At A Glance
Author	vicky
Contact	vicky@bme.anon
IAM	vicky-dreamer
When	N/A
Location	UK

March 16th '03:
It seems that belts of depression drive me into deep thought, one of my more recent belts lead me into what I would class as a self piercing frenzy, only days after piercing both my inner labia I was tempted to try a vertical hood piercing.
I'd pierced myself several times already and felt confident enough to pierce myself again, anyway if anything were to go wrong and the piercing not work out properly, it would be easy enough to heal and try again another day.

I know my anatomy and was sure I'd be able to cater for such a piercing, I had plenty of suitable jewellery and a new 14 gauge piercing needle so within minutes of making up my mind I decided to start my usual preparations for the piercing process.
I fled to the kitchen where I boiled the kettle and filled a mug with boiling water and a small glass with ice cubes.
Placing the mug and glass on a kitchen tray accompanied with a few sheets of kitchen paper I returned to the confines of my bedroom, locking the door behind me I glanced up at the clock and noticed it was early morning, just past 1am.

I laid a towel on the floor against the wall and propped a mirror up against a chair in front of the towel.
On the tray I had bought into my room from the kitchen I laid out a couple of sheets of the kitchen paper, the mug of boiled water, and glass of ice water, my clamps (Micro Sponge Forceps) with an elastic band around the end to help with tightening, a small purple marker, 16 gauge curved barbell, 14 gauge Introcan piercing needle, cotton pads, Savlon antiseptic spray, small torch and some Germolene antiseptic wipes.
When I felt that everything was ready I positioned the tray on the floor next to the towel, went to the bathroom and washed my hands then returned to my room, locked the door behind me and took position on the towel, legs akimbo ready to pierce myself.

I took a couple of minutes to figure out exactly where I wanted to pierce and then used a purple marker to mark the appropriate entry and exit points.
Using my clamps I carefully clamped the area of flesh that I wanted to pierce, I held an ice cube to the underside of my hood as I used the clamps to stretch the skin so I had a clear piercing area, I lined the needle up with the small purple dot and started to push the needle into the flesh - it didn't seem as sharp as my others so I had to push harder for it to start slicing through my flesh, after giving a final hard push I felt the needle slide through and bump against the ice cube so I removed the ice and pushed the needle through slightly further.
Once I was happy with the position of the needle and receiving tube I removed the needle and left the tube in place, I also opted to not remove the clamps.
After a short moment I placed the curved barbell that I'd decided to use into the end of the receiving tube and pulled the tube and jewellery back through my fresh piercing. I had opted to use a 16 gauge curved barbell, but as I only had a 14gauge needle I was expecting there to be slightly more blood loss when I removed the clamps, due to the jewellery not fitting the hole as well as it should have.
My assumptions were correct, I screwed the ball in place and carefully loosened and then removed the clamps, as the blood flow started to increase and return to the area of skin that had been clamped the wound began to bleed.
I took a couple of small cotton pads and applied an antiseptic wound spray to it then used it to apply pressure to the piercing and stem the blood flow.

Shortly after, perhaps two to three minutes may have passed - the blood flow began to slow down and then eventually stop.
I cleaned the area with an antiseptic wipe and then cleared up my equipment; I returned my clamps to the mug of hot water and threw the ice out of my bedroom window. I placed the needle into a re-sealable bag, and then into a paper bag so that I could dispose of it in the sharps bin at my work place at a later date.

Once I had cleared up, I sat down and used a mirror to take a better look at my new piercing - this is when I realized that the positioning wasn't as good as I thought. I had pierced myself from the top down, when I should have pierced from the underside and up. As a result the needle had come through the skin too high, so not really under the hood.
Although I was disappointed, I decided to leave the piercing in for the night and come back to it in the morning, I had thought I would correct it but as I had no new needles I would have to postpone any ideas of re-piercing until some new supplies arrived.
My piercing is now a couple of days old and seems to be settling very well, it isn't painful and doesn't look as bad as I had originally thought, although I'm still not happy with the placement of it I may decide to keep it and put off re-piercing for another day.

In honesty, my aftercare for this piercing matches what I'm doing for the new Inner labia piercings that were put into place only days earlier, when need be I use an antiseptic spray to clean the area, and then last thing at night and first thing in the morning I was the piercings with a warm solution of salt water, just half a teaspoon of salt to 8oz of water, as directed in the BME Glossery.

If you're an adult IAM member and would like to take a look at the results of this piercing then you can take a look at the gallery on my IAM page.

I have always maintained the thought and attitude that self piercing isn't safe, but I know I will continue to pierce myself but there are many factors that lead me to doing my own piercings. I only hope that people who read this will take the safe option and decide not to pierce themselves, but to go to a professional, reputable studio and have their piercings performed correctly and safely.