***NOTE: The following experience contains a detailed description of a self-done, non-professional piercing. It is not intended to be a guide, nor an endorsement for you to pierce yourself; if you choose to do your own piercing(s), you are accepting all responsibility. You know the dangers, and it's your decision.***
At A Glance Author wren Contact paradamus@hotmail.com When A year ago About a year and a half ago, I decided that I was going to pierce my navel for no real reason other than that I had never seen a male with a belly button piercing. I went to order the jewelry and needles online; I got a few packs of 5 needles of various gauges so that I wouldn't have to buy any more for awhile (in theory). I received the needles and such without a problem. I was waiting for my lip piercing to heal (I have a little rule that I can only have one piercing healing at a time so that I don't go overboard and do like 12 in one day. This doesn't count play piercings); once that healed, I would be ready.
So, my lip healed, and I was ready to do the navel, but I suddenly changed my mind and decided to pierce my foreskin instead. I have no idea why. At the time, I'd never heard of that particular piercing before, and to my knowledge, it was a completely new idea. After doing it, I learned its history, the proper way to do it, etc., but at the time, I had no idea.
For preparation, I took a bath to soften the skin and get clean. I got out, dried off, and meditated (I'm admittedly very silly with piercings; I view them as a whole spiritual experience, so getting in the right mindset beforehand is very important to me). I went to my room, got the needle and jewelry (a 14g needle and a 14g 3/8" CBR), some iodine, a fine-point sharpie, some rubbing alcohol, two small bowls, a plate, a washcloth, and a towel to sit on. I went back into the bathroom, poured a little rubbing alcohol into each bowl, and put the jewelry in one of them. I washed my hands in the rubbing alcohol, opened the needle's package, and put the needle in the other bowl. I let them both sit, then took them out and put them on the plate. I then took the washcloth, dabbed a little rubbing alcohol onto it, and swabbed my penis with it. Wow, it was a really weird feeling! Somewhere between a burning and a numbness; hard to describe. Not unpleasant in and of itself, but I don't think I'll ever do it just for fun. Anyway, once that was done, I examined my penis really closely, looking for veins, etc. I'd already decided to do it on the right side of the top, if that makes sense; it would be a diagonal across the top of my penis from the exact opposite side. I had the ring and was moving it around, trying to find a good place for it. Once I found one, I marked it with the sharpie and stretched my foreskin out enough to make the dot an oval; it was a little painful, but I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to be piercing through something that I obviously shouldn't be. After examining the area very closely and seeing no veins or anything obvious, I decided to go ahead and do it.
I looked around, made sure everything was within easy reach, and took the needle in one hand and my penis in the other. At this point, my heart was hammering and I was pretty nervous, so I took a deep breath, centered myself, and "went for it", then realized that I had no idea how I was going to hold everything. After a little experimenting, I decided that I was going to need to grab my foreskin between my thumb and forefinger on my left hand and pull it backward, so that my thumb was anchored on the outside of the foreskin while the forefinger was pulling the "inner" part up. It was a little awkward, but I lined everything up and got ready to pierce. My usual practice is to kind of "anchor" the needle, then go through; this means stick the needle a very little ways in, breathe in, then pierce on the exhale. This is a good way of getting everything lined up and straight. Anyway, I went to do this: I anchored it by pushing it in a little (this doesn't generally hurt at all), then realized that it was already most of the way through. The foreskin was so thin that by anchoring it, I'd basically pierced it, so I just needed to finish. I took a breath and pushed. I didn't push hard because it was already most of the way through, but that was stupid; the needle didn't budge, and it hurt. A lot. I took another breath, pushed harder, and that was it; the needle was through. The pain was extremely brief, and it wasn't much worse than someone biting or pinching the foreskin.
I put the jewelry in very carefully because the foreskin is two separate pieces of skin, and if the holes aren't aligned right, it'd be a pain in the ass finding them. Putting the jewelry in wasn't a problem at all, so I popped the bead on the ring, got some sea salt, dissolved it in warm water, poured it over the new piercing, and went to bed.
In the middle of that night, while I was sleeping, I got a hard-on, and I immediately sat bolt upright, then doubled over. The hard-on was stretching the brand-new piercing, and it hurt a lot. The problem is, as much as I don't like it, pain does get me off; I know this sounds strange (not the pain getting me off part, but the two combined); it's just the way I am. So...after awhile (I don't know how long it was, but it felt like a very long while), the hard-on went away, and I went back to sleep.
That sort of thing turned out to be a regular occurrence throughout the entire healing period, and it took 3 months (practically to the day) to heal. Now that it's done and healed...was it worth it? Definitely. It enhances sex as well as just the everyday hard-ons. It rubs against the head of the penis in a really great way, and I can't imagine life without it at this point. If you have foreskin, I'd definitely recommend you pierce it. It's an extremely easy one to do yourself; I'd recommend getting navel clamps or something, but as long as you look carefully for veins, it shouldn't be any problem.
And in case you were wondering...the navel did get pierced as well, but that's a different story for a different day.