For good basic care guidelines go here: http://www.bmezine.com/pierce/articles/ptafter/tongue.html Some Tips: tongues are fairly straight forward once the swelling goes down. Brushing your teeth at first might be painful as opening the jaw can stretch the swollen tissues. Go slowly. Be diligent in following your care routine as infected tongues are most unpleasant. One note, infected tongues smell badly so that, along with swelling or tenderness that increase, are the signs that might indicate a problem. Remember piercing is quite bruising and it may seem to get worse for the first two to three days. You will also be increasingly hungry and eating can be a bit uncomfortable on its own. What to eat after getting your tongue pierced is an art unto itself. Sucking ice will help with the swelling, but runs very short on flavor and nutrition. You will not want to chew much as your swollen tongue will be very prone to you biting it accidentally (remember it’s suddenly bigger than usual) as well as trying to avoid pressure on the new piercing itself. Clear broth and soups are good starters, and a few folks swear by baby food. Avoid very hot food, whether it is in temperature or spiciness. The jewelry will conduct both hot and cold sensation into the tongue and you can burn yourself if the jewelry gets too hot. Until the piercing heals, very spicy food will also burn the inner tongue tissue. Once the swelling goes down, and if you switch to a shorter barbell, you will find you should have little to no effect on eating now that your tongue is pierced. Random stories circulate of various one-off mishaps and many of these can be avoided with a bit of thought. There have been reports of people hooking fork tines onto the ball at the ends of their piercing while eating. Eating more slowly and being mindful of “fork depth” into the mouth will lessen the chances of this. There have also been a few reports of individuals who had a food item snap on the barbell end just as they were swallowing, with minor choking the result. The biggest culprit for this is pizza cheese, as it is very stretchy. Again, a bit of mindfulness can make this a very rare occurrence with thorough chewing of smaller bites being an easy fix.

Chew very slowly while it is still swollen! It takes awhile to get used to maneuvering your tongue and food with it pierced but you get used to it. Also, use Listerine. It helps alot. Good luck!

research the piercing shop make sure its respectable make sure you watch the piercer remove a fresh needle from its packet and make sure you are given a shorter bar to replace the longer one clean it after eating and as soon as you get up with NATURAL sea salt water (boiled and left to cool) eat soft foods slowly be careful with the bar change the bar into a shorther one after 2 weeks or as soon as your tongue goes back to normal. if you go to a decent piercing shop they shall give you all this info and probably more and advise what to do oh and you will talk with a lisp while its swollen