About three months ago I got my first piercing, an 8g frenum and I absolutely love it. You can find that experience here Thinking about a Frenum piercing? if you'd like to read it.
At A Glance Author sydplay IAM sydplay When A week ago Artist Seth Cameron Studio (pro-gress) Body Piercing Location Raleigh, NC This experience started last Monday night at about 10:30. I went to the bathroom and when I looked down I was shocked to see the frenum barbell was gone. I was like, "How the hell did that happen." I did find the barbell and bead and felt relieved until I tried to put it back in. I had changed barbells in this piercing quite a few times before and it had been really easy to do.
This time I could not get it back in. I tried both sides dozens of times, dozens of ways and it would not come close to going back in. Now I was freaking out a bit. It was too late to get hold of my piercing shop so I went to IAM. Nobody was around, nobody. There are 4-5 BME Verified Piercers that I've chatted with several times before but this night none of them were online. I have a great friend that worked in a piercing shop for years and has had a ton of piercings strawberry (Claudia) but she lives in Italy so it was like 4:00 in the morning her time.
I'm new to piercing so I didn't know what to do and it was so incredibly frustrating to not be able to talk to anyone about it. I was extremely bummed out...I love that piercing and I couldn't accept losing it to an accident. If it rejected I could accept that but not because it fell out and for some reason I never even felt it.
Looking back now I know when it fell out. I exercise regularly including hiking 20-25 miles per week. About a month ago I got two new scrotal piercings and since they're still healing it is common to get a few uncomfortable pinches as I exercise. It's no big deal; I just make an adjustment and keep going. Monday night I went for a hike at 6:00 and now I remember feeling a weird pinch at the beginning of the hike but I thought it was just one of the scrotals. Now I know the bead fell off the left side and the pain/pinch I was feeling was the barbell sliding out the right side as I was walking. Of course as soon as the barbell fell completely out the pain disappeared and I thought nothing of it. It was about four hours before I found it had fallen out which is why I could not get the barbell back in.
I went to bed pissed off and bummed out. I assumed I would have to wait a while and get it re-pierced. That thought pissed me off. This was my first piercing and I did not want it re-done and I did not want to wait months to get it re-done...I wanted the original!
When I woke up in the morning I went to IAM and got a message from strawberry (Claudia) and she said, "Wait, don't give up hope!" I told her that by this time it was closed up and it was hard and scab-like at each end. She said if it had been nearly three months there still had to be an opening left. It was hours before any piercing shops were open so she suggested that a knitting needle was a similar shape to a taper and might get it back open until I could get to a shop.
So off to the craft store I went for knitting needles. Somehow I don't think the lady at the counter had any idea where those needles were going and thinking about that made me laugh for the first time in a while. strawberry (Claudia) suggested I soak in a hot tub for a while to loosen things up before I tried to put the needle in. That worked great, the ends of the piercing that had hardened up quickly softened up. I cleaned the knitting needle and put some Vaseline on it to help it slide in. With a good bit of work I was able to get the knitting needle through. There was some minor pain as it stretched through but not too bad. The problem was the knitting needle did not have the proper shape on either end to be able to follow an 8g barbell through. I tried a ton of times but it just won't go back in. At least I knew it was savable.
By the time I was done with that I got a message from micro-wave (Steve) from my piercing shop. He is a BME Verified Piercer but his shop is about an hour and a half away. He told me the piercing should still be savable but I might have to drop a size or two and slowly stretch my way back up to 8g. He said he knew a great piercer near my town that he trusted completely and recommended, Seth at Pro-gress Body Piercing in Raleigh, NC. I called the shop and got Seth right away. He said he was teaching classes for N.C. State at his shop but he could see me at 6:00 that night.
So I got to the shop pretty relaxed because I new I could save my original piercing. We chatted for a few minutes and he told me a few stories of the times he lost some of his own jewelry from piercings. I told him that I wanted to take it back to 8g if that was possible. He did warn me that while a Frenum piercing is a very low pain piercing stretching a Frenum tended to be quite painful. I said, "Let's go for it" but I did not expect what was about to happen.
