I don't know why, but I have an urge to make this long, so i'm going to do it like a diary. Sorry if that bothers anyone.
At A Glance Author Peccavi Contact Peccavi@crackdealer.com Artist Rick Gilmour Studio Adorned Location Calgary, Alberta My 18th birthday, the day I had been waiting for, for oh so long. Also the day of my first genital piercing, another thing I had been waiting for, for oh so long.
I contemplated back and forth between a reverse PA, and an apadravya for a long time beforehand and finally decided on an apadravya, at eight gauge. After that was all decided upon, came the task of finding a shop in town that would do the piercing. I called every shop in the phone book, and none of them performed them, one of the places I called told me that he personally wouldn't trust his penis to be worked on by anyone in this city anyhow, and that he himself didn't think he could do them. I dreaded calling DragonFX, a piercing shop in a large tourist trap mall here. With every other shop in the phone book exhausted, with the exception of a female-only shop and DragonFX, I gave in and called them (DragonFX). Yes, they would do the piercing, but he said he would not do it at 8ga, and would only do it at 10ga. I thought to myself, "Whatever, I can always stretch afterwards." And said yes, and made an appointment for my birthday.
Now after this, I regretted it every day, but wanted it done so badly, that I didn't care. THANKFULLY, My friend Jeannie talked me out of going there, acting like a loud conscience almost, and I thank her greatly for this. She told me of a piercer named Rick Gilmour, who works out of Calgary, and offered to drive me down there. I was skeptical at first not having even met her yet and only talked to her on the phone and over ICQ. And then she showed me his IAM page and I was a lot more convinced, not to mention an arse-load of experiences on the site with his name in them as the piercer. :) So I called there, talked to him a bit, and he was very very kind and very very helpful, I'd say he is the nicest piercer that I've talked to so far.
Unfortunately the plans to drive down fell through. Still wanting to go extremely bad, I sold my Nintendo 64 to get money for a Greyhound ticket there and back. Which I purchased a week and a day before my birthday. I meant to make the appointment a lot sooner, but time flew by, and it was a few days until I left, so I made the appointment for 1:00, and he said he wasn't sure if he would have the proper length of barbell in stock when I came down, but I said I'd come anyways, and he could check and make sure yadda yadda. Then I had to change it for 2:30, which I shouldn't have bothered doing as I got there super early.
So I went to Calgary, did random stuff, and then made my way to Adorned, actually getting there at 1:00pm, funny. Not wanting to be rude, I opted that we, (my friend, who took photos for me, came with) wait outside until at least 2:00, this was fine. At 2:00 I went in, introduced myself and was given the proper paperwork to fill-out and had my id checked. When I went to answer the question "Have you eaten in the past four hours?" I asked my friend because I was a little unsure, she said nope. Rick's partner in life said I should really eat something before hand, and purchase some juice from the Mac's store just next door. So I went over there, bought an apple juice and went back to adorned, they gave me some time to eat one of the granola bars that I had in my backpack leftover from my greyhound ride down to Calgary, and drink my juice. This gave me some time to better go over their aftercare sheet, and allowed me to ask Tara about Tea Tree soap and if it is a good idea, to which she told me it isn't, and that lavender is much better as tea tree soap/oil can dry piercings out.
After I finished up, and I went into Rick's "operating room" ;) he had me sit on the bed/table thing, and he talked with me asking if I had any questions, and washed his hands very thoroughly which was nice to see. His voice in itself is very soothing and calming, and definitely helped me overcome my nervousness. Then I was told to pull my pants and boxers down to my knees, and the shy-kid I am, I asked if I could leave my boxers on and just pull it through the hole, the answer was no because he'd rather have me bleed onto his paper than onto my own clothing. So I pulled them down, and I guess nervousness causes shrinkage, this was kind of embarrassing but whatever. I then had to lie on his table. He then put a sheet of blue paper with a hole in it, around my penis, just like the kind that they would put around your neck at the dentist.
He told me there was two ways he could do the piercing, at 8 gauge, he would just clamp the whole thing, and go directly through, any smaller, he would first give a PA piercing, and then go through the back of the glans after. I was fine with the clamp & stab method so that was all good.
He said the best way to get a measurement is to have the person being pierced achieve an erection, which isn't always feasible, and something that I personally wouldn't be able to do with someone I barely knew around. So he said he would estimate for the size of the barbell that he would use, and try to go larger than exact, if not exact, because you can always downsize, and having something too small can be painful. And that he would "simulate an erection" to get an approximate measurement. He did this by having me relax the ligaments in my penis, which I guess were tense because I was nervous, and then holding it in his palm and closing one finger at a time, from the base-up, forcing blood up into the head of the penis, which causes it to swell, like during an erection. And this also let him look at where veins or something was, I cannot remember the exact word that he used unfortunately. He did this a few times to be completely sure, and then began his marking procedures. After he had everything marked out (which felt like 10 seconds to me, but my friend told me just that alone took around 15 minutes) he did the finger thing again, to make sure his memory served him right during the marking.
