I've been afraid of needles most of my life. Up until I got my first piercing—my eyebrow—I could never watch something going into my skin. Getting shots at the doctors' office was a chore; I would tell the doctor or nurse to not tell me what they were doing knowing that it would only make the situation more difficult.
At A Glance Author Justin Contact Justin@bme.anon When A week ago Artist me Studio my bathroom More recently, though, I have grown quite fond of piercings. I thought a simple eyebrow ring would look cool and as luck would have it, the local piercing parlor advertised a special for $25 piercings. One day between classes, I talked to a friend and we both decided to pay the place a visit (it really was that spur of the moment). He went first. I went after. There really wasn't anything to be afraid of. The piercer told me to take a deep breath in, and release it when he said so. I had an eyebrow ring. It was that easy.
Secretly, I've always thought genital piercings were hot—but until I got my eyebrow ring, I never thought they were for me. I was wrong. I had to get one. No offense to the piercer who did my eyebrow, but I didn't really want a big guy covered in tattoos to be handling my dick. In my head I figured that every piercer would look like him, making the entire thing less appealing.
That's when I decided to do it myself.
After browsing around BMEZine, I decided that the easiest piercing I could pull off myself would be a frenum piercing. Being uncircumcised, it just seemed like it'd work out well. I read over every story I could find involving self genital piercing, every article I could find in the Wiki, and every question I thought related to my situation on the QOD although I didn't use all the advice when it came down to doing it. Not just to push the party line, but following the advice that's given on this site is a good idea. An even better idea is to get your piercings done professionally by someone who takes all the proper precautions and has experience doing this sort of thing.
I bought a "piercing kit" which included a sterile 12 gauge needle and "holders" (forceps) and an extra sterile 12 gauge needle (I figured I'd fuck something up with the first one, although what I could fuck up and still continue. . . I don't know). Waiting for my stuff to arrive was painful. I wanted to get this done.
When everything arrived, I was ready to start.
In retrospect, I should have done a better job with prepping things before piercing. The needles were sterile and individually wrapped. The jewelry however wasn't guaranteed sterile. I really should have cleaned the jewelry better—boiling it or using a stronger disinfectant—but I just washed it as best I could with antibacterial soap. To prepare my dick, I scrubbed it down as good as possible using the antibacterial soap, which may or may not be adequate. I lubed the end of the needle up with a bit of soap to help it go through.
Originally I was going to mark where I was going to pierce and use the forceps to hold things for me, but I just didn't see it as necessary. I pulled my foreskin back as far as it could go. I used one hand to keep my foreskin back while pulling my frenulum out as far as possible while I handled the needle with the other hand. I centered the needle exactly where I wanted it to go through, and waited a second. I pushed the needle in and almost thought that it was done but only part of the tip of the needle was through. It didn't hurt at all at that point. Then I had to push the rest of the needle through my frenulum—pushing the part of the needle through that's not at its full width was the most painful part of the experience—and that wasn't bad at all. Once the needle was through the skin and at its full width, it was easy to continue. I pushed the needle and followed it through with the barbell. Easy as cake.
The only problem in this entire experience was getting the ball on the end of the barbell. I just couldn't get the threading into the ball and tighten it on. I fiddled with it for way to long, and eventually some blood trickled out onto my fingers. It wasn't enough blood to worry about, but it added some urgency to finishing up my piercing project. Soon after, I got the ball on, cleaned up my dick, and cleaned up the area.
It's been about a week and a half since I pierced myself, and things seem to be going along fine. The area was never very sore or sensitive, with the exception of when something was pressing firmly on the piercing (like getting morning wood against the bed). Those situations have been easy to avoid. It might be too early to tell how this will turn out in the long run, but overall, I'm very pleased with it. In a few weeks, I plan on stretching it out to 10 gauge barbell. After that, I might continue to go larger; I'll make that decision when I see the new jewelry and fear setting off metal detectors in airports—but I definitely have some time before that's the case.