Have you ever heard the expression “It’s just right on the tip of my tongue”? The very unique snake eyes piercing is just that. Not to be confused with snake bites, which are a pair of lip piercings, located on the left and right sides of your lower lip. Snake eyes is a surface piercing, located horizontally on the tip of your tongue. It gives the appearance of two piercings. Often snake eyes are pierced with a small barbell or curved barbell, sometimes called a scoop piercing. The balls of the barbell sit on the top and resemble the eyes of a snake, hence its name, “snake eyes”. Snake eyes is also a reference to dice; when you roll a pair of ones it is called snake eyes.
Your professional piercer will first check your tongue to ensure that it is able to be pierced; unfortunately sometimes anatomy will make it unsafe to perform this piercing. Safety and health are always more important than fashion. Some piercers will not perform this type of tongue piercing at all due to the chance of dental, gum, and speech damage. After they decide it’s okay to pierce the area, your piercer will blot the tongue with a blotting tissue to soak up excess saliva. Then they will use a marking pen to mark the points of entrance and exit and check the jewelry length to make sure there is a proper fit. A pair of forceps will be used to clamp the tip of your tongue. They are placed so that the clamps are holding together either side of the tip. This is important because it pushes your tongue together to aid in piercing it and helps to avoid the major veins in that area. A 14 or 16 gauge hollow needle is then inserted through your tongue’s tip.
The new piercing is immediately chased with a 14 or 16 gauge barbell/ curved barbell, generally 5/8 length or longer depending on your anatomy. The jewelry is inserted through the blunt end of the needle and the needle is pushed out. Then the balls are secured. Initial jewelry is always longer to leave room for swelling. This piercing looks great when the jewelry has small (3mm or smaller) gems on the balls, anything bigger would be too clunky for that location on the tongue. Proper jewelry will ensure better healing and less obstruction to your speech. It is said that this piercing is fairly painless, with just a small amount of pressure and a sharp pinch, nothing more than the pain of biting your tongue. The sensation feels a lot like a traditional tongue piercing. It is, however, a surface piercing, which means it is more prone to rejection and migration.
Proper aftercare is very important to the healing process of any piercing. Be sure to follow your piercer’s aftercare instructions closely. Due to the placement of this piercing it is more likely to catch on your teeth or on food as it heals. Eating soft food or blended food that is not acidic for the first few days can help with the discomfort. Avoiding alcohol is also a good idea, as alcohol dehydrates the body and can exacerbate swelling. Drinking plenty of water and using an alcohol free mouth wash, such as H2Ocean mouth rinse for piercing aftercare, is very important. The H2Ocean is awesome because it contains sea salt and natural enzymes to help cleanse and protect your piercing and prevent mouth infections. It takes about a week for you to get used to the snake eyes piercing and anywhere from 4-8 weeks for the piercing to heal.
The snake eyes piercing is a newer trend in body piercing fashion. Currently it is very popular on social photo forums such as Tumblr and Pinterest. Snake eyes are not as mainstream as the traditional center tongue piercing, which goes right through the center of the tongue, but the rise in popularity is apparent. This cool piercing gives your tongue an interesting look that is like no other.
