Body Modification Or Body Mutilation?

Today's society is full of people looking to push the boundaries in whatever way they can. This is true in just about everything, and body modification is no exception.

Body modification involves any permanent or semi-permanent change to one's body for a non-medical reason. When it´s done for aesthetical reasons, it is known as body art, which includes piercings and tattoos. One of the newer, more extreme piercings are horizontal tongue piercings, which are creating a lot of controversy, similar to when vertical tongue piercings first became popular.

So what's the big deal about this piercing? A horizontal tongue piercing is just like it sounds. A bar is pierced horizontally through the entire front tip of the tongue, with a ball on each side to hold it in place. It is an extremely painful piercing, and involves a lot of skill to be performed properly. Healing time is quite slow, and some people have found their tongue never healed fully until the piercing was removed. These reasons, combined with the lack of knowledge for this type of oral piercing, make it a rare piercing to get and some piercers will refuse to do the piercing.

The risks involved are similar to those of a vertical (standard) tongue piercing. However, some of these risks are more inclined to happen. One of the most common problems with a horizontal piercing is that people are often unable to speak without a lisp, due to the location of the piercing at the tip of the tongue. Chipped and cracked teeth are also relatively frequent, as they are with any oral piercing. Horizontal piercings also tend to flare up and become infected much easier than a vertical piercing, which makes proper aftercare imperative.

If you are wondering why anyone would want to get a horizontal piercing, you are not alone. To the majority of people, the piercing resembles body mutilation more than any kind of art. Nevertheless, to some people, having such a rare, extreme piercing is worth the pain and inconvenience. They enjoy the originality, and bask in the "wow" factor that they are bound to receive.

Whether you think a horizontal tongue piercing is a valid type of body modification or borders on body mutilation, it is a piercing growing in popularity. People continue to push the boundaries, and you can be sure this piercing will become more common in the future.