Tongue piercing
| Tongue piercing | |
|---|---|
|
|
| location | tongue |
| Jewellery | Barbell note on jewelry |
| Healing time | 3 to 6 weeks note on healing time |
| ‣ Topic overview | |
A tongue piercing is a form of body shaping in which a piece of jewelry is inserted into a canal pierced through the tongue . Usually it is a piercing placed vertically in the middle of the tongue with a stick with balls, a so-called barbell .
history
Sticking the tongue without permanently wearing jewelry is known as a religious ritual in several cultures. According to reports from Spanish conquerors from the 16th century, as well as traditional stone reliefs, in Central America, in addition to the ears, cheeks and genitals, the tongue was pierced as an offering and for internal cleansing.
In the Thai city of Phuket , the festival of the nine emperor gods has taken place annually since 1825 , during which the participants put themselves in a state of trance as part of an evocation of the gods and during a procession swords, branches, iron rods or everyday objects with sometimes considerable diameters stab through the tongue or other parts of the body . A similar tradition is celebrated annually in Malaysia in January / February at the Thaipusam festival.
According to the Body Modification E-Zine, the first documented tongue piercing used as costume jewelry was made in 1978 by the German tattoo artist Horst Klassenbach with a ten-gauge dermal punch .
During the 1990s, the decorative tongue piercing established itself in western culture. The piercer and body modification actor Elayne Angel is assigned an influential role. Later, Keith Flint, singer and dancer of the band The Prodigy , and the singer Melanie Brown of the band Spice Girls in pop culture are said to have contributed to popularization within the techno scene .
Sting
A tongue piercing is usually performed while sitting to make it easier for the piercer to use, but also to counteract circulatory problems. As with other piercings, the puncture and puncture site are first marked, fixed with a pair of clamping pliers and a peripheral venous catheter is pierced (see piercing ).
When piercing, the piercer must be careful not to damage the ligament of the tongue with which the tongue is fused on the lower jaw. Care must also be taken that the position of the piercing cannot cause damage to the teeth. While a piercing runs in the middle of the tongue between the two tongue muscles, an off-center piercing is pierced directly through one of the muscles and should therefore only be performed by experienced piercers.
In the following three to eight days, however, the tongue may swell strongly, so an extra long barbell should be used when pricking . The piercing itself is not as painful as is often assumed.
Healing and care
After the swelling of the freshly pierced piercing has subsided, it should be replaced with a shorter pin in order to increase the wearing comfort and to minimize the risk of tooth damage.
A tongue piercing usually heals within three to six weeks. On alcohol and nicotine should be avoided during this time. Food intake is often painful for the first few days. It is therefore advisable to switch to liquid or pulpy food and to eat smaller portions. After eating, the mouth should be rinsed out. Lots of fluids, especially before bed, can help minimize swelling. The piercing should only be handled with washed hands, if at all. Oral contact with body fluids should be avoided during the healing phase. Too much care and cleaning can irritate the piercing and prolong the healing time.
For the first 10 to 14 days it is advisable to avoid dairy products , alcohol and nicotine, as well as the consumption of fruit juices or acidic fruits. In addition, the food and drinks should not be too hot, cold or spicy to avoid over-stimulation. Ice cubes, especially those made from sage or chamomile tea , help against the swelling, which usually regresses after about three days . Also on oral sex should be avoided. Rinsing with polyhexanide or phenoxyethanol (never betaisodona , as this is an iodine solution) or chamomile flowers are helpful .
Variations
In the vast majority of cases, a tongue piercing is a plug placed vertically in the middle of the tongue. It is often possible to wear several tongue piercings behind or next to each other.
However, it is also possible to pierce the sides, in the tip of the tongue or horizontally through the tongue, as well as a surface piercing with a puncture and puncture point on the tongue surface. A piercing in the tip of the tongue is also called tongue -rim piercing or edge-of-tongue piercing , and is usually worn with ball closure rings . With these special variants, the use of flexible jewelry such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is often recommended in order to impair the freedom of movement of the tongue as little as possible. These can lead to an increased risk of tooth damage and speech disorders and problems with eating. The procedure is described as particularly painful and the healing process as tedious.
Several symmetrically arranged piercings in the tongue are called venom piercings, just as several symmetrical labret piercings are called venom. The frenulum piercing is pierced horizontally through the frenulum below the tongue .
Like other piercings, the tongue piercing can be stretched to a larger diameter . However, the more massive jewelry can cause more damage to teeth. Therefore, so-called “Smartie Beads” exist which cannot be screwed to a correspondingly large ball, but to a specially flattened section.
Risks
Many larger blood vessels in the tongue make this piercing quite complicated, which is why it is expressly pointed out that it should only be performed by experienced piercers.
