First off, you only have nerves along the surface of your tongue. Secondly, the tongue itself is a series of sinewy muscles running perpenducular from the back of your mouth (parallel with your molars). So when it is pierced, the needle in the hands of a qualified piercer passes between them, and the only pain you feel is as the needle pricks the surface. It hurts WAY less than biting your tongue, when you mash a load of the stringy muscles. Or so I’ve heard. It also heals completely in roughly 2 weeks, with proper care, as it is a mucus membrane, and they heal the fastest. I’ve done my homework on this one. And not for sexual reasons, because it is the only piercing (besides belly,) that has a peek-a-boo effect with everyone. Same reason wring’s son got his eyebrow done, I can hide it when nessisary (don’t stick your tongue out, and don’t speak rapidly) and show it off all the rest of the time. The only reason one isn’t in my mouth at the moment is that they also have a tendancy to chip teeth and damage dental work. If there is one thing I won’t stand for, it’s a waste of money. My parents put a couple thousand dollars worth of orthodontic work into my teeth, I don’t feel like chipping them now.
So I got my belly button done, and love it. It was about 2 weeks ago, and it is entirely externally healed. The piercing itself didn’t hurt at all, she pinched the flap with forceps, and that’s all I felt. It was clean, sterile, and professional. I’m going to get this funky cartilidge piercing I designed (kind of a cork screw) as soon as I have the money to sink into it.
My father, a motorcycling riding, rock-n-roll type of fella, who was always voted the “coolest” dad among my friends, is horrified. He literally shakes his head and keeps repeating “I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.” I calmly remind him his father didn’t get Bob Dylan or pot, either, but he still shakes his head whenever it comes into conversation. You’re not a fuddy-duddy, but there are cultural revolutions in any generation.
If you want to be REALLY horrified, learn about the newest weirdness, HORNS. Small nubs (I’ve heard coral is used, too) are surgically implanted from behind the hairline onto the forehead, and as the skin grows around them, the size of the nubs are increased until you have HORNS. That, right there, is REALLY beyond me. What do you do when you get tired of them, take out the nubs and keep your bus fare in there? ::shudder::