Ever since I got my meatotomy in April of 2002, I've missed my PA. I used the PA as an anchor point for cutting to prevent regrowth and it served the purpose quite well. This summer, I plan on extending my meatotomy to a partial subincision, and figured that the best way to do that since subs are even more prone to re-growth is to get another PA to cut to.
At A Glance Author CT Contact crazyted@crazyted.com IAM CT When It just happened Artist Ryan Studio Precision Body Arts Location Nashua, New Hampshire The plan was simple – I was going to pretty much do the same thing that I did for my previous PA – pierce at 6g and then stretch immediately to 4g. It worked really well the first time and I figured that I couldn't go wrong this time around. I contacted Ryan at Precision Body Arts in Nashua, New Hampshire. I had the pleasure of him punching my cartilage this summer at the First Annual Boston Tattoo Convention and I've been very impressed with his work ever since. We talked about the details; mainly being the jewelry selection and the procedure and then worked it all out with our schedules.
This past weekend, my friend Brianna and I took the ride up to Nashua to the shop. We walked into the shop around 1:30 for my appointment at 2:00. Ryan was there and waiting and we took care of the formalities first – I filled out the consent form and he photocopied my license. We talked a bit and I took a good look around the shop since this was the first time I'd been in it.
Ryan had a bit more setting up to do and I decided it'd be a good idea to go to the bathroom right before the procedure because I didn't want to have to pee right afterwards or have to when I was in the car on the way back to Boston. I wrapped things up and he finished his setup and into the booth I went. I handed my camera to Brianna. After a moment it was time to get to business and I pulled down my pants a bit and got up on the table. Ryan placed a bib over my crotch with a hole in it so that only the area being pierced was exposed. I've never been overly shy, so I never thought about it, but I can definitely see how it'd make a lot of people more comfortable if they're overly nervous.
He took his time carefully marking and asking how I felt about placement. We settled on the second mark and then proceeded with the actual procedure. He swabbed me up and then inserted the receiving tube (which is generally the most uncomfortable part of PA procedures and was for both of mine). It was a bit stingy, but not what you'd call "painful". Once everything was in place I told him my general routine and that he should pierce on the second exhale. I started centering myself, took my breaths and on the second exhale he pierced. It was a sharp pinch that only lasted a quick moment. I felt him remove the receiving tube and that only the needle remained. I took a couple more deep breaths and then he was ready with the taper. Two more sets of breaths and he slid the taper through and then followed through with the jewelry. The taper didn't really hurt per se. The best way to describe the sensation is that of a tight pressure that builds up but never actually gets to "pain" .
At that point, Ryan put on the balls to the circular barbell and I let him take some pictures for his portfolio.
When I got home I really had to pee – which is when the real fun started to happen. Now, with my first PA, I barely bled. I wish I could say the same for this one. When I removed the glove and gauze there was a bit of blood. Nothing major or alarming. Though after I peed, the bleeding didn't really want to stop. So all I could really do is wrap it up again and hope that it'd slow down over time. I know that peeing can very easily remove clots, but there's only so much you can do when nature calls. I made a point to sit down and do nothing for a while and then I had to make the walk to the pharmacy to get more gauze and some surgical tape. When I made it back the glove that I was using to keep the gauze in and blood off of my clothes had blood pooling in the fingertips.
I removed the glove and the gauze that was on the barbell was an absolute bloody mess. Yum! The only way I could think of "cleanly" taking care of things was to get I the shower and slowly remove the gross gauze and clean up in there. After a while the blood slowed down and I wrapped myself up again and placed the glove back on so that I didn't bleed through my clothes. Shortly afterwards I went to bed and did everything that I could to not move at all during sleep. When I woke up, I noticed that I barely bled at all compared to the night before.
That whole next day was a lot better and even though I had to work, the bleeding was stemming off. By that evening, I was able to go without the glove and just keep a bit of gauze for safety.
Having both a PA and a deep PA I've noticed some considerable differences and similarities. The sensation of the piercing was relatively the same. I was pierced by two different people but the same procedure – pierce at 6g and stretch to 4g. In regular PAs, this tends to stem the blood quite a bit due to the spongy tissue whereas further down the shaft it doesn't really help at all. I was hoping that the tapering would help the bleeding as well, but it didn't seem to be too big of a contributing factor in keeping it down.
I really enjoyed my first PA and when I cut my meatotomy I missed it a lot. I'm quite pleased that I have the deep PA now and I just have to make sure I take it easy for the next week and let everything clot up and heal properly. I'm not foreseeing any major problems now that the bleeding has pretty much stopped. Just like my first PA, I'm definitely glad I went with a large gauge at first since I know I'll be stretching to at least 00g and then using it as an anchor point for extending my meat.