My aim in this document is to provide useful information for those interested in the Prince Albert piercing. I will detail:
At A Glance Author Email me... Contact Email me...@bme.anon IAM Yossi When A year ago Artist Monica Studio The Sacred Tattoo Location Canal St, NYC (1) The decision
(2) The procedure
(3) Looking after the fresh piercing
(4) The piercing during the first year
(5) My perspective on the Prince Albert
This experience is a long read, but hopefully of some use to those who are interested in a comprehensive account of what it is to get and live with a PA. I've had my Prince Albert for a little over a year now, and have decided that I finally know enough about the subject to make a valuable contribution by sharing my experience. I am happy to answer any questions or comments.
(1) The Decision
My decision to get a Prince Albert was carefully considered, but made on impulse. For almost 3 or 4 months, I had toyed with (and researched) the idea, but the decision to actually get it done was made in a matter of hours. It is my second piercing (the first being a nipple piercing), so I had a fair idea of what to expect in terms of healing, aftercare, etc. The placement of my piercings are chosen to be concealed, since I work in management for corporate clients, including Wall St. banks and multinationals (don't ever kid yourself that they don't discriminate), and I like my salary band.
I suppose that I also wanted a "sexual" piercing - and the PA seemed right. Only piercing a small amount of flesh, it seemed like a good "first genital piercing". I'm not disappointed with my choice.
I had researched studios online for my nipple piercing, and settled on "The Sacred Tattoo" on Canal St NY, NY. Since my experience there with Mike (the piercer at the time) was positive, I went back there for the PA. Mike had left (he was at "The Village Tattoo", I think, the last I heard) and a girl named Monica was there piercing there. She showed me her portfolio, which included a good array of piercings, and she seemed to be fairly competent, so I decided to avail myself of her skills. For the record, she's really cute; a fact that nobody who's met her will dispute.
(2) The Procedure
Monica and I discussed the choices available to me - jewellery gauge being foremost. I chickened out and chose a 10ga, despite her recommendation that I go with 8. She told me, however, that her brother had stretched from 12ga-2ga in 2 weeks, so I thought that 10 was reasonable. At that time, my goal was to stretch to 4ga. I also settled on a CBR, on her advice.
I was on my way to a late morning meeting on Wall St that day, so I was in my 3-piece suit... No problem there. The trousers came off. I was wearing boxer-briefs as I believed that they would be the most comfortable afterwards... They came off, too. As I lay there, Monica snapped on 2 pairs of gloves, unsealed the autoclaved needle and receiving tube, etc. and lay her array of implements on a tray, being careful not to let take too much interest in them.
She informed me (quite correctly) that the receiving tube (into my urethra) would be the most painful part of the procedure, so I braced myself for it and took it quite well. She then told me that she prefers to pierce from the outside into the tube, which I didn't really care about, although her clinical description did put me at ease. By this stage, the anticipation of a needle through my flesh was... Well, let's just say that she later told me that it was slightly difficult because I shrunk. A lot.
When it was over, I was quite astounded. As with my nipple piercing, I barely felt any pain at all. I was... quite surprised, and bouncing on endorphins. She cleaned up - I'm really not too sure when she'd snapped off the first pair of gloves and where all the bloodied implements came from - and instructed me in the aftercare procedure (giving me the same sheet that Mike gave me after the nipple piercing). I asked her why it was slightly off-centre and she explained that she didn't want to break the small bit of skin linking the head to the body. Fair enough. Monica then wrapped me up in gauze and sent me off on my merry (bouncy) way.
So. I got out into the hazy New York sunlight, blinked a few times, then caught the subway to Wall St, where I couldn't keep myself from thinking "you stiffs don't know that I just got my dick pierced. ha. ha. It's quite a distraction, you know, so if you're getting pierced, make sure that you don't have too much to do for the next few hours. When high on endorphins after a piercing, I really feel empowered and on top of the world. The down-side? I almost fell asleep 3 hours later.
(3) Looking after the fresh piercing
A couple of hours later, I forced myself to empty my bursting bladder. This was new territory for me, and I approached it with cautious trepidation. I undid the gauze (there was VERY little bleeding) and sat down in a cubicle. Cautiously, I let the first few drops trickle out... For me, it was a fine mix of pleasure and pain, and that's all I can say. From then on, for the next 2-3 days, the peeing was slightly painful, although not unbearable. I found that, to alleviate the pain, peeing into a bucket of warm water is... sublime. So if you're finding that peeing with your PA is painful in the early days, consider submerging your penis in a bucket of warm water.
I also learnt about pads, panty-liners and other feminine hygiene products. At first, a piercing may appear not to bleed much. There was little bleeding during the first day, so I assumed that the worst was over. BAD MOVE. As a result, I used a panty-liner during the first night. Well, let's just say that they don't absorb as much as ads would have us believe. I would strongly and seriously recommend a MAXI PAD. With wings. On the underwear note, go with briefs - (a) because pads don't fit into boxers too well, and (b) because less dangling = less pain. I don't know about the "letting it breathe" issue, but just go with briefs, especially at night. When sleeping, learn not to roll.
About a day or so later, I had an erection, which was slightly painful - pinching, almost. I later realised that the 3/4" diameter of the ring wasn't large enough to accommodate my erect penis. I lived with the slight discomfort for a while and later bought a wider diameter piercing, as I'll go on to detail.
About 4 days after getting the piercing, I wanted to experience some... self-play. All I can say is that I did, it worked extremely well (the pleasure was intense) and I was quite happy. Two days after that I tried sex, which was more painful than happy - my advice is to wait for about 2 weeks. I also found that 10ga was not working - too much "cheese-wire effect" for me. The piercing made very little difference for my partner at that stage, too.
