After seeing a picture of a PA and reading the stories about how 'useful' it could be I went and got it done. After a few weeks all was well and I found myself thinking "Next!". I knew I wanted a genital piercing, but I didn't know what to get. I was happy with the PA, now stretched to 7mm with a circular barbell, so I didn't want to convert it to an Apadravya. I never liked surface piercings so a frenum ladder or Hafada was out, and I've already had a Pubus piercing in the past (it went a bit wrong, hence me not liking surface piercings anymore).
At A Glance Author fragilesense Contact fragilesense@hotmail.com IAM fragilesense When Two years ago Artist Sharron Studio Self Inflicted (no longer exists) Location Northwich, Cheshire After looking through a few magazines and searching websites I finally found the one I wanted; an Ampallang. For those of you who don't know what an Ampallang is, it's a piercing that goes horizontal straight through the glans, head of the penis, and usually, but not always, goes through the urethra. I'd been researching into the piercing's past for a while, and discovered some amazing information on the tribal origins of the piercing. The Ampallang was considered *the* sign of maturity in some tribes, in fact, it was so important to some cultures that women would turn down marriage of a non-pierced man for a pierced one (both for tribal status and also for the sexual benefits). So I decided that this was the piercing for me.
I carried on doing research for the next few months, trying to find out everything I could about the procedure, healing times, possible complications and the rest of the particulars. To say the least I found out a few scary things. Firstly, Ampallangs don't like foreskin, which I still have, as this applies pressure to the bar and can cause migration, though I've heard it's easily solved with some micropore tape and a set of careful fingers. Secondly, the Ampallang is usually carried out without an anaesthetic of any kind, which made me wince with imagined pain. And thirdly, maybe the most discouraging revelation was that it took around 6 months to heal. 6 months!!!! That's a long time for your best friend to be in a state of disrepair. Alas, I booked the piercing anyway.
After telling my friends, and believe me, you have to boast to people about this one to share both your bravery and worst fears, I felt easier about the piercing. When it came to the day of the piercing I was a bit of a wreck. You see, there are different types of people when it comes to piercing; those who fear the procedure up until the day, and those who cry like a baby on the day. Guess which one I am? After taking a good look at the weapon, aka needle, and the artillery, aka a 2.4mm bar, it was fair to say I was a little scared.
Then came the fun bit; exposing the area to be pierced. I don't know if you know this, but the male genitalia seem to have a mind of their own and have built-in defence mechanisms. It seemed to know it was going to be stapled and decided to try to retreat as far into my body as humanly possible, adding embarrassment to my fear.
With the introductions over and done with it was time to get down to some stapling. In the end I decided to go for some numbing action in the form of xylocaine, but again came a little known fact to some people. Xylocaine is good for numbing the first 5-10mm of skin, anything beyond that is still nervously functional. Think about the thickness of a glans, then re-evaluate the power of xylocaine and you'll start to realise why I was so much of a scared little bunny, but I wasn't going to chicken out now, not after coming this far. So the limited effects of xylocaine kicked in and the dotting up was marked, checked, and remarked until all were happy with the 'target alignment'.
Taking a few deep breaths I tried to relax and remember my old ninjutsu training to try to remove focus from what was about to happen. As soon as I felt the needle go in I gripped the side of the bed for dear life, though it wasn't amazingly painful. What was amazingly painful was when the needle passed through the numbed skin and hit fully aware tissue. I have never been in so much pain in my life!! I clamped myself on to the side of the bed and arched my back to the point where I thought it was going to snap, and then something strange started to happen. I started to feel very light-headed and floaty, like I was aware of what was going on, but wasn't completely involved in it. I can't compare it to any trip because I'm straightedge, but it must have felt pretty close to being on some kind of drug. Technically, it was just an endorphin rush caused by my body trying to help me cope with the pain, and I wasn't complaining about my body's reaction at all.
It seemed that the needle was in there for hours, trying to create a nice hole for itself. Suddenly the pain stopped and I had a quick look down only to find it was only halfway through. Apparently the toughness of the glans was proving very difficult for the piercist to "stab" through, so a quick rest was in order, until the pain flooded right back as soon she continued to push the needle through. This time the pain was worse than before and I could feel every nerve in my glans screaming at me for forgiveness. Then came the most agonising part; the needle popped right through the other side with a very sickening crunching sound and a very intense flash of pain. By now my body had managed to counteract the xylocaine so the numb nerves had just started to realise what it had been missing, and they were eager to tell me how unhappy they were.
Quickly, the needle was replaced with the bar and the area was cleaned up. I was amazed at how little time it seemed to take to actually insert the jewellery after the skin had been stapled. I was feeling so floaty that I wasn't paying much attention to anything that was going on. My penis was padded and a glove was placed over the padding to keep it in place. It looked hilarious; I couldn't help but laugh at the site of my padded groin :)
I was left to lie there for 5-10 minutes to at least gain some composure before attempting to stand. One of the things I hadn't noticed it just how much sweat had come pouring off of me during the piercing procedure. The paper towels on the on the bed were soaked with sweat, yet my T-shirt was hardly damp.
To cut a long story short, everything went well for the next 2 weeks. I kept my foreskin taped back and I cleaned the piercing twice a day with Savlon and gave it a salt bath every 2 days. For some reason, after the 2 weeks, the piercing started to reject. It became very swollen and very tender. Sheds of skin were coming off due to the swelling and I could hardly sit down, as it was that painful to apply any amount of pressure to the bar. Well into the 4th week of the piercing everything was going wrong. The piercing had migrated 5mm on the left hand side and the swelling showed no sign of receding. I tried everything to keep the piercing and asked for advice from a whole variety of different people, but in the end I had little choice but to take the piercing out and let it heal. I still have 2 nice scars either side of my glans from where the piercing migrated.
After asking what went wrong, 2 reasons were found:
1. The foreskin was still applying some amount of pressure to one side of the bar causing it to migrate
2. The Ampallang wasn't pierced deep enough to remove the risk of possible migration
I hopefully plan to get my Ampallang redone soon, but deeper this time, and go to a studio where Ampallang piercings are a common occurrence.
What did I learn from my failed Ampallang? You can never do enough research, and at the end of the day, your body has final say about what you do to it!