I had always considered genital piercings to not be the thing for me for a few reasons: too painful, I'm too shy to get one, but mostly they just seemed kind of impractical. I thought they might get in the way during sex, get bumped around and thus rip out during sports (I'm an avid equestrian and I wasn't about to give up riding horses for a piercing) or snag/break a condom (which would lead to a number of things I didn't want to think about or put myself at risk for). I guess I've always thought tattoos were the more practical part of the spectrum of body modification anyways, as I like to know when I get something done to my body it will heal within 4 weeks and pretty much be healed forever without risk of rejection or heavy scar tissue or those other nasty piercing risks.
At A Glance Author anonymous When Six months ago Artist Kayla Studio Dead Rockstar Location Fargo, ND Anyways, sometime last fall, I don't remember the exact day or month, I had the impulse to get a piercing. I had my nostril done and didn't really want anything else visible at the time, and had ruled out nipple piercings or ear cartilage piercings because of the pain/horror stories I had heard about them healing. I slowly started to think about genital piercings. They were supposed to heal fairly well, I was single for the first time in a few months, had extra cash for the first time in a few months too... I eventually talked myself into getting a VCH. Unlike most people I didn't really want a VCH for the extra stimulation (as I'm kind of overly sensitive anyways), but I wanted one for the visual side of it. I just thought they looked really neat; a good way to make that area of my body, which I never really liked the looks of, somewhat attractive and interesting. Besides, my nostril piercing went through pure cartilage and that didn't hurt in the least, and my tattoo was a tolerable pain... so this piercing through soft earlobe-esque tissue couldn't hurt that bad, could it?
So I headed off to Dead Rockstar in Fargo, North Dakota. I chose a 14ga curved titanium barbell in a pretty teal color. The same lady who did my nostril piercing (and did a great job at it) did my VCH. She was friendly and comforting and made things like me stripping off my pants and laying there with my legs spread all exposed a little more comfortable. Well, it was her attitude or the adrenaline, I'm not quite sure. She marked the spot with a black felt tip pen and I briefly looked at it but really I just wanted to get it over with at this point and I trusted her judgment. The needle started to go through and I made the worst sound I think I have ever made. It wasn't a scream, it wasn't a howl, it wasn't a shriek... maybe it was all three. I lost all the air in my lungs as if someone had punched me in the gut really hard. It was honestly the worst pain I had ever felt, though it didn't last long.
I paid, tipped, and left without looking at the piercing much. When I got home I decided to take a close inspection and discovered it was crooked. I wasn't very worried about that because I saw that it depended on how I was positioned and how the skin was laying. However, something else bothered me tremendously... the piercing had an entry AND exit hole...and the barbell was nowhere near my clit. I lifted up my hood to find that the piercing didn't even go through the hood. Why the piercing hurt so much suddenly started to make sense; the piercing had carved out a half inch (or however long the barbell was) tunnel of my flesh. However I thought it looked nice and decided to keep it in, while vowing to never go to the shop again. I wondered how many other customers had had VCHs done at that shop, only to get a clit hood surface piercing like I had gotten instead. The piercer said she had done many of them.
Healing seemed pretty easy except despite the fact that I was religious about salt soaks, scar tissue formed. Lots of it. This wasn't that obvious when the piercing was in but after taking it out to change the jewelry in a couple months there was clearly a tunnel of hard scar tissue. I decided to ignore it; I could horseback ride with it just fine and that had been my main concern. However sex (and all the rough guy-on-top-of-me-while-making-out-while-fully-clothed, which is what really hurt it, oddly enough) came along about 2 or 3 months after the piercing and it got hit bumped a few times. This was briefly painful but I ignored it.
3 months or so after that and I'm still fighting with the piercing. Changing jewelry hurts really badly and it always looks aggravated. The scar tissue is humungous and ugly and I hate it. Bumping it always seems to happen (thanks to guys who don't know about it or aren't cautious or are too rough). To my horror I realized that the tunnel of scar tissue was getting thicker under the piercing and thinner on top of the piercing, what I suspected was the beginning of rejection.
So... about 6 months after getting the piercing, I decided to take it out. The scar tissue tunnel is still tender and ugly and the hole is yet to close up as I just took it out yesterday. I really regret taking it out as I loved having metal in my pants and I loved how it accented my body and I loved how some guys' eyes would light up when I told them I had a piercing down there. I guess it was better to take it out than wait till it rejected as I would have had a very nasty slit in my hood if that would have happened. Maybe one day I'll find a better piercer and go there to have it somehow redone (though I don't know if this will be possible as there's so much scar tissue).
As for now I guess I'll just be thankful that I took it out before it was too late, and look forward to getting it done right in the future when/if I'm ready for VCH: round 2.