Well it was my first piercing ever and I couldn't be happier with it. I'm 35 years old, straight, a white collar professional and I've never known anyone with piercings. I've been into CBT forever and that's how I came to BME.
At A Glance Author sydplay IAM sydplay When A month ago Artist Southern Belle Studio Cape Fear Piercing Location Greenville, NC I saw tons of pictures of men and women with genital piercings and I've always thought they looked really cool but I never seriously thought about getting one myself. I finally joined IAM in January and it was such an awesome decision. I've never been anywhere like it. Everyone is so nice, so helpful and so willing to share thoughts and experiences.
As I chatted with friends I could feel the excitement in their writing as each one would describe a new piercing they had just gotten. For the first time I was seriously thinking about getting a piercing for myself.
I had always liked the way dydoes looked and that was my first thought. I started to chat with friends and lots of piercers on IAM about them. One concern I had was that my body is predisposed to keliods. I have several large keliods from internal surgeries and certainly didn't want anymore. My second thought was a frenum and I received a lot of advice that it would be a safer bet for a first piercing and if it went well I could move on from there.
I've always done lots of CBT play, some of it quite heavy and so I expected to do the frenum myself. I started planning what supplies to buy and started reading experiences to try to learn the best way to do it.
I must have read a dozen experiences and most of them had one thing in common. I read as they described the experience of going to a shop and having it professionally done. The nervousness and excitement of having a piercer do it. I realized that for me a big part of a piercing is the experience of getting it, not just the piercing itself. Now the thought of a DIY seemed boring. The only problem, I had never been anywhere near a piercing shop in my life. I just couldn't picture myself going into some random shop and getting pierced.
IAM to the rescue again! One day I was scanning pages and I came across a piercer that had a frenum piercing on the front page of her portfolio. I loved the way it looked and then I realized her shop was only about an hour away. Right then I knew I was going to do it.
It was so helpful to be able to chat back and forth so I could understand the procedure, discuss what size I might want, jewelry etc. I set a date about two weeks away to get it done and for two weeks I could not stop thinking about it. It was a combination of nervousness and excitement that built each day. I don't think I got a thing done the day before because it's all I could think about. I'm really glad I did it this way; it was a lot of fun having time to think about it and get excited.
I really wanted to have some procedure pics taken to post for others. The procedure pics I found on BME were very helpful for me so I could get a feel for what was going to happen. I wanted to do the same for others. More help from IAM again. I remembered that I had chatted with someone a month before that lived in the same town as the piercing shop and when I went to talk to him about the piercing it turned out he was good friends with the piercer. I asked him if he wouldn't mind taking some procedure pics for me and he said no problem.
So the day arrives and I get to the shop where I finally get a chance to meet my piercer Southern Belle (Ashley) and soon after her friend Rainshine (Rob) arrived. We talked for about 20 minutes and got a chance to know each other a bit. I remember being 50% very nervous and 50% very excited. I was definitely in a bit of a haze.
We talked about jewelry size and I was planning to get either a 12 gauge or a 10 gauge as these seemed most common from my research. She showed me the different sizes of barbells and they looked surprisingly small to me when I actually got to see them. I decided I wanted to get an 8 gauge instead. Southern Belle explained that she would pierce with a 10 gauge needle and then immediately stretch it to 8 gauge as this method would aide the healing process.
We talked a bit more and filled out the paperwork. Ashley said she had an errand to run in about 30 minutes so we could either do the piercing now or when she got back. Well, I was so full of nervous excitement there was no way I could wait another hour. I remember I quickly yelled out NOW!
The three of us then headed into one of the piercing rooms. It looked pretty much like a doctors office with the usual bench with the butcher paper on it. Ashley was getting everything ready and I was just kind of standing there nervously thinking okay what am I supposed to be doing. Of course in real time it was really about 30 seconds. Ashley said I could take off my shorts so she could start.
Yes guys this is the hard part (at least for some of us). In nervous situations things tend to shrink up and hide if you know what I mean. What the hell though, if you want a genital piercing you just got to do it and if I can do it, certainly you can. As I was standing she made her marks and asked me what I thought. This was one of those funny times in retrospect. First I felt really weird holding and looking at my dick in front of people I had just met. Second, I was nervous. I just looked at it for 1 second and said, "yeah that looks good" as if I really knew!
