Like all of my experiences that I've written so far: my PA piercing, my experience of stretching my PA, and my guiche piercing, I'm going to give you a bit of background as to why I chose this piercing, the events leading up to the piercing itself, then the piercing, the bloody aftermath (joking!) and aftercare.
At A Glance Author bearcub Contact bearcub@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Tails Studio Primal Piercing, Ground Control Location Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Some people reading this will know this story, but most of you won't, so it's worth going over. I began a page on IAM:BME in February last year, and began to speak to people online about life, the universe, mods, and how to make the perfect chocolate fudge cake (recipes available on request). I met a woman on IAM called Jane, who I just clicked with. We talked and talked and got on so well, and we met, up in Edinburgh. This led to meeting again (in Amsterdam, of all places), and the realisation that we were falling for each other. Fast forward six months, and after a rollercoaster ride of obstacles, we decided to move in together.
Not being terribly conventional people, and realising that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together, we were thinking of a way of symbolising our commitment to each other. Rings on fingers? Maybe, but not for us, not yet, anyway.
Jane had always wanted a triangle, and I'd always wanted another genital mod, to compliment my PA. This was to be the opportunity to have them done, and also to symbolise our 'getting hitched'...
So, I had a choice – what was I going to get? The options were :
1) An apadravya – This is a barbell passing through the head of the penis vertically, with the upper hole coming out of the top of the head of the penis and the lower hole passing to one side of the frenum (the 'string' that attaches your foreskin to your penis head).
This was quickly discarded since I already have a large PA, and that would have to be retired in order to use the PA hole as the lower hole of the apadravya, something I didn't want to do. Jane also has quite extensive genital piercings, including a Princess Albertina (pierced by me) which would catch on an apadravya.
2) A shaft ampallang – This is a barbell passing from one side of the shaft of the penis to the other, nestled in behind the head of the penis.
I'd contemplated this, and had it recommended to me by a piercing friend of mine, but my piercer, Tails, said he'd be unwilling to do it because of the risks involved, which, he explained, were high considering he had no idea of the internal blood vessel placement, and that if he did one, there could be a "fuckin' shitload o' blood mate, yid be sittin' in casualty wi' a fucking bucket between yir legs, ken what ah mean?" Enough said. I wouldn't be happy pressuring someone into doing something they were unhappy with, and besides, he's the professional. I appreciated his honesty.
3) An ampallang – This is a barbell passing from one side of the head of the penis to the other, either through the urethra (the so-called "British" placement) or above it (the "American" placement).
This appealed to me, despite the relatively long average healing time. It was also compatible with my PA, and wouldn't catch on Jane's piercings.
So, an ampallang it was to be. We'd set a date for Thursday 31 October, exactly a year since I had my PA done (god, was that really my first piercing? It seems so long ago), and we were getting nervous as the day approached. I'd gone into see Tails a couple of days before, and he said he was flying to Venezuela on the Friday, but that if Jane and I came in before opening time on the Thursday he'd fit us in as a special favour.
So, noon on Thursday found us going in to see him at his studio, and we hung around for a few minutes while he wrote a note for Patsy (who was filling in for him while he was away). This did nothing to ease the tension. We went in, and explained what we wanted. (I'll gloss over Jane's piercing at this point, because it's not my place to write about it here, and she's writing her own). Tails explained that because I had a large-gauge PA, the barbell would have to be quite far back, and above the urethra. Remembering how much it stung to urinate through a fresh urethral piercing, I wasn't overly saddened by this.
He sprayed local over the entire head of the penis, but none urethrally, which I thought was a little odd since although the barbell wouldn't be passing through it, it would be going close to it. After a quick wrapping in gauze, and Jane having the same done, We went out for a coffee and a slice of cake (I used the old "We should really keep our blood sugar levels up" line), and after a relatively nervous twenty minutes, we came back to the studio.
One thing about Tails, he doesn't fuck about. The actual time elapsed between my dropping my trousers and wrapping my newly pierced penis was approximately four minutes. He's proficient, he knows what he's doing and he doesn't see the need to take half an hour to do it. Jane was on hand to take pictures, which are in BME (mail me for the link).
