People who have decided to adorn themselves with body jewelry, however, respond with “Why not?”  Tongue rings and nose rings are just two more ways for a person to express himself or herself.  The idea of body jewelry is similar to the idea of tradition earlobe piercings:   people want to be able to decorate themselves.

In addition, less traditional forms of body jewelry such as tongue rings, nose rings and eyebrow rings, are sometimes used as an outlet for rebellion against one’s parents or against a conformist society.  The purpose is to essentially say, “Hey, it’s my body, I can poke holes wherever I want.”

The beauty of body jewelry is that most often, when a person decides that the body jewelry is no longer a desirable form of self-expression, he or she can simply remove the nose ring or tongue ring, and the tiny hole will eventually close up.  Body jewelry is a semi-permanent way for people to show their style, rebel, or simply decorate the body.

T.C. Kuster

To pierce your tongue, the piercer will generally use a titanium or stainless steel tongue ring.  Unfortunately, these are not clear or tongue colored, which makes them more difficult to hide.  After it heals, however, you can change your tongue ring to one that is less noticeable.  Tongue rings come in varying lengths too.  Wearers report that a shorter barbell is easier to hide, but also keep in mind that dentists say that this kind will cause more enamel damage because it is to easy to hold between your teeth.

One other option to hide tongue rings is to get the piercing as far back as possible in the tongue.  This is not always the best technique because the placement of the ring depends largely on the location of veins in your tongue.  Your professional piercer can help you determine where the tongue ring can go.

The swelling will begin to subside within a few days and your tongue should return to normal in about a week.

T.C. Kuster

The first thing you should consider when getting a tongue piercing or lip piercing is using plastic or Bioplast jewelry.  This is made from a synthetic material that will cause much, much less damage to your gums and teeth.  It is softer and more flexible and reportedly the “best material for body jewelry.”  Bioplast jewelry comes in a huge variety of colors and designs and costs about the same as steel or titanium jewelry of similar styles.

Dentist reports show that traditional tongue rings, web tongue rings, and even hoop lip rings can be safe for wearers so long as they keep them clean and maintain their regular dental checkups.  On the other hand, many agree that the labret piercing has the most potential for damage.

This does NOT have to be the case if you use plastic or Bioplast tongue rings.  There are dozens of Web sites and many retail stores that sell this kind of body jewelry.  Don’t sacrifice your oral safety OR your personal style; pierce anything you want just be sure to use the proper materials to prevent and harm.

When people hear the term “body modification,” they often overlook the fact that even a simple navel piercing or the ever popular breast augmentation is a form of body modification.

On the more extreme side of the spectrum, however, there are people who do prefer explicit ornaments as a way to express themselves.  There are the standard belly button rings and tongue rings, but there are also some more creative piercings.  For example, dermal anchoring, like transdermal implants are pierced down into the skin to give the appearance that a small bead is simply resting on the skin.

In addition, people use stretching neck rings, get eyeball tattooing and even surgically split their tongues to achieve a lizard like appearance.

Be it good or bad, there are a number of individuals who have gained fame for their extreme or excessive body modification.  For example, Rick Genest tattooed his entire head and torso to look like a human skeleton.  Cindy Jackson claims to have more cosmetic plastic surgery than any other person in the world and Erik Sprague calls himself “The Lizardman” and has sharpened teeth, a full-body tattoo of green scales, a split tongue and even green inked lips.

What do you think of this trend?  Is it a cool way to express oneself?  Or a horrible disfigurement of one’s own body?

Tell us what you think!

Historically, the Aztecs, the Haida, Kwkiutul, Mayas of Central America and the Tlinglit tribes in the American Northwest had customs of body piercing.  It was often used as a form of self sacrifice or for religious reasons in these cultures.  Tongue rings were thought to be especially holy during these times because it was a way to draw blood to please the deities.

In Native American tribes, tongue piercings and other body jewelry were considered a way to bring people nearer to their gods through bleeding.  Aztec and Mayan tribes reportedly pierced their septum, a part of the nose, to appear fierce and intimidating to their enemies.  Rather than the modern day steel jewelry, they used bones, tusks and feathers as body jewelry.

