My Transcrotal Body Piercing
At A Glance Author BarbedStud Contact dragomelo@hotmail.com Artist Cynthia Hurt Studio CM Hurt Location Los Angeles My decision to get a transcrotal body piercing was made about three months ago. After seeing transcrotal piercing pictures posted on BME's website, I knew I just had to have that piercing done. It wasn't an easy task finding a piercer that could do it. Every piercer that I contacted here in San Francisco told me they didn't know how to do it, wouldn't risk trying it, and that there was a high risk of a serious infection if it didn't heal properly. The main problem that I could see was getting the piercing to heal. I was told that one couldn't just pierce the scrotum. The piercing wouldn't create that "tunnel of scar tissue" that normally develops in all other body piercings. After much deliberation, I asked myself: "If I were to do it myself, how would I get it heal?" The answer I came up with was to pierce then suture both the front and back wall of the scrotum together. Interestingly enough, after doing more research, suturing the opposing scrotal walls was exactly the procedure that body-modification artists follow.
The next step was to find an experienced body-modification artist. The person I discovered was Cynthia Hurt down in Los Angeles. She was impressive. What impressed me the most about Cynthia was her professionalism. She was really very good about answering my questions, returning phone calls, e-mails, and keeping the piercing fees stable. I've made arrangements before with other piercers that would increase their fees at whim, wouldn't return phone calls, and wouldn't return phone calls even to confirm appointments when I was flying in from out of state.
Well, the day came when I flew down from San Francisco to LA to get my transcrotal piercing done. To be quite honest, even after having eight apadravyas done several years ago, I was kind of nervous. I never went through so much trouble to get a body piercing. Just to get a piercing done, I researched the procedure, arranged time off of work, bought plane tickets, rented a car, and reserved hotel rooms
Locating Cynthia's piercing studio was easy. I've been to LA several times before. It's just a stone's throw from Disneyland. I found her storefront and walked up a flight of steps and found her waiting for me at the door.
Preparing for the transcrotal procedure was a bit more anxiety promoting than any other piercing I've had. As she was setting up the tools, she asked again if I was prepared to go through the procedure. She described the process and mentioned several times that it wasn't a piercing but a form of cosmetic surgery. The main difference being that she is not just using a scalpel to create a hole, but there will be actual suturing involved in the procedure. The procedure was going to be long and painful because it was going to be done with out anesthetics.
After about half an hour of chatting, she agreed that I was ready and I dropped my pants and she started to place her marks to decide on where the piercing was going to be situated. As she was trying to clamp the scrotal sac, she noticed that she was having a lot of trouble getting the clamps in place. Apparently, my scrotal ladder was keeping the clamps from sitting flatly on the region to be pierced. Unfortunately, we decided that all of the rungs in the scrotal ladder had to be removed.
As she continued with her various attempts to secure the clamps on my scrotum, she kept on laughing. She playfully tugged on my scrotum to encourage it to descend further down. A couple moments later she made the comment: "Oh look at that. It happens all the time. Every time when I attempt to pierce a man's scrotum it always retracts upwards." I laughed and said: "Well... you know it's rather cold in here with my pants off. She rebutted by looking at me with that wonderful smile of hers.
The moment finally came, she asked again "Are you ready?" I nodded. She then said:" Start taking your deep breaths." I got a little nervous when I saw her pick up that 4-gauge needle. In an instant, the needle went through. Hardly painful at all, but that was only the beginning of the procedure. There was more to follow.
After the 4-gauge needle was pushed through, she started to stretch the piercing with a 2-gauge taper. Now it started to get a bit painful as she alternated between clamping, stretching, and scalpeling. She noticed that there was a bit more bleeding than she preferred, and started to use the electric cauterizer.
Using the electric cauterizer raised the level of pain several notches up. The cauterizer made an unusual sound. It sounded like an electric arc welder in use. It made that strange crackling-buzzing sound that electrical appliances make just before they short out. Cynthia was very good at preparing me for the pain involved in using the cauterizer. She first turned down the machine to the lower setting. She then applied the tip of the cauterizer to my skin to see if I could manage that level of pain. As I continued to say yes, she kept on cranking up the power setting until it was at a useable power level where the cauterizer was able to cauterize and stop the bleeding. The cauterizer was definitely painful. As the cauterizer was applied, it felt like someone taking a blowtorch and briefly passing it over the freshly sliced tissue.
After the hole was enlarged, the next step was to suture the edges of the incision together. According to Cynthia, this was the most difficult part of the procedure. The difficulty was due to the size of the hole. She said that she would normally prefer the hole to be at least half an inch in diameter. Creating a hole at only 4-gauge made it more of a challenge in setting up the clamps to suture around the edges of the hole together. What made it painful during this part of the procedure was that in order to position the suturing needle properly, she had to alternate between clamping and using the insertion tapers. This part took the longest. I'd say between thirty and forty minutes. By this time, I was already starting to sweat and feel my tolerance for the procedure starting to fade.
