Question of the Week

A:Well, first off you've got to stop playing with the barbell so much. It's the constant manipulation of the barbell - flipping it back and forth and swirling it around in your mouth and such - that causes that stretching in the first place. It pushes the inner walls of the piercing out as the barbell moves and can lead to actual stretching. Fortunately, the tongue heals very quickly and as soon as you are able to stop the behavior that is causing this problem, it should shrink up just fine.

Although three weeks is still relatively new, it is possible that your piercer will allow you to change to a shorter barbell now so that further manipulation is more difficult. Ask them and let them change it for you if they say okay - don't try to do it yourself. Some of us (myself included) just can't stop playing with the darn thing no matter how hard we try, so you might simply be better off with a shorter barbell.