As with all piercings, there is a risk of infections, which can be severe and lead to attacks of suffocation. Immediately after the piercing has been carried out, pain, swelling, edema , infections, increased salivation and gum injuries occur regularly . Bleeding also usually occurs, but is usually not threatening. Piercing must not be carried out under anticoagulant medication .
The swelling may affect speaking. This usually returns to normal after healing, but the jewelry can still impair tongue movement and speech. Damage to the teeth can also occur, which is one of the most common complications of tongue piercings, especially if the wearer develops a habit of playing with the piercing.
When "sucking" or holding on to the (front) teeth of the piercing, as shown in the picture, the (mostly front) teeth can shift in the course of a few months, similar to barn door. A rattling of the tongue piercing on the teeth should be avoided as much as possible, as the tooth enamel can suffer a lot. However, tooth damage can be reduced by using plastic balls. These balls are softer than the tooth enamel, so there is little damage to the teeth, even if you play with your piercing. Plastic balls are easier to bite into, but buying a new plastic ball is cheaper than repairing your teeth. In principle, the risk of tooth damage can be minimized by the correct position of the puncture canal and the correct length of the jewelry. However, if the jewelry is too short, the piercing can cause problems if the tongue swells.
In rare cases, the taste buds can be damaged. In extreme cases, this can lead to a loss of a flavor , but more often the intensity of a flavor is reduced. Nevertheless, the risk of a complete loss of taste is small, since the vast majority of tongue piercings are pierced in the middle, where there are very few or no taste buds. However, damage cannot be completely ruled out.
In one known case, the tongue piercing of a 22-year-old man from Israel resulted in death because bacteria had entered the brain via the bloodstream and then 13 purulent brain abscesses formed.
After removing the jewelery from the healed puncture canal, the pressure point on the upper side of the tongue, where the ball of the barbell rested, and a slightly bulged puncture canal often remain visible on the underside. With stretched piercings, speaking can be massively impaired due to the air circulation if the puncture channel is too large.
Use in medicine and research
At the Georgia Institute of Technology , engineers have developed a remote control for wheelchair users attached to a tongue piercing or implant, the so-called Tongue Drive System , since the tongue is often the only mobile muscle in people with paraplegia . A headset, which will be replaced by braces in the future, records the position of the tongue or the tongue piercing based on the change in the magnetic field and transmits it to the wheelchair or a computer, which executes different commands depending on the piercing position.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tongue Piercing. In: BMEZINE.COM Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 8, 2015 .
- ^ Anne Schinke: Piercing in Germany: A historical-analytical view . Grin Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-638-69180-2 ( limited preview in the Google book search - diploma thesis).
- ↑ A. Forehead: Body piercing: medical consequences and psychological motivations. In: The Lancet . 361 (9364), 2003, pp. 1205-1215.
- ↑ Horizontal tongue piercing. In: BMEZINE.COM Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 8, 2015 .
- ↑ Gillian Hyde: Horizontal Tongue Piercings. In: Body Modification E-Zine. April 4, 2005, archived from the original on November 21, 2007 ; accessed on September 8, 2015 .
- ↑ W. Handrick, P. Nenoff, H. Müller, W. Knöfler: Infections by piercing and tattoos - an overview . In: Wiener Medical Wochenschrift . tape 153 , no. 9-10 , 2003, pp. 194-197 , doi : 10.1046 / j.1563-258X.2003.02118.x .
- ^ Stiftung Warentest: Jewelry with Risks. In: test. December 2009.
- ^ R. Boardman, R. Smith: Dental implications of oral piercing . In: J Calif Dent Assoc . tape 25 , no. 3 , 1997, p. 200-207 , PMID 9452660 .
- ^ SS Price, MW Lewis: Body piercing involving oral sites . In: J Am Dent Assoc . tape 128 , no. 7 , 1997, pp. 1017-1020 , doi : 10.14219 / jada.archive.1997.0310 .
- ↑ L. Levin, Y. Zadik, T. Becker: Oral and dental complications of intra-oral piercing . In: Dental Traumatology . tape 21 , no. 6 , 2005, p. 41-343 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1600-9657.2005.00395.x .
- ↑ G. Bethke, PA Reichart: Risks of oral piercings . In: mouth jaw face chir . tape 3 , no. 2 , 1999, p. 98-101 , doi : 10.1007 / s100060050105 .
- ↑ Marcel Feige, Bianca Krause: Tattoo & Piercing Lexicon . Cult and culture of body art. Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-541-4 .
- ↑ Jennifer Mason: Tongue piercing infection death prompts warning. In: ABC News . October 18, 2009, accessed September 8, 2015 .
- ↑ Tongue piercing controls wheelchair. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt . June 9, 2011, accessed September 8, 2015 .
- ↑ Help for paraplegics: tongue piercing for wheelchair control. In: Spiegel Online . November 28, 2013, accessed January 17, 2015 .
