I was thoroughly convinced that Michael wanted to discuss this no further - I was angry at him, and he was angry at me. He was going to do what he wanted, no one could stop him, so I should shut up about it; I wasn't going to change his mind. And then, when I thought the whole situation couldn't raise my blood pressure any more, he called.
The phone call felt brief, but only because there was a lot of silence, which I was filling up with being pre-occupied on the internet - doing something to keep my mind going so I didn't have to dwell on the fact that there was a giant metal bar through my best friend's tongue. He didn't want to talk about it at first, and he tried to play it off as though he had called to ask about my day.
I knew better.
Eventually things got quiet, and he mumbled "Okay, be mad at me..." waiting for my response. I relayed all of the same feelings I had expressed, explaining to him that he had just paid some fool a lot of money to stick a giant needle through his tongue so that he could have a play thing in his mouth for as long as he wished, meanwhile people would look at him as though he was less of a human - everyone I knew who has had this done to themselves has had problems not only physically, but socially as well. He didn't seem to mind to constant judgement he was going to receive, as well as the prospect that if his stage manager found out he got something pierced he would be out of a job.
I let him go, stating that I had to eat dinner with my family. My stomach is still not easy. I almost want to cry over it. And the next time I do see him, I probably will.
What I don't understand is this stigma of having this piercing. If you "like it" and think it "looks good," you're seeing it from an outside perspective. You don't know what it's going to look like on you, unless you daydream about that kind of thing, and even so, no one can predict what it will look like. The common argument about how the tongue isn't affected by it is invalid - most piercings are surface piercings and aren't close to major nerves. Your tongue is a major muscle in your body, and piercing it could have ridiculous consequences.
The phone call felt brief, but only because there was a lot of silence, which I was filling up with being pre-occupied on the internet - doing something to keep my mind going so I didn't have to dwell on the fact that there was a giant metal bar through my best friend's tongue. He didn't want to talk about it at first, and he tried to play it off as though he had called to ask about my day.
I knew better.
Eventually things got quiet, and he mumbled "Okay, be mad at me..." waiting for my response. I relayed all of the same feelings I had expressed, explaining to him that he had just paid some fool a lot of money to stick a giant needle through his tongue so that he could have a play thing in his mouth for as long as he wished, meanwhile people would look at him as though he was less of a human - everyone I knew who has had this done to themselves has had problems not only physically, but socially as well. He didn't seem to mind to constant judgement he was going to receive, as well as the prospect that if his stage manager found out he got something pierced he would be out of a job.
I let him go, stating that I had to eat dinner with my family. My stomach is still not easy. I almost want to cry over it. And the next time I do see him, I probably will.
What I don't understand is this stigma of having this piercing. If you "like it" and think it "looks good," you're seeing it from an outside perspective. You don't know what it's going to look like on you, unless you daydream about that kind of thing, and even so, no one can predict what it will look like. The common argument about how the tongue isn't affected by it is invalid - most piercings are surface piercings and aren't close to major nerves. Your tongue is a major muscle in your body, and piercing it could have ridiculous consequences.
