After reading a few testimonials on bulletin boards that I read contribute to, I decided I'd like to try out getting a Prince Albert. I had never had any piercings done before, but after reading several articles on the web about the procedure for a PA and learning that the only respectable local piercing/tattoo studio was embroiled in financial trouble and was no longer doing piercings to save money, I decided to do it myself. I bought a kit from eBay, which included a 5/8" 14ga CBR. When I actually got up the nerve to go do it (the kit had been sitting in a drawer for a couple of weeks already), I cleaned / sterilized all of the surfaces in my bathroom that i might come in contact with, got all of the supplies ready, and went for it. The piercing was almost pain less, much to my surprise, followed by an insane rush of euphoria (I had been told this feeling can become addictive, I now have no doubt of that), to the point that I almost passed out. For the first week or so sle eping was very uncomfortable, as I tend to roll around a lot and eventually sleep on my stomach, which of course caused a fair amount of painful contact with the new piercing. Three weeks later, I'm almost back to a normal sleep pattern, but I'm still not quite there yet. It's required some other small adjustments in my life (i.e. urinating), but nothing of real consequence. I'm planning on stretching it to 12ga this week, and perhaps changing to a curved barbell to aid in the sleep problem. The jury is still out, but so far i think it's been very much worth it.
At A Glance Author uniuniunium When Three months ago Artist Me Studio My Bathroom Location Durham, NC Addendum:
After waiting about a week to get the 12GA CBR in the mail, the bead decided to emancipate itself from the captivity of the ring when I was trying to get the ring to close (note to self: get a bead ring opener next time). The bead got lost somewhere in the carpet under my desk, a place where no sane man goes if he wishes to return safely ;). After trying various methods to retrieve it (including using a very large speaker magnet, unfortunately only to learn that ferrite beads are not magnetically attracted) and not having any luck, I attempted to bend the ring slightly to fit the bead from the 14GA ring. I almost got this contraption to work, but just as i got the perfect fit, the ring totally got bent out of shape when the bead once again popped out. This time I was able to recover the bead, I resterilized it and reluctantly put the 14GA back in. A couple of days later, knowing that it would be another week before I could get another 12GA and realizing that I probably neede d to go down a size from 5/8" to 1/2", I decided just to take it out. Another month later, I still have a small hole and a rather ugly scar from where it was taken out (probably from the stretching that went on when I was trying to sleep on it). I definitely will be trying this again, probably using a new hole (or a new hole + the old one, that might be interesting). I don't have any metal in Mr. Happy anymore, but hey, I got experience, learned a lot about the whole idea of getting pierced (and got some ideas for piercing other body parts) and in the end i guess that's what counts.
In retrospect on the technical side of things, I learned a few things. Placement of the piercing is vital, but with a PA i think that one needs to be mindful of the fact that the penis changes shape and size regularly, which has the effect of changing how the piercing is positioned. It's probably a good idea to check where the marking is both with and with out an erection. Also, if you experience discomfort after the piercing, Solarcane works wonders. It's both a local anesthetic and antiseptic, so not only does it help pain, but helps prevent infection as well, all in all a pretty good combo. I'd also recommend not getting anything over a 5/8" ring for a PA. At least in my case, 5/8" just seemed to be too big (only about 1/4 of the ring was inside the urethra, so the ring stuck out quite a bit and increased the amount it got bumped around). This is probably different for someone who is more *cough*well endowed*cough* than I, but at least for the average guy it's something t o pay attention to.
Hope you were able to learn something from this, or perhaps even been entertained by it. -uni