For a year or two I had experimented with frenums and having a PA. My first genital piercing was in January 2000, a frenum. Within a couple months I also snagged a PA. I have learned so much more now about piercing. I was not going to trust anyone in Raleigh Durham where I live. There has been a solid increase of legitimate body piercing studios in the area now, including piercers that have experience performing most genital piercing, but in 2000 that was a pretty foreign concept in the Triangle. I found information out about Luis Garcia at Infinite Body Piercing in Philadelphia. I was most excited to learn about his piercing background. We spoke on the phone and I planned a time when I would be driving through Philly to meet with him on a trip I was taking to NYC. I had been to Philly before and had explored South Street for their shops, mainly for clothing. I never dreamed that I would return for such an extreme change. Again, in retrospect, it is no big deal, but at the time I was like a child with candy. My excitement, both from life experience and sexuality perspectives, was definitely peaked. Having a PA was cool and all, but this piercing was much more serious, fully going through the head of my penis.
At A Glance Author Jay Contact Jay@bme.anon When N/A Artist Luis Garcia Studio June 2000 Location Philadelphia, PA Luis met me on some weekend in June 2000. At the time he was the head piercer I believe. He has since moved down 4th Street (south off South St.) to another shop. Up to that point he was the most pierced individual I had ever met. His piercings and clothing involved many sharp angles and black. On the website at the time he looked like a pretty formidable guy, but he is really a nice, approachable person. The shop was cool for many reasons, but I was especially impressed that they only performed body piercing. All other shops I had been to were tattoo studios with piercing as an afterthought. The shop had a nice jewelry set up and I felt comfortable conversing with the staff before meeting Luis.
The piercing room he used was pretty spotless with some articles about him from the local newspapers mounted on the wall. Again, in the articles, there was more formidable pictures of him with all those spikes he wore for his piercings. He was obviously recognized locally as one of the master piercers of Philly, and there are no shortage of piercing/tattoo shops around South Street. Today there even seem more than there was at that time.
Luis and I spoke about whether I wanted a transurethral ampallang or one that goes through the head above the urethra. I really wanted to keep just one additional urethral hole so I made it clear I wanted the latter. He explained that the healing time is much greater for this type and I told him I understood. I am pretty gregarious so I inquired about his own life and he was very open about it. It made me feel real at ease. He prepared me for the piercing. The gauge he used was 8. He recommended 8 or 10 for genital piercing. I had a 10 G in my PA so that seemed okay with me.
As I remember he performed the piercing free hand and it really went through quickly (no two pushes). It was so dang quick. I bled pretty good, but Luis showed me a trick that he uses with the genital piercings. He wraps one's penis in a plastic glove after putting gauze over it. He then gently puts a rubber band around the top of the glove. Vwalla! Instant blood container! I have since learned that this technique is pretty common, but at the time I thought it was damn clever. Also I was pretty high off the experience and not feeling any pain. I drank some water and sat for a few minutes. After recovering I was on my merry way, but a changed person obviously.
It sure was weird walking around Philly with this latex glove wrapped around my member. I was pretty strict with touching it, but I went to this Mexican place near the corner of 4th and South Sts. and had a couple drinks and some food to just relax. Of course within a couple hours I had to go to the bathroom so I washed my hands good, undid my contraption, urinated, and put the rubber band back on. It was the next morning that I had a nice amount of blood discharge, but otherwise very few problems.
After a couple of days there was no more bleeding and just a regiment of sea salt and real good cleaning. The piercing did take a good plus six months total to heal.
Over the past three or so years I have greatly enjoyed my ampallang. I am notorious for keloiding so I have little ones on both ends of the piercing, but am very proud of it. Sometimes my keloids ease up and almost disappear, but then they come back. It definitely has been a conversation piece and expanded my sexual experience. I have Luis to thank for this fine piercing.
Later on Luis would do a deep apadravya for me, but since this is my first submission to BME, I will see how this first story is received.