All the while, he changed gloves constantly, which I thought was extremely professional and another one of the reasons that I was able to overcome my nervousness, it was very, very, reassuring.
After this the clamps went on, I never looked up but my friend told me in squished my glans to a size "thinner than she had ever seen before" so I assume it went pretty thin. Hehe. He explained to me some breathing techniques, deep in through the nose, deep down into my stomach, and hold it there for a second then let it out very slowly through my mouth, and then slowly in through the nose, etc. As he was getting ready to perform the piercing itself, he told me to continue this breathing and either concentrate on a point on the ceiling, or a point in my mind. So I closed my eyes, and focused in on the music that Tara was listening to, which I could just barely hear through the walls. It was some ebm/industrial stuff, that's all I remember, I know it's something I have here, but cannot remember exactly what right now because my memory is horrid. Ha.
He told me he was going to do it then, and then he counted 1, 2, 3, and pushed it part of the way through which was quite the shock, but hurt less than I expected. It cause my legs to tense up like rocks, and my breathing to stutter and almost stop but he stressed for me to keep breathing normally and slowly and to definitely not stop breathing or hold my breath. And he was breathing along with me loudly, which was very helpful as it gave me something to breath along with and helped me to continue breathing along while the needle went through a bit farther after the second count to three. The last few pushes hurt more than the first, but still less than I expected. I had expected to scream out, or at least yelp, but didn't, also. After it was through my friend took a picture. And I noticed that my entire body felt like it was on fire, like I had a "hot flash" during the piercing. He then put the jewelry through which didn't hurt but felt just like a bit of pressure on it, and straightened it which again was just a bit of pressure, and then told me he was going to wrap it in gauze. First he gave me a chance to look at it, and I thought it looked great (and it does!) and there was a bit of blood on it, which I expected, and was again, ALOT LESS THAN I EXPECTED. :) :). So he wrapped ol' Pablo ;) in gauze, and since he didn't have any condoms handy, he put a latex glove and an elastic band over it. I was then able to get up, and pull my pants on (slowly =] ) and he told me a few things that I needed to know, avoid alcohol, and spicy foods, the alcohol wasn't a problem since I'm a non-drinking, but I have love for spicy food and it's very hard to resist. He said I should eat lots of red meat, and other foods that were rich in iron, such as broccoli. (I had Broccoli & Steak stirfry tonight, go iron!)
Well I went out front to pay, and I paid. And then I said thank you, and all that jibba-jabba, and my friend and I left for our walk down a big hill to meet my dad. Phoo. Walking was fine as long as I took small steps and after about an hour normal walking was pretty much fine as long as tried to not bang it against my leg.
Once I got home, I was a little scared to remove the glove and urinate for the first time, just because of what I've heard about that hurting more than the piercing. Oddly, when I did, it only felt like a slight bit of pressure, and just a lot of blood coming out before the urine, didn't particularly sting. And it all came out in a single stream like normal, which I wasn't expecting (I peed into the bathtub because I wanted to see if it would come out the new holes, and if I would need to sit down to pee) but was a very pleasant surprise. I didn't re-gauze it or re-glove it, and I went to sleep. I woke up, with morning wood, and despite what I heard about having an erection after this piercing, there was little to no blood, a few drops in my boxers.
I got my mother to pick up some lavender soap and saline solution on her way home from work, and used them as soon as she got home in the shower, washing all the encrusted blood on the jewelry away, and cleaning the blood off the glans, when cleaning blood off the opening of the urethra, a bit poured out which was pretty neat looking. Used a few drops of saline onto the ends of the piercing after my shower, and dab-dried it off with a (dark colored) towel. And slipped into some briefs (which I had to buy a pair of, also) to prevent it from "bouncing around" and they feel fine although I'm not used to feeling a line across my butt-cheeks which is weird. har. That's all I'm writing for today (The day after I got it done, Day 2).
Day 3:
I can barely feel urination anymore, and its pretty much back to normal, the bruise on the back of my glans is still rather prominent, and bleeding is a lot lighter. I've noticed a small strand of flesh that is still intact going across the entrance hole, basically seperating it into two. This strand is pushed to the side by the barbell, so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal and didn't pay much attention to it, but upon close inspection and move movement on the barbell, it seems to get stuck to the ball, or caught in the tiny groove between the ball and the bar. I sent Rick an IM asking about this and hope for a reply soong. It doesn't cause any real discomfort, so I think I might just be a worry-wart and it's nothing.
