My own guiche

After all the pros and cons, I went for the guiche. I figured it was in something of an out-of-the-way place for the first one, and if I found I didn't like it, was easy to just take out.

After seeing an ad that someone would be in town to do piercings, I went to the leather shop that was mentioned and plucked down my money to get an appointment. (This WAS, after all, back in the dark ages of the 1980's when there were no places doing piercings on the east coast. One waited until Guantlet did one of their 'tours' and stopped in places to spend a day doing piercings.)

At the same time, I was asked to pick out the ring I wanted. They pretty much suggessted a ring that was fairly small, 14 ga, and was gold. I choked at the cost, but said 'ok' and decided I'd take it.

After waiting for two weeks, the Saturday came and it was time to finally have it done. I was really waiting with anticipation and also, to be blunt, nervous as hell. I went down to the shop about 30 minutes and found I wasn't the only one there that day. There was literally a line of between 20 and 30 people. I told them I was there and got my place in line after being told they were running a little behind. After about 30 minutes, it would still be at least an hour before it was my turn. I decided to calm the nerves and made a trip the the bar a couple doors down. (A double scotch was perfect, I thought.!)

I had my courage... I mean my drink... and went back. It was almost my turn!! When they finally said 'next' and pointed to me, I went into the back room. I was the 'ususual one' for the day. Of all the people who'd been in, nips were the only thing that had been done so far. I was basically told to strip from the waist down and get on my hands and knees, as the marking and piecing would be done from behind to correctly position it while things were hanging loose. (Talk about one hell of an embarrassing position, especially in the open back room of a shop.) While I was getting ready, I was also told about the guiche retainer that would be used initially instead of the jewelry.

By know, I'd been marked and felt the clamp come down on the scrotum. As I was asked if I was ready, I said 'yes' and started to say something else when I felt 'yeow'!... then realized it wasn't as bad as I'd expected. (I didn't head that 'yeow' at all that I'd let out.) Before I knew it, the retainer was in, I felt the head as the end of the filament line was 'melted' to keep it in place, and told 'that's it... you're done'. I got back up in a more familiar upright stance, pulled up the sac, and saw the retainer in place. I think my ownly thought was 'FANTASTIC!!!!!!'.

I got my instructions on cleaning and healing, etc, and took off, probably with some really strange smile on my face.

The guiche REALLY takes a LONG time to heal, as I'd been warned. However, there were a couple things I learned along the way that might be helpful to anyone getting one:

1. No matter how much you try, the damn thing keeps moving around. That can lead to some irritation and lengthen the healing time. I found out that if one