Ornamental body alteration, tattooing and skin piercing, has played a
             role in various human cultural traditions since antiquity. In the United States,
             body piercing has become another means of self-expression, and as often as not, teenage
             rebellion. Some of the more popular anatomical piercings include the navel, septum, as
             well as cartilage (rather than the lobe) of the ear.
             Any piercing of the skin carries the risk of infection and subsequent complications,
             but perforation of oral tissues and the installation of intraoral meta ornamentation
             poses more serious consequences than other types of superficial skin alterations
             elsewhere on the body, despite the fact that oral trauma tend to heal faster
             than damage to the epidermis.(1) Tongue piercings are particularly troublesome from
             a medical perspective, owing to the structural complexity and functional design of the
             tongue in comparison to other popular piercing sites. Despite its generally good
             healing properties from its very generous blood supply, healing time for
             trauma to the tongue is often prolonged because the tongue is almost always in motion,
             whether from eating, talking, or merely perpetual swallowing of saliva.(2)
             To some extent, the potential dangers and complications inherent in
             intraoral piercing are related to the structure of the particular tissues involved,
             but adding to these physiological sources of danger is the informal, entirely unregulated
             setting in which the procedures are typically performed.
             Oral tissues feature some of the most intricate and concentrated
             network of blood vessels, mucosa and nerves in the human body. The tongue especially,
             is a muscle, interlaced with a network of nerves and four different types of
             taste buds, so it is susceptible to several different types of injury and functional
             impairment from structural damage.(3) If not for the very high tissue turnover rate
             of oral tissues that regene...