Many of the experiences I've read here concentrate their description on the act of piercing. Those that I find more interesting are the ones that give a brief history of the piercing experiences to date followed by the new piercing experience itself, but then follow up with description of the success, or failure, of the final outcome, in other words what the post-healing feelings, reactions and sensations are like.
At A Glance Author Chas Contact Chas@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Sally at Shades Studio Shades Location Dunstable, UK Therefore this experience includes a historical introduction, a description of the piercing and a report of how it's worked for me.
Readers should also be aware that my pleasure from being pierced is in the long term, that is post-healing sensations, not in the endorphin rush of the act of piercing. So you will find that I'm one of those (wimps?) who makes full use of pain suppressants.
I am 61 years old, circumcised and since about 1998 I've had a PA that can take a 5mm gauge ring. This was the only surviving piercing from a sequence that has in the past included a guiche, a frenum and an apadravya. For those who are interested in historical trivia, the guiche was too uncomfortable whether sitting or standing and playing with it during love making didn't enhance the pleasure at all; the frenum migrated out; and the apadravya closed up when I removed the bar one evening for all of 30 minutes.
These piercings were prompted in large measure by reading other's experiences in BME and have been reported here in the early part of this millenium. Continued reading and also questions from people who found out I have been pierced along the lines of "are you going to get anything else?" lead me to the decision to have a dolphin, based on the existing PA.
This account is the first part of my Dolphin piercing experience and the reason why it's in two parts will become apparent as you read on.
Anyway, once the decision was taken I must confess I didn't act on it very quickly. The first step was to try and contact the piercer, Dave, who'd done my PA and other piercings, but I found that his practice had been taken over by a lady, Sally, and that she had relocated to a different part of town. As an aside, Sally told me that Dave had died in a motorcycle accident, a sad loss for the local community.
I made contact with Sally and asked if she'd every pierced a dolphin. I appreciated her honesty when she said that she hadn't. She also asked me what I meant by a dolphin, so I explained the piercing and we discussed how she would do it and what sort of jewellery would be best. The 'how' was fairly easy to agree, but we both suffered from ignorance when it came to the jewellery shape. The outcome was that I agreed to contact Breed 316, a UK piercing jewellery supplier I'd used in the past, and she'd do some research with colleagues and the internet about the best way to pierce it.
The advice from Breed 316 was to have a barbell shaped rather like a staple, but with a slightly curved back, made from 2.5mm stainless steel and fitted with a ball each end. During a phone call we agreed that I'd pick a size, draw it up, send the drawing to them and they'd make it up and post it to me.
The final measurements were: distance between the two uprights of 25mm, and the uprights 5mm long. One upright fitted with a 5mm ball, the other with an 8mm ball. The larger ball is for the existing PA hole.
Having the barbell in my possession meant the moment of truth was approaching, but I selected a date that would fit in with other arrangements that had been made, like attending a wedding and visiting family and friends for three weeks.
A few days before the event I met Sally to give her the barbell for autoclaving and to collect a small tube of topical anaesthetic, Ametop, which is made by Smith & Nephew and contains amethocane.
Monday, 23 May, Day One - the day of the piercing
10:45 applied local anaesthetic and, following the instructions, did not rub it in but wrapped it in kitchen film (Clingfilm TM).
11:20 walked to meet Sally at her studio.
11:30 met her and discussed the final details, saw the barbell removed from the autoclave, which is reassuring.
11:35 got ready, trousers and underpants off.
Sally checked the barbell against the existing PA hole and marked the dolphin's other exit point.
11:40 piercing needle inserted through PA hole and passed down urethra, which I could feel but it wasn't uncomfortable
11:42 new hole pierced, I felt nothing (thinks: thank you Smith & Nephew)
The tube covering the needle passed through the new hole and the needle is withdrawn. Barbell end inserted in the end of the tube and then drawn through so it's in place.
11:44 barbell balls attached, so all done.