He first started with a 10g taper with a dramatic taper and very small tip, it was a bit painful but not too bad. If you've read any of my other stuff you know I'm into some pretty extreme CBT and I am not a stranger to genital pain and I generally like it. Then he used an 8g taper with a long gradual taper in the hopes of less trauma/tearing.
He told me to take a couple of deep breaths in and out and then he started the taper. Inside my head I heard the following..."hey that kind of hurts, man that really hurts, holy shit that hurts" and I then uncontrollably let out a "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck," at which point Seth said, "Okay why don't we stop there for a minute." I remember thinking "Stop here, we're not done?" As I said before, I like pain and have never said anything out loud during any of my piercings but man that hurt like hell.
Seth was trying to be nice and said, "Okay only one more push to go." Of course even in my minor state of shock I knew the bigger part of the taper was yet to come. I took about ten deep breaths and said, "okay" and Seth started again. My brain was absolutely screaming at me. I have done testicle skewering and elastrator banding and as painful as those are this exceeded them greatly. I held out as long as I could but had to let out another "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck," not yelling but just letting off some pain.
By this time I was a little dizzy and was just lying there thinking, "How the hell could this be so painful?" Seth said, "Okay we just have to get the jewelry in" and at this point I was like, yeah, whatever, get it over with. It hurt like hell but at that point I didn't care anymore.
He finished and said, "You alright?" I just laughed a bit and said, "Yeah, at least it's back in!" I got up and put my clothes back on and Seth said, "I've got to tell you, that's going to hurt tonight." Then I was laughing inside because piercers usually say, it will be fine, so if he's telling me it's going to hurt...well he knew it was already hurting. The piercings I've gotten were all minor pain and no pain afterward but not this stretching.
I paid and gladly tipped Seth, he was a total professional, awesome calm demeanor, very knowledgeable and I would recommend him to anyone. By the time I got to my car it felt like my dick was on fire and it stayed that way for the whole night. Ibuprofen and many glasses of vodka could not diminish the pain but I finally got to sleep around midnight.
When I woke up in the morning 75% of the pain was gone but there was a good bit of swelling and I expected that. By 2:00 that afternoon the swelling had grown quiet a bit including a ring of swelling all the way around my dick. micro-wave (Steve) would later tell me a friend of his calls that a "hot dog wrapped in donuts". It was a bit painful but I was not too worried.
By 9:00 that night the swelling was continuing to go up and the area was also getting to be a very dark red. I was starting to get a little nervous thinking, "Hey, this can't swell anymore can it? It just won't stop." I decided to give Seth a call and let him know what was happening. I wasn't too concerned but I realized the shop would be closing soon and I thought it would be smart to check-in.
We talked about the possible causes just to play everything safe. We were able to pretty much rule out infection because I had none of the signs of infection except for the swelling. It was a really cool phone call from my perspective because we just calmly talked everything through...it's the kind of conversation you'd like to be able to have with your doctor.
It was determined I had what is known as, "one very pissed-off pee-pee". To play it safe he left a number that I could call anytime that night if for any reason things got worse. Over the next three days the swelling went all the way down and by Sunday it looked back to normal. It's still a little sore a week later but my guess is another week or two and that will be gone.
I'm extremely thankful to know top-notch piercers like micro-wave (Steve) and Seth. Not just to get the piercing or procedure correct but also to be there after the procedure for whatever you need. I know there are lot's of great piercers out there and I also know there are some bad ones. Thanks to IAM I have contact with the good ones.
I'm also thankful to strawberry (Claudia) for being a great friend and motivating me to save my piercing when I had given up hope.
I have learned to check the beads for tightness a lot more often...that was a hell of a lot of pain to go through because I didn't before. I also keep a few tapers in my house now. If I would have had a taper the first time I found the jewelry was out I could have gotten it back in with minimal pain.
One of my friends asked me if I would do the same thing again if I knew it was going to be that painful...after some thought I said, "Yeah, I'm a stubborn son-of-a-bitch and I wanted the original piercing back at the original size." Maybe I'm a little crazy too.