Tongue Biting Habit

I don't necessarily know where to put this but I have a habit of biting my tongue. Well I guess a nervous tick anyway. I do it without noticing and by the time I realize what I'm doing it's too late. It's just the sides of my tongue. I've try chewing gum but that doesn't help. The sides of my tongue have turned white. I plan on getting a tongue piercing soon but I'm self conscious of how my tongue looks. I'm hoping that once I get my tongue piercing I'll be too busy playing with that other than basically eating my tongue. I've talked to people about it and they said that they've stopped biting their tongue ever since they got it pierced. I don't know if that's an actual thing or not. Anyway, please let me know how you were able to stop or if you used something else to distract you. I just want to stop. TIA.