Well, for quite some time now I have had an interest in body piercing and I had thought about eventually getting some piercings, but I had never really researched the topic at all until a friend of mine had just recently told me about BME. It wasn't long until I had a fairly good knowledge of all the different piercings. Also, I had decided that it was time for me to get something pierced as well. For some time I had possessed a particular fascination with genital piercings, so I had figured those would probably be a rather interesting starting point. So I looked at many pictures, and read numerous experiences before finally settling on what I had wanted.
At A Glance Author Dave Contact Dave@bme.anon Artist Me Studio Home Location Brooklyn, NY I knew beforehand that whatever it was I had wanted pierced, I wanted to be the one performing the piercing. It's not that I had nowhere to get pierced, because I live in NYC and there are plenty of reputable piercing shops within walking distance of me, but I had long felt that part of the actual experience of getting pierced was if you could perform it on yourself. It is my belief that having a piercing done is, among many other things, a sort of display of strength and control. After all, having a hole poked through your body is not something everybody does, and especially having a hole poked through something like your penis requires, what I consider to be, at least a certain degree of will power. And so I think that if you are the one who is actually poking the hole, then you are exercising that power over yourself to an ever greater degree.
However, since my experience with piercing was at this point non-existent, I had decided that it would be best to go with a piercing that would be considered relatively painless. And so I settled on the frenum: not only did many accounts report it as being painless (I couldn't believe that having a hole put through your penis could be painless) but inspection told me that the skin in the area was fairly thin and probably easily penetrable; additionally, I just liked the look of it. So it was settled, I was going to pierce my own frenum!
I got some 12ga piercing needles and a 12ga 5/8" barbell from a friend of mine who works in a piercing shop. I got out my hydrogen peroxide, some sterile gauze pads (best thing I have for placing supplies on), and some bacitracin zinc ointment. I then took a shower so that I would be clean for the piercing. Once I was out and dry I decided it was time to get to work.
Once I figured out where exactly the placement of the piercing would be, I took the needle out of its packaging and brought it to my penis. I took a deep breath and decided that I might as well go for it. I began to push with the needle, and found that it did not hurt at all at first. I also decided that I would go slowly just out of interest to feel how the needle penetrates all the different layers of skin. I continued to push and wondered why I still felt nothing, since it seemed that the needle already went somewhere. I looked back at the place of my initial insertion and found, to my surprise, that the needle was already through the skin. I thought this was great and figured that everyone who said it didn't hurt at all must have been correct. Slowly, I continued to push the needle the skin. It was very interesting when I began to see a small steel point sticking out through the skin.
All of a sudden something very unexpected had happened. My head began to spin and I started feeling very faint. I realised my arms were shaking terribly, and I had no clue how I was going to go through with the piercing. I tried to push a bit more, but I was no longer able to keep my arms steady, and to top it all off, I was no longer seeing anything clearly at all. Not only this, but I thought that if I don't lie down within minutes I was probably going to pass out. I felt very disappointed, but I knew there was nothing else I can do, so I removed the needle, struggled to wash my wound with some anti-bacterial soap, and went to lie down. I felt nauseous and probably more sick than I had ever felt before in my life. I immediately fell asleep afterwards. Later that day I told my friend what had happened and he asked me if I had eaten prior to piercing myself. I felt very stupid: I hadn't eaten anything all day! At least I no longer had need to be worried that something was wrong with me. Still, I was determined to pierce my own frenum, so I decided to wait some time until the wound healed, and then to start over.
One week later there was hardly a trace of what happened earlier, so I decided to try everything once more. This time I had made sure to eat a good meal an hour prior to my deed. So I got everything out again, and got down to work. This time starting was not nearly as difficult because I already knew that it wasn't going to hurt. I decided, however, that I was going to try to go even slower though, because I really wanted to feel everything as the needle went through. Regardless, once again I saw the needle peeking through on the other side. Now the needle's point was through, but here was the hard part. I was no longer able to push the needle through with the same minimal amount of pressure that I used before. I had to push hard, and here it did hurt more than I had expected, though certainly not a lot. I would say that the feeling can almost be comparable to having a needle in your arm for a blood test—really not much more painful at all!—though slightly more unpleasant. Well, getting the needle through entirely was definitely the hardest part of the job, but after applying a bit of bacitracin zinc on both sides, it went through rather smoothly. I then took some more ointment to lube up the barbell, and I followed the needle right through with it. It was a rather simple, easy, and absolutely painless process. Hehe, this time no faintness or nausea! I screwed on the ball, washed the piercing for the first time, and I instantly fell in love with it.
I knew that I was going to do more frenums, as well as other piercings on myself. Eventually I went on to do another frenum on myself (this time the process was even easier, and completely painless, because I realised that the pain is all really based on my perceptions), my nipples, and multiple ear piercings—all without any complications. I plan to do more piercings on myself with time. And soon I hope to take some piercing seminars (possibly at Gotham since it's close) and some more training, and I would like to become a piercer. Piercing is a passion of mine that I would really like to explore much further. Who knows, perhaps some day in the near future I'll be sending in suspension accounts, as well as pictures, because it is something I would like to do eventually. Well, that's all for now!
–Dave
P.S. To all you teenagers that think can just go ahead and pierce yourselves: do lots of research first, and make sure you have some clue as to what you're doing!