(4) The piercing during the first year
About a month after being pierced, I noticed that, when urinating, more and more was coming out of the piercing. I wanted to get to a 4ga piercing, and had bought the following to achieve that:
(a) approx. 8ga sterling silver CBB (1")
(b) 6ga acrylic screw-in ball CBR "clone" (1/2")
(c) 4ga SSS CBB (1")
Well, (a) and (b) were just dirt cheap, and I didn't intend to be on them for more than a couple of weeks. This was a bad choice... The sterling silver reacted badly, and after less than a week, I forced myself down to the 6ga. This wasn't too terrible, but the small diameter (the largest I could find for a 6ga acrylic "roundish thing" anywhere in NY) caused some nasty pinching when erect. About two weeks after the acrylic piercing, I went down to the 4ga CBB. Absolute heaven. For the stretching, I highly recommend olive oil and a LONG taper - the one that I used was really too short to be comfortable.
By this stage, I'd been professionally peeing standing up, but only at urinals. I do NOT recommend using a standard toilet when a guest at other people's houses... I had read of a few ways in which to deal with the urination issue - moving the ball right up to the piercing to block urine from there did not work for me. I did notice, however, that urine tends to divide itself into 2 streams, pretty much at RIGHT ANGLES. So, by twisting the member so that both streams are on a horizontal plane, and about 45 degrees off "straight ahead", urinating in a public urinal is not too difficult, especially when using a parabolic bowl style. (This is when I realised that urinals are often parabolic - then point the stream of urine, from any direction, into the centre, or "focus" of the bowl.)
Sex was getting fun - the 4ga CBB seemed to be having more of an effect on partners (particularly in "doggy style". The pain element had gone completely after 4 months or so, and it was a fun toy. However, I would caution people who consider any screw-on jewellery... With two separate people, the ball came off. Quite scary for the woman, let me assure you. Quite embarrassing for me, and also quite painful. On the whole, I began wishing for a CBR again...
Another embarrassing incident occurred at a neighbour's house. I was there for lunch, when I suddenly heard a tinkle while on the footpath and realised that "something was missing". I then proceeded to "look for my key" and finally found "it" on the nature strip, outside their house... After about 20 minutes of frantic searching. So, be aware - that part of the body tends to rub around a lot, give serious consideration to CBRs.
On my way down to a 0ga (current), I tried using a 2ga flesh tunnel. It was like feeling freedom - I could actually regulate which hole I could urinate/ejaculate through, and is probably the most comfortable piece of jewellery that I ever wore down there. On the down-side, since it was single-flare, it used an o-ring on the outside and was sharp-ish, so I didn't want to use it in sex. It also liked to pop out at night, so is not the most secure piece of jewellery for a genital piercing. Great for fun, though. Oh, and I managed to get it in from the inside, jamming it on to the 4ga CBB and "rolling" into place, fixing the o-ring to the end that came through the piercing.
After being at 4ga for about 6 months, I noticed that there was a LOT of "stretch" left in the piercing. I decided that it was probably time to downsize to 0ga. I was in NY for a few days so I decided to visit The Sacred Tattoo again. I went upstairs to purchase the jewellery and a taper - I bought a 0ga acrylic spike and CBR. On returning home, I put the spike through quite easily, then attacked the CBR with circlip pliers. And the CBR won. Nothing I could do would open the bloody things. I utilised the o-rings from the acrylic spike to keep it in and went into Manhattan with the spike through my penis (quite funny now that I think of it) to see what could be done.
The staff (upstairs) at Sacred Tattoo (actually, Unimax is the jewellery division) wouldn't take the jewellery back, but neither could they open it. In short, they weren't too helpful. I had little choice but to purchase what I thought was the next best thing - a cherry bomb kind of circular thingy. Basically a CBB with only one threaded ball and the other end cut along the cross-section of the torus.
I went downstairs and met Brian (xPUREx on IAM), now the piercer at The Sacred Tattoo (Monica now does tattoos). He was quite helpful and unsuccessfully tried to modify the CBR by blowtorching and bending it. He then agreed to help me put the new jewellery in... This was an ordeal in itself. Either the acrylic spike was less than 0ga, or the new jewellery wider - a fair amount of pushing and pain was needed to get the jewellery in. A small flap of flesh (now almost gone) appeared by the opening and a little bit of bleeding persisted for a few days. Three months later, I'm ready to try 00ga.
(5) My perspective on the Prince Albert
If you're still reading, I'll summarise what I believe to be important points:
(a) The PA will not turn you into a sexual monster or beast - it has very limited sexual function beyond being a fun toy and possible BDSM prop.
(b) Don't pierce at a small gauge - if I were doing it again, I'd go for 6ga.
(c) Be prepared for this piercing to stretch a LOT.
(d) Be prepared to urinate sitting down.
(e) Use maxi pads.
(f) Use briefs, not boxers.
(g) Stretch slowly, and with long tapers and quality jewellery.
I have also found that the shape of my penis has changed. The area just below the BOTTOM of the head seems to have stretched considerably. Whether from the pinching of the small diameter piercings, or the (considerable) weight from the heavier ones, I'm not too sure. I'm also fairly certain that it has migrated slightly to sit just below the head. If that's where it's most comfortable, I'm not complaining. Another, psychological, factor is that I feel "smaller" without the piercing. I assume that I'm just used to the extra weight. This is of little consequence, but I thought it worth mentioning.
All in all, I enjoy the addition to my body and am happy with my choice of a first genital piercing. The experience has taught me much about myself and my body.