At A Glance
Author	lancehimself
Contact	lancehimself@hotmail.com
When	A year ago
Artist	myself

My names Lance and I have been Piercing about

a year now. I started my apprenticeship at a shop here in town. I learned a lot at that shop and moved on. My experience took place while I was apprenticing at the first shop. Being an apprentice it's hard at times to find people to do certain piercings on. Well after sitting around one day talking to the piercer we had a conversation that more or less was about trying things out on yourself.

I have always been an avid believer that professionals know what they're talking about on how to take care of things, aftercare and all that. Now I know why that saying is "do as I say not as I do." This is the horror that ensued.

My journey started when I decided I wanted to pierce my dydoes. If any of you don't know what that is check out the encyclopedia section of BME. I've always wanted some sort of genital piercing but never wanted anyone to do it, well now that I am learning this trade what better way to learn then do it on myself. After researching and just basic knowledge I learned so far I went for it one night at home in my bathroom. I gathered my supplies and scrubbed the hell out of my bathroom to do this in a clean area.

Now that everything is cleaned down. I laid out some paper towels to set out my gear. Water based lube, jewelry, sterilized needles, paper towels, gloves and a marking pen. The piercer I started learning from did most of everything free hand so I had no clamps.

Building up my nerve I went to the kitchen to get me a soda just to keep my blood sugar level up. My girlfriend at the time was in my room as I was locked in the bathroom. I locked her out cause she can't stand the site of blood. And from what I've read and heard, if things go wrong it's a mess. Now the nervousness is kicking in I mean for Christ's sake I am about to stick myself with a needle.

I begin by marking the area, where ill be entering and exiting with the needle, cleaning the area to be pierced with a beta dine solution. Once I've done al this I change my gloves grab my needle and cork. Here we go. As the needle goes through the first markings I follow through with my barbell. No problem at all. Barley bled. Looks good.

Now for the second, knowing what im in for im a little bit more nervous then before. The needles in and I start to follow through with the barbell. Well I lost the connection. And if you pierce you know how aggravating that is. After a minute or so trying to get it back in the needle hanging halfway out and since its hollow the blood starts shooting out.

Well I have to do something quick and I pull out the barbell. The blood shoots out the other side as well. I pull the needle and grab a 16-gauge barbell I put there in case of something like this. I put that in. get it in and put the bead on. I call for my girlfriend to grab me more paper towels. She hands me them through the door I wont let her in cause it looked like a crime scene. I lost a good pint of blood and almost a trip to the hospital. I sat there for a little while till the color came back in my face.

Since I had smaller jewelry in a bigger piercing it was still bleeding and as sore as it was I had to manage to get the 14g barbell in and I did. I got the bleeding to stop and took a ton of Advil. I cleaned up everything. I was proud of my little experiment. I got to the shop the next day. Told and showed the piercer what I did. We talked about how I did it step by step. He gave me criticism and advice. I told him the horror movie scene I had going on. He started laughing at me. I asked him what was so funny and he told me he pretty much had the same problem.

They healed nice. Eventually I switched to curved barbells, they were way more comfortable. They started to grow out. I had to part with them. I wish I had clamps looking back now and I know what not to do for future reference. I learned that when people say it's a bad idea, or go to a professional, its because they've done it. Id rather stress myself out learning on myself then putting a customer at risk. So if you ever want to try something extreme make sure you do your homework. Cause if I didn't think fast enough I would have been going to the E.R.