Free Republic

EVERETT, Wash. -- Cindi Reedes heard doctors tell her the same frightening words three times in eight days: Her teenage daughter's chances of survival were slim. It would take a near-miracle to save her from the aggressive infection ravaging her body. The only cause doctors could guess at was the tongue piercing 18-year-old Lacey Filosa got without her mother knowing about it. For weeks, Lacey wavered at the edge of death, kept in a drug-induced coma to give her struggling body every chance to heal. A tube kept her breathing. Operations to cut out the infection were needed nearly every...

CHICAGO -- Her doctor says the teenager with "horrendous pain" in her face was lucky it went away -- when she removed her tongue jewelry. A nerve disorder sometimes called "suicide disease" because of its excruciating pain is among the latest complications linked to tongue piercing. The complaint detailed in the Journal of the American Medical Association joins a list that includes tetanus, heart infections, brain abscess, chipped teeth and receding gums. One woman developed so much scar tissue it resembled what she called a "second tongue." An Italian neurosurgeon who reported the nerve affliction says it's an "extremely rare...

We have an 18 year-old daughter who wants to get her tongue pierced. We have been adamantly against any piercings for our son, and any that go beyond regular ear piercing for our daughter. We have, essentially forbidden this as well as tatooing. We feel it is a passing phase with more permanent repercussions. Today my daughter plead her case for having it done, saying it is something she wants and can do with or without our permission now that she is 18.She is a college freshman and is struggling with her 'identity' as such, and I think she thinks...