By Chris Brooke
The Daily Mail
NORTH HULL, England — A girl of 15 needed an emergency operation after having her tongue pierced in a tattoo parlour.
Reece-Marie Hall, who had claimed she was 16, began to bleed heavily following the £15 procedure to insert a silver bar.
She was taken to hospital by ambulance and had to be placed under general anaesthetic before doctors removed the bar and stemmed the bleeding from a suspected ruptured vein.
Her case is a warning to the thousands of young people every year who have their tongue pierced.
Reece-Marie visited the Classic piercing and tattoo studio, in Hull city centre. ‘At first my tongue didn’t bleed, but after I left the shop, the tongue started pouring with blood,’ she said. ‘I kept choking.’
She returned to the shop, where staff gave her some gauze. But when she arrived home in North Hull, her 35-year- old mother Leeanne called an ambulance.
She said: ‘Reece-Marie was taken to hospital while I tried to find someone to look after my two young boys. When I got there I nearly passed out - there was so much blood. Reece-Marie now has a lisp and I can’t always understand what she’s saying. I hope it isn’t a permanent thing.’
Reece-Marie, who also has trouble eating, added: ‘I am taking iron because I lost too much blood and I am also on antibiotics and paracetamol. My tongue is not as swollen as it was, but it has stitches in it and it’s very painful.’
The family say they are considering suing the shop.
Tattoo and piercing parlours need to be registered with the local authority for cleanliness checks but there is no minimum legal age for body piercing although the city council recommends parental consent be sought for under-16s. Steve Rowe, who carried out the procedure, blamed the teenager for causing the problem. He insisted she must have ‘interfered’ with the piercing after leaving his shop.
He said: ‘She was on our premises for at least ten minutes after she had the tongue pierced. She paid me and she left happy. She didn’t come back for about half an hour. When she did I applied minimal pressure for about one minute and the bleeding did stop.
‘But she wouldn’t leave it alone and kept making it worse.’ Mr Rowe was adamant he had not caused Reece-Marie’s injury.
He added: ‘I have been doing this for 30 years and before I puncture the tongue I check for veins.’
Copyright 2010 Associated Newspapers Ltd.