I didn't think my tongue was bad at all.

I'm sure it's different for every person and tolerance of pain must make a difference too.

For me it felt like I burned my tongue on hot coffee. I had trouble pronouncing my r's, s's, and t's for a little while

but overall it healed very quickly. I've had tons of piercings throughout my life and the worst was probably my nose. If you can handle a nose piercing, you can handle a tongue.
I have tons of tattoos too and think tattoos are worse. Sometimes with tattoos, depending on how long your session is, you're sitting there for hours. With a tongue piercing, it's done in seconds.