Then finally it was over. I saw Cynthia reach for the cup holding the sterilized Teflon barbell. It was a site that brought much relief to me. The end was near. Inserting the jewelry was not more painful than any other time.
After cleaning up the blood from the around piercing and the table, she pointed out the ends of the sutures and where all the stitches where situated. Later, she explained how they could be removed.
Once the jewelry was in, I was ready to stand up. Cynthia had me stand in front of a mirror to see how the piercing looked. She also tugged on the stitches to make sure that they were sewn in securely. Then suddenly we both look down on the floor as we saw that I was still bleeding and dripping on the floor. To deal with the extra bleeding, she smiled and said that I could use "sanitary napkins" along with a jock strap. It would help to keep my underwear from getting soaked with blood. She made a few jokes about how now I know how a woman feels about having a period every month. I rebutted by saying:"If I had extra napkins to spare, I guess it wouldn't be too cool to ask Mom if she wanted them huh?
After care
After leaving the piercing studio, I noticed that I was walking bow legged. My scrotum definitely felt heavy, swollen, and aching as though someone stuck a pipe through it. Nevertheless, it was such a relief to know that the piercing procedure was over. I felt rather exhausted and went over to the local Jack In the Box to have lunch. After having lunch, I felt much better. I was still worried though and wondering if the piercing was still bleeding. To calm myself, I quickly checked into one of the local motels and got undressed to check out the piercing. About and hour and a half had passed since I left Cynthia's piercing studio. My scrotum was definitely swollen. The bleeding had stopped already. Around the back of the piercing, I could see that a red ring of jelly-like blood had coagulated around one end of the post. In the front of the piercing, a larger puddle of blood had coagulated forming a red jelly donut over the white Teflon ball. Everything looked okay and decided to head over to Disneyland for the rest of the day
In realizing the potential for a serious infection, I followed the aftercare instructions explicitly. I showered twice a day and washed down the entire area and the piercing with the "Provon" soap. I rinsed the piercing occasionally with a bottle of sterile saline from time to time. As Cynthia pointed out, it was important when washing the piercing to also slide the Teflon bar back and forth to clean out all the dried fluids discharged from the wound. To ensure that I wasn't scratching the interior of the piercing with the crusty-dried-on fluids, after soaping up the piercing with the Provon soap, I waited a couple minutes to make sure that all the dried fluids had softened and washed off.
I was amazed with how fast the piercing was healing. The swelling went down noticeably day after day. The sensitivity or residual pain also went away quickly. During the first week though, I had a lot of trouble sleeping. I noticed it was incredibly difficult sleep on my side because it would require me to close my legs together and press my thighs against my still sensitive scrotum. To solve this problem, I found it easier to tuck a pillow between my legs to keep my thighs from pressing against the scrotum.
After about a week after the piercing was performed, there was little or no discomfort to be felt. The only thing that did raise some concern was the way the Teflon bar seemed to drag and not slide when I was cleaning the piercing. I was worried because in previous experiences, when a piece of jewelry started to drag as oppose to slide when being cleaned, it was the first indication that the piercing was infected. The usual course of symptoms would be that the jewelry wouldn't slide. Later, one could clearly see that the tissue around the piecing was inflamed. A few days later, it would start to get painful and then it would start to ooze pus and blood. Luckily, the sensation of the Teflon bar dragging was simply the nature of the jewelry itself. Even though Teflon is often thought of as being slick and slippery, it tends to drag along skin while stainless steel easily slides in and out. My concerns quickly evaporated as the piercing rapidly healed. While cleaning the piercing everyday, I noticed it became easier and easier to slide the Teflon bar back and forth.
Two weeks after the piercings, there's no discomfort at all. It doesn't feel as though I had anything done. The stitches came out with out any trouble. The amount of fluid discharged has nearly disappeared. When I look at the piercing, I can clearly see where the "new skin" has grown around the piercing. It's amazing, the "new skin" is not even pink. It's the same color as the surrounding tissue. My four-gauge stainless steel permanent jewelry should be ready in about a week or so. Even though it looks well healed, I think I'll wait a bit longer. Just to be on the safe side, I may wait a month just to make sure that the piercing is truly healed and has had a chance to "toughen up." I was told that the four-gauge barbell is significantly heavier than the Teflon barbell.
Now that it is essentially all over, if I were asked the question:"Would I do it again?" My reply would be:"May be not tomorrow. But next month-- sure."