There was some bleeding which lasted about five minutes and then subsided. Then I sat up and the bleeding restarted. This lasted another five minutes. Then I got dressed, and after discussion of healing time (two to four weeks), aftercare, and my providing payment and thanks, I walked home (10 minutes) without discomfort.
13:00 first pee, which was painless, but the bleeding started again. This lasted about five minutes. The numbing of the anaesthetic is starting to wear off now, but the Smith & Nephew paperwork suggest it could last for 4 to 6 hours.
Throughout the afternoon it bled intermittently, but by 21:00 it appears to have stopped. Having telephoned Sally and discussed the bleeding we concluded it was because I was walking about, whereas sitting or lying down would have been better.
21:00 all numbness has gone and there's nothing significant in the way of pain, just a slight tenderness.
So, so far so good.
Twice during the night I was woken by the discomfort of an erection. In case of further bleeding, I had gone to bed with underpants on and the barbell got caught in the cloth and pulled, so it was hardly surprising I woke up!
Day Two - the first day after
No discomfort, certainly no pain, when peeing and no problems of bleeding. Cleaned up the remains of bleeding from yesterday evening and it looks fine - no visible inflammation or bruising, which I would have thought should be showing by now if it was going to happen.
Day Three
Slight tenderness today but no bleeding.
Not woken by any discomfort of an erection.
Day Four
Everything is clean and comfortable so, knowing it was probably going to be a bad move, I give it a 'test run'. Because of the necessity of not gripping too near the new piercing it was not noticeably different. But by mid-afternoon it started to swell around the newly pierced hole and be tender.
Day Five
Called Sally and went to get advice about the swelling and tenderness. Her advice was to exchange the balls as the smaller, 5mm, ball was getting drawn into the newly pierced hole. I agreed with her advice and she changed them for me. As the swollen area was rather tender this wasn't a pleasant experience. But I was reassured when she said she'd seen much much worse problems illustrated and described on various websites. She'd also just seen a customer with a two-day old tongue piercing, who complained of continuous nausea. Sally described her as "large, very large, actually she's bloody enormous", and concluded that it was the reduced intake of food that was causing the problem so suggested many cups of tepid soup during the day - "but I want steak and fries". Sally's response was that she could either endure the soup diet for three or four more days and keep the piercing, or have the steak. Exit grumpy customer, muttering darkly that "it's not right"!
Day Ten
If the problems are caused by the 'test run' on Day Four then that was definitely a bad, bad move on my part. I have being suffering with swelling and tenderness all around the site of the piercing. The swelling tends to subside over night, but reappears during the day and with it the tenderness increases. Standing and walking are better than sitting, from the point of view of tenderness, but I think they aggravate the swelling. Also, my sleep has been disturbed every night since Day Four, not by an erection, but by the tenderness.
I've decided to see how things progress until Monday, which will be Day Fifteen, and if there is still tenderness and especially if there's still swelling, then I'll contact Sally for discussion and advice about a course of action.
Day Twelve
Things haven't been any better, in fact they have been getting worse, so I saw Sally today rather than on Day Fifteen as planned. After much discussion we decided she should change the curved barbell for a straight bar. We reached this decision because we both feel that the barbell is moving around too much and it's that which is aggravating the healing process. Sally changed the barbell for a bar, which was a painful experience and we agreed I'd be in contact on Monday (Day Fifteen) when she would change the bar for a large diameter ring (BCR).
Day Fifteen
After a fairly, wretchedly painful few days I saw Sally this morning. I had come to the conclusion that I should probably have her remove the bar, that we should let everything calm down and heal, and then we will start again, probably after two or three months to get past all the planned events of the summer - a son getting married, vacations, etc. After looking at the swelling, Sally agreed that this was the proper thing to do. We also discussed whether I should get a different barbell to use. It was agreed that I'd discuss the choice of design and material with Breed 316 and get their input into the discussion.
So for the time being I have no new piercing.
What happened next will be a separate entry under the title "Dolphin - the sequel".