Cleaning is going well, soaping it with a light lather of the soap, nice and gently. Swelling has gone down greatly, which is excellent. No salt soaks yet, as it's still bleeding.
Day 4:
I cleaned quickly before I went to sleep last night, still bleeding, and the strip was gone. Either that or I didn't notice it, whatever. I checked my IMs this morning and rick said something like it should fall off on it's own, because if it's that small it wouldn't get proper blood-flow to it, good good. Also last night while trying to fall asleep, I was stricken with the hardest erection i've had in a long freaking time, this caused a bit of "pain" as it is still pretty tender, but the jewellery is a nice tight fit. Also this cause some very minor bleeding. I touched it lightly a few times, and either it's mental, or sensation is alot higher now than before. Cool stuff. I just rolled over and went to sleep.
Okay so today, woke up, washed off the blood from the "excitement" last night, and went about my day. No serious bleeding, and the bruise is going away, hooray. Hopefully bleeding will stop and I can eat spicy foods again.
Day 5:
Today went generally as normal, wake up, shower, wash piercing in shower, do random stuff, wash piercing again, shower before bed, washing piercing in shower. Blah blah. But i am right now sitting here at 3:18am, and I cannot sleep because I have been kept awake by intense pains halfway down my shaft, odd, not horrible, but horribly annoying. Bleeding is still continuing, quite a bit.
Day 6:
Finally got to sleep at like 4:30-5, woke up at 8am in hella pain with a crazy woody. But whatever it went away, particularily sore today, must be a sign that it's healing, like a cut getting itchy, y'know? Started doing soaks today after my initial morning cleaning, with Chamomile Tea. then cleaned mid-day, then cleaned again this evening, and did another tea soak. the soaking is quite soothing, but quite funny looking down and seeing your member in a tim hortons coffee mug. har.
Day 7:
Well last night before going to sleep, i decided to give masturbation a go. I don't know why I attempted this so early, I guess my mind wanted to get off so bad, that it made some stupid connection between the pain in my shaft, and not ejaculating in a while. This isn't a good thought, as it's dead wrong, but whatever, I did it. Now, when I jerk, i go right up over the head, i don't know about other people, but with two large metal balls there, I can't get up that high anymore, which made it pretty much shaft-stroking-session, which was semi-boring and quite frustrating, but I imagine when it heals up I can lube up and slide over the balls, whatever. Oh yes, I was doing this dry-palm, the way i like. it hurt for a bit, then i started to not care, and eventually at orgasm (which was long anticipated and took what seemed like forever, haha.) ejaculation never hurt, but was pretty much like normal. Hopped in the shower after that, washed up, and went to bed.
During the day today I had an english final exam, so i woke up, washed up, went downtown, missed my noon cleaning, ut came home and soaked at about 4:00, then washed right after. Just did another wash at 10:30 and i'll probably go to bed soon. The bruise is barely noticeable now, and there still minute blood coming out of my pisshole, but rather than being red it is brown, i hope this is okay.. The pain in my shaft is still there and quite noticeable. It is also more tender today than it has been any other day. Urinating still sucks ;)
Day 8:
Today was pretty generic, Someone told me the brownish blood is just oxidized normal blood, so thats fine. Normal washing regine except did sea-salt soak rather than chamomile tea, worked well, quite soothing.
Day 9 & 10:
These two days went by pretty fast, I missed two cleanings because a friend was over, but I cleaned / soaked as soon as he left. Whoops.
Day 11:
Go the procedural photos developed today, will be submitting them the same time I submit this. They look good. Normal cleaning for today, soak/clean in the morning, clean afternoon, soak/clean at night. Still hurts when I have an erection, Perhaps the barbell is too short, perhaps it's just still tender, i'll wait a couple more weeks before I make a decision on if I should change the jewellery. Urination still hurts like a bitch, but holding it under the tap in the bath tub makes the pain barely noticeable, so that's good.
After sea-salt soaks tehre is alot of whitish yellow sticky stuff on the jewellery, I guess that's the lymph discharge or whatever, easily cleaned off with a q-tip then rinsed with saline.
Day 12:
Basically a generic day, but did ALOT of walking, across the entire city, heh. The walking was fine, didn't bother me much at all. Got home, cleaned blah blah. Just jerked off again, second time since i got this. And the first couple shots, consisted of a bit of blood! Thats pretty neat to see. Ok, goodnight!
Day 13:
Another boring day, regular cleaning, nothing worth noting about the piercing this day. I'm going to end this tomorrow and send it in to bme after I write out day 14, it is getting pretty repetitive.
Day 14:
Nothing new, same as yesterday. This is done.
I hope this experience helped you if you're considering this piercing. I would reccomend that you go ahead and do it if you've been thinking about doing it. And if you live in Calgary, I would very very very very highly reccomend going to Adorned.