A few years ago I saw a picture (at BMEzine, of course) of an 8 ring outer labia corset (perfectly placed, beautifully laced). I fell in love. I love corsetry of any kind, anything that laces, boots, corsets, bodices, skirts, stockings, and in this case, outer labia corsets. But I read a little bit, saw how much it hurt, and thought - never! This is how all my piercings seem to go. "I'll never get that, it'll hurt too much ............................. what'll I get? Guess that's all that's left ..." So I had my horizontal hood done, and it hurt, but not too bad. That's another experience for another day. After that first genital piercing, I simply thought, well, it can't be that bad. It's funny how our minds adjust to force us to get something that we always wanted. So, off I went to The Piercing Urge (www.thepiercingurge.com.au) in Prahran, Victoria, Australia, just down the road from me.
At A Glance Author nay Contact nay@bme.anon IAM nay When Two years ago Artist Peter and Leah at TPU, Nina at Rawhide Studio TPU, Rawhide Location Melbourne, Australia
I was going with just two, just because it was a bit of a sudden decision. So we didn't do any placing with corsetry in mind, if I recall correctly. I got them done, I believe it was Peter and he did a fine job - the hygiene and professionalism at TPU is truly impressive, and I have always felt comfortable having any work done by them. They healed painfully but easily enough, and soon after (December 01, first pair was done in August 01) I went back for my second pair. By then, the first pair had started to migrate a bit. The second pair was placed below the first, and Leah (another wonderful piercer at TPU) assured me I had enough space above and below to end up with 4 pairs - just like the photograph which had initially inspired me. Again, it was painful, I went home and sat around marvelling at the blood - for some reason they did bleed a bit, all of mine. Nothing too serious, just a few drops for the first couple of days. But whenever I see blood, I just have to marvel. Unfortunately what I found was that the second pair irritated the first pair. I'm not sure why. They weren't pierced too close together, and four months should have been enough to wait. And yet the first pair regressed to feel as if they had just been pierced - painful to the touch, more lymph, et cetera. It made healing both pairs quite uncomfortable, and I think it hastened the migration of the first pair.
Soon after that second pair, I lost my job. Bloody tech crash. Money became TIGHT. In the time between getting my second and third pairs, the first two pairs migrated significantly. I downsized the rings for the top pair to I think about 3/8" rings. Incidentally, they were all pierced at 12g. When I say migrated, I mean became shallow. One also moved significantly towards my pubic mound, north. I kept them anyway - they really are wonderful piercings, and I didn't want to just give them all up. But as they became shallower and shallower, I despaired of being able to have a decent looking corset. I found a new job in July, and in August I had the third pair done, by Nina at Rawhide Piercing (she has since moved back to Canada, which is a terrible loss to Australia). I had them done by her and not by TPU because we were having an IAM meet at her shop, and she offered piercings for jewellery cost only. How could I resist? The ones she pierced were wonderful. They did not migrat e in that first month at all, started to heal very easily, but of course, were a bit painful for that first week.
Then all hell broke loose. I became extremely sick with various infections, gastro, rundown, exhaustion, nervous exhaustion. That was in the month of September. So one month after having the third pair, I ended up taking them out. Although I had all sorts of infections which could have transmitted to them, they never actually became infected. Instead they had what seemed to be tears and exposed flesh around the holes. This made all flesh around them (ie entire outer labia) very sore to the touch - sitting was impossible except on the edge of a chair. They would bleed, lymph, be sore to the touch, couldn't be rotated. It drove me mad, along with all the other sickness issues I was trying to deal with at the time. One night I thought they were doing a bit better, had a close look, and noticed a really nasty looking tear. I don't know where it came from. I was so ill and exhausted I was doing nothing strenuous, and taking extremely good care of that whole area. So, somehow the flesh just gave up, it hated having them in there, and I felt like enough was enough. I was too exhausted to deal with it. I laced up the corset that night with some ribbons I had bought. I couldn't even make it look particularly good as I couldn't lace them tight as it hurt too much. I took webcam photos, stored them away to remind myself I did one day have my corset, and the next day TPU took out the last pair and the more migrated of the previous pair.