Then I got up on the bench as she changed gloves. I was really glad it was finally time. She spent some time getting everything lined up. She worked free hand which I liked because from what I read clamps should be avoided whenever possible. My only thought now was what it was going to feel like. I was not nervous about the pain at all, as I've mentioned before I've done lots of CBT so I knew it would be something I could easily handle.
She told me to take three deep breaths slowly in and out. I felt a sharp prick and I remember thinking, "was that it?" Then another sharp prick "was that it?" And then WOOOW, that was it! I didn't say anything out loud but it was a really cool two-second rush of pain. It was actually a little stronger pain than I had expected but it was over in seconds. I had read in other experiences that the needle is already through before you feel any pain and that certainly was true for me. After those couple of seconds I never felt a bit of pain again. It really was easy.
She then put the 8 gauge taper through followed immediately by the barbell. I never felt the taper or the barbell at all. She screwed the ball on the other end of the barbell and said, "that's it!" I hopped up and took a quick look and I thought it looked really cool, way better than I expected. I couldn't look for more than a second though because I once again felt stupid looking at my privates in front of others. So I quickly put my shorts back on and we headed out to wrap things up.
We headed back out to the front of the shop were I paid and gladly tipped Ashley for doing a perfect job. We talked about aftercare and from my research I noticed there seemed to be two different approaches. One suggests things like sea salt soaks, anti bacterial soap, spinning jewelry while cleaning. The other suggests basically doing nothing. My shop suggested the second, the thought being that the body will heal itself best if you just leave it alone. Don't touch or move the jewelry at all. Antibacterial agents may slow the healing process. The only thing they suggested if needed was a very light cleaning with sterile saline. They suggested a product called Wound Wash Saline; it's sold at all the drug stores around here. It shoots a little jet spray of sterile saline so you don't have to touch the area. Twice a day I would give the area 4-5 shots and it kept everything clean. I'm not an expert on aftercare but this method worked great for me and it healed perfectly.
Then the three of us went out to lunch and shared lots of cool mod stories. I have to say the ride home was tough. No pain at all mind you but I really wanted to see the piercing again. I had only gotten the one quick glance at the shop and now I had a long drive home. It seemed to take 4 hours. As soon as got home I got to really check it out and I liked it 10x more than I expected to.
One thing I somehow missed on all of my research was the need to leave it alone for quite some time, which of course means no sex or masturbation. From what I was told it takes about 6 weeks to heal (this was correct in my case). I wasn't ready for this and quite frankly it was so exciting to have this piercing and it was tough not to be able to "use it". I'll know better for the next time and at least be mentally prepared. I'm sure I could have had sex or masturbated as soon as I wanted to but it would be painful and worse than that it would greatly increase my odds of scarring, rejection etc. Your body is trying to heal and every time you are pulling, tugging and/or moving that barbell you are re-opening the wound. This is not a good thing. Stay away as long as you can ESPECIALLY the first two weeks.
The first week I felt some minor pinching or snags as I went through normal activities but by the second week I really didn't notice it was there. I was woken up quite a few times in the first week. Yes all guys have 4-5 erections during sleep; you just don't notice them because you're asleep. An erection on a fresh piercing might cause a minor pinch and mine did but no big deal. I'd go right back to sleep and I got a little reminder of my new metal.
Some final thoughts...
1) I would do everything exactly the same if I had it to do over again. I did lot's of research, selected a piercer I was comfortable with and picked a date a few weeks down the road so I could really enjoy the whole experience.
2) I used to think a frenum piercing was a little boring but I would never say that now. I absolutely love this piercing, it's awesome and would highly recommend it.
3) I have nothing against DIY piercings but for me I so glad I decided against it. I know I would not have gotten the placement correct and could have really messed things up. Also, as I said earlier I think going to a professional piercer is what makes it an experience versus a piercing. Just my opinion.
4) I'm really happy with the 8 gauge and I so glad I chose it, I would also recommend it to anyone.
5) Have someone take procedure pics. You can post them on BME and your IAM page and help others plus it provides you with vivid memories of your day.
6) Join IAM if you haven't done so. I don't know why I waited so long but I'm glad I finally did. BME combined with IAM will give you all the tools you need to get the piercings you want the right way and make a lot of friends in the process.