tuc, don't plan on eating anything solid for at least a week. so the Ejaculator is right, get it done during your tour of North America, cause once i'm done with you and he picks up the leftovers, you won't be chewing for a while anyway.
took me 2 weeks before i could talk normally again. after 4 weeks, i had gone down 2 bar lengths. it took about 3 weeks for all the swelling to go away. i thought i'd heal real quick, but i didn't. my tattoos always healed REAL fast. oh well.
as was mentioned, you can get plugs to put in it to "hide" it. also, you can get flesh colored acrylic balls to put on the ends or clear ones. they help as well.
and about the acrylic balls - i wore mostly acrylic balls on mine for the first 6 months. feels real smooth and lets you get used to having it in. if you bite on the acrylic ball, no biggie. worst that'll happen is you break it. have spares handy. breaking a $2 acrylic ball is a lot nicer than breaking a tooth. i never broke one myself, but they did have tooth marks in them.
and the placement of it in your tounge.....if you have it towards the tip, it's for licking kitty. if you have it near the back, it's cause you suck dick. where's yours gonna be?