So I was left with a migrated shallow pair of small rings in the top piercings, and a single 5/8" or so ring in a shallow but not too shallow piercing. THESE DID NOT MAKE ME HAPPY. None of them looked right, they were scattered, they weren't my corset ... I was not very pleased by the whole situation, but I honestly felt I had no choice. That last pair simply wasn't going to heal, and I was in too much pain. There is pain, and then there is pain where your body is telling you "This isn't going to work. If you leave them in, even worse things will happen. I can't deal with it. Please just take them out." So I listened to your body - one of the golden rules of body modification, in my eyes.
Six months later, I got my next pair. Now, these I adore. I went back to Nina for them, as she had done such a sterling job on the previous pair, and I felt extremely comfortable with her as a piercer, a person, and a professional. The purpose with this pair was to pierce at 12g again. I contemplated 8g, but I must confess, the pain simply scared me. My most recent genital piercing was a vertical hood which Nina had also done for me. My horizontal hood (again, this is another story - suffice to say, never shop around for a cheaper price) was a butcher's job by Pierce De Resistance, and had left me with so much scar tissue that to pierce through it literally caused me an out-of-body experience caused by pain. This scared me. I'm human! I was a bit scared off genital piercings after that, and the idea of possibly going through that much pain again, just seemed unnecessarily cruel. So I decided to pierce both at 12g, and stretch very soon thereafter and continue stretching unti l at least 8g - preferably 6g. This was both to improve healing and reduce migration, and to allow me to wear a padlock. I was in a D/s relationship and was planning to surprise him with this one day. Unfortunately, four days ago this relationship ended. Nonetheless, I still intend to stretch, and use a padlock just for my own enjoyment.
Nina pierced the first one on the 6th of February, and the second on the 27th of February. Each was done a bit deeper to help out in the prevention of migration. Each one I tensed up for, relaxed, and thought "oh hey. That wasn't so bad! GIVE ME ANOTHER!" Although I was scared about scar tissue from previous outer labia piercings, in fact there didn't seem to be any. It really all worked quite well, and restored my faith in genital piercings (christina, anyone?). The healing process has been fairly simple. I do nothing for my piercings unless there is a problem. For these guys I just keep cleaning them in the shower with water, and making sure they aren't twisted. A bit of urine never hurts, either. I mean, it stings perhaps, but it's not bad for them to keep them clean. I am already a bit paranoid that they are migrating, so I will start stretching the earlier one as soon as I have the jewellery ready. I have taken since taken out at home the top two extremely shallow rings , and felt so much better with them gone - they simply weren't what I wanted. I still have a shallow outer labia from the second pair, which I am keeping while I decide if it's too shallow for my liking or not. I like deepset outer labia piercings - especially because that was what the initial photograph was of. In the long term, I hope to use weights with my piercings - tried it already and thoroughly enjoyed it - and experiment with artistic placing of clamps - again, tried it and adored it. I also would like to look into making my own labia spreader mechanisms, such as circles, rings, half-circles, and the like. These can be extremely practical piercings, and I intend to over the years experience all that they have to offer.
I am now at 1430 words or so, so I expect I should wrap this up. I don't intend for anyone to learn from this story about how to take care of their first outer labia piercing. Feel free to IM me for more information about fiddly things like that. What I hope you can get from reading this is an understanding of how long term these processes can be. I feel that too many people get piercings on impulse, and although I'm sure they learn to love them, I feel that in some cases it is the wrong way to go about it. In my case, I got the first pair on impulse, then decided - yes, I can handle more pain to get a corset. Migration and bad placement meant that my corset was not all I wanted it to be. If you want to get an outer labial corset, PLAN AHEAD. Mark all your spots. Get as many as possible (without being a hero) at the same time, to ensure that they heal together. Get them at a larger gauge if you can handle the pain, as it will help prevent migration. Don't just think that it' ll all work out in the end - it may well not. But don't let anything stop you. Genital piercings, in my opinion, are some of the most intense and wonderful piercings you can get. For me they have been a defining force in enjoying my sexuality and in enjoying in experimenting with it. I will keep on getting outer labia piercings, removing migrated ones, getting new ones, until it is a mass of scar tissue with only a few rings left. I feel that they are MY piercing, the one piercing which really best identifies my body modification process. I didn't want them, I got them, I kept on getting them, I kept on flinching, and I'm keeping on getting them so that I have my body at the point where I want it. I hope that everyone else can experience the same sort of joy in achievement that I have, when they get their own modifications.