Firstly, Tails marked out with two dots where the entry and exit points would be with a purple surgical pen. He then drew a line connecting them, so he could see the progress of the needle as it went through. I was expecting the use of clamps, but they weren't needed (I'd heard they were just about as painful as the bloody needle).
My PA proved to be quite a useful handle as as it was pulled down I felt the needle (a 2.7mm medicut canulated needle, the point of which had been smeared in vaseline) press against the head and after a second or two slip inside. Another second or two saw the needle pass the halfway point (and a little pain) and after pausing to align the point of the needle with the exit mark, Tails pushed through and the point emerged on the other side. It had hurt a little, but strangely, a lot less than my PA had at that point.
The needle was then withdrawn backwards through the canula, leaving it through the head of my penis. The barbell, which had been sized up at the time the aneasthetic had been applied, was unscrewed, fed into the canula, and then the canula withdrawn, bringing the barbell through with it. This was when the blood really started to flow, and also the point at which I'd say I experienced the most discomfort, although it wasn't 'sore' in the conventional sense. After the ball had been screwed on to the barbell, I held a couple of dozen sheets of tissue paper under my penis, and squeezed gently to staunch the flow of blood. More tissue paper went on, and then my penis was wrapped in a surgical glove, fixed by surgical tape, giving it the 'comedy albino rooster' look.
I pulled my trousers up, and it was Jane's turn... afterwards, we paid our money - £40 (US$65) in total, for both piercings! - and after talking to Tails for a bit, we left. On this point, I want to reassure people that if you base your decision about what piercer to go to by price, you may have your priorites wrong. Fair enough, we get a bit of a discount from Tails, but he's still tremendous value. Equally, there's a guy in a studio up the road from him who'll charge £65 (US$100) for a PA and is hopeless... non-sterile, and clueless. Learn to differentiate between PRICE and VALUE and you'll do well.
We'd parked the car just up from the studio, and surpsingly for Edinburgh, found we'd not incurred a parking ticket (don't laugh, we got towed away to the car pound the next day!). I could feel the anaesthetic wearing off, and it was beginning to get a little sore, although Jane was faring much worse. We drove back to my flat, and I needed to urinate. I went to the bathroom sink and gingerly unwrapped my penis, and althoguh it had bled a lot, it wasn't actually bleeding at that stage (30 minutes post-piercing). A gentle trickle of warm water rinsed most of the dried blood away, and urinating (in the sink!) wasn't painful at all. I wrapped it in more tissue paper and pulled my trousers back up.
It bled a little, but not much, maybe a couple of drops (and mostly from the exit side). I wore a condom for a few hours once I'd taken the tissue paper off, and this helped keep my trousers clean and the piercing moist and non-crusty.
It's been a hassle-free piercing so far. The only problem has been with my foreskin, but not a severe problem. It's kind of hard to explain, but I'll do my best to describe it. I have a 'normal' foreskin, not tight, and not too big. It was actually quite a help when the foreskin went forward over the barbell, as it kept the area moist and protected the piercing to some extent from knocks. The problem came when I wore anything in my PA at the same time – the PA jewellery (and I tried both a PA bar and my smooth segment ring) would prevent the foreskin from completely covering the barbell, with the result that the foreskin would ride up, covering one barbell-ball, pushing the barbell sideways through the piercing and making the uncovered barbell protrude by 7-8mm, which hurt a bit. With time, this problem has faded, because the piercing itself is settling down and is less sensitive.
As far as aftercare goes, I shower twice a day, and I've been salt soaking every other day or so, keeping the area clean and dry between showers. I masturbated three days after piercing, and it was rather nice... :) a little discomfort, but that was expected. Penetrative sex will have to wait awhile, but I'm absolutely astounded by how well this piercing is behaving. Now, a week after it was pierced, the barbell has full movement, both lateral and rotational, through the piercing, and it's not tender at all.
Obviously, every person is different, but my experience has been entirely positive so far, and I'd recommend an ampallang piercing to anyone, as long as they research it thoroughly beforehand, go to a piercer who knows what they're doing, and take care of it afterward.