Today, the tongue ring, as well as other body piercings are primarily for decorative reasons.  They are a means of self expression and personal decoration. The jewelry used is typically made from surgical steel and while it is often referred to as a tongue “ring,” it does not resemble the circular shape that it might imply.  In reality, it is a straight or curved barbell with a ball screwed to each end.  The ball on the bottom is often much smaller and used only to prevent the barbell from slipping out.  The ball on the top is used for decoration and expression

• Traditional Tongue Piercings

The most famous tongue piercing is the traditional tongue piercing. This tongue piercing goes directly through the top of the tongue and exits on the bottom side. This special piercing is also known for it’s increasing swelling after the initial piercing and swelling can last up to a week or more. Healing time is approximately one to two months.

• Tongue Exposed Piercings

Tongue surface piercings can be placed anywhere on the surface of the tongue, whether it be horizontally or vertically down the tongue. In addition to this, they can also be on either the top of the tongue, or the bottom of the tongue (which is often referred to as a lingum piercing,) or the tip of the tongue.

• Horizontal Tongue Piercings

Horizontal tongue piercings are fairly honest. They are a piercing that passes horizontally from the tongue whereas local tongue piercings corss vertically through the tongue. Sometimes, if not correctly pierced, a tongue ring in this piercing can interfere with eating, speech or both.

• Tongue Rim Piercings

A tongue rim piercings can be thought a variation of a tongue surface piercing. This piercing or group of piercings sits on the rim of the tongue. Generally, the wearer uses traditional tongue rings or types of captivating beads. Unfortunately, this piercing has been known to cause serious tooth damage if improperly placed.

• T-Bar Piercings

The T-Bar piercing is a little more complex than some other tongue piercing. This piercing takes a bit more time and wait than other tongue piercings because it needs two separate arrangements to meet someone. The first appointment is used for the piercer to insert the tongue ring used for piercing horizontally or vertically, based on the user’s preference.

After several weeks of becoming well, a second appointment will be required for a third hole to develop the ‘T’ appearance of the piercing. Custom body jewelry is inserted and the third piercing is screwed into the tongue ring barbell to form the desired ‘T’ shape.  From a viewing standpoint, the piercing appears as three separate tongue ring balls on the surface of the tongue.

• Tongue Web Piercings

The tongue web piercing is also somewhat self-explanatory. The piercing itself corsses through the webbing on the innerside of the tongue. Oftentimes, the wearer inserts either straight or curved body jewelry, sometimes using tongue rings with beads or rings.  Healing time is constantly sharp, as with most oral piercings.

Tongue ring piercings are becoming increasingly popular with younger generations. Tongue rings are comfortable to hide for work matters and socially accepted among their peers. It is not hard to determine why tongue rings and other body piercings are becoming more and more popular.

Tongue piercing is most popularly done with straight barbell. 14 Ga is the most common gauge used for tongue piercing. In order to give room to the swelling, the early length of the pierced barbell should be at least 3/4″. Once the tongue piercing has been healed, it can be replaced to a shorter barbell of 9/16″(14mm) which is the most common size. Wearing a shorter barbell after the piercing is healed is suggested.

Barbell fashion of body jewelry is composed of a straight bar and with a bead on each end, one or both beads unscrewable for removal and/or replacing of the beads. Often one of the beads is fixed, either via epoxy or welding, so that only one bead is used to fix or remove the jewelry. Barbell threads are mostly right-handed.

There are roughly about 5 kinds of barbells for body jewelry.  The internally threaded barbells are slightly more costly than externally threaded barbells as there will be additional machining and labor included. It is also considered superior to the external barbells as it is less likely to cause damage or irritation especially at the time of piercing. An internally threaded barbell has a bead with a receiving tube machine into it which connects with a threaded post extending from the center.

Although the externally threaded barbells have become less common, the internally threaded barbells have increased in popularity. It is named so because shaft of the bar has threads at both ends to allow beads with the receiving threads to be attached to the tongue ring.

Named because of the curvature, curved barbells can also be known as a navel curve. It is mechanically same to straight barbells instead of that they are curved. Curvature on a curved barbell can range from about straight to circular, with some barbells basically being spiral, with the ends overlapping but separated to allow the insertion
of the jewelry. A variation on this design is a J-bar, a slightly curved barbell (sometimes referred to as a bananabell or banana barbell) with a 90 degree bend near one end, used in verticalnavel piercings to position the decorative  end of the body jewelry more appropriately. They can be either internally threaded or externally threaded.

Circular barbells, also known as horseshoe barbells are used in some types of piercings. They are named so due to their shape.

In all surface piercings, surface bars are used. Barbells for surface piercing have a pair of 90 degree bends in the same direction, so they can be used for surface piercing. Because of this design the pressure that would be affected by other body jewelry designs that participate to disallow in healing surface piercings is minimized.