuing to swell, and my lymph nodes hurt, and I didn't know how bad of signs those were. We called up Greg at Chameleon in Cambridge who very graciously calmed me down and told me that if I cared for it as a regular tongue piercing it should be ok.
Here's hoping (this all happened today). My partner is going to go back and demand a refund from the owner; I had to get on a plane shortly after this incident.
I honestly find it incomprehensible that a piercer could screw up a standard tongue piercing so badly. And not only screw it up, but not be able to recognize/acknowledge that she had and help me figure out what to do. Had I known less about piercings, I quite possibly could have left the shop trying to keep it, and my tongue would have swelled up so badly that I would have lost the barbell inside and had to have it removed surgically.
Tongue piercings are as common and straightforward as piercings come - it scares me to think how badly she might botch something slightly more complicated!
Rereading the piercing Yelp reviews for Fatty's, it seems most of them are for the old piercer (Jason) or for relatively simple ear piercings with Hannah.
Needless to say, avoid Hannah at all costs for a piercing if you value your body.
I'm putting picture updates at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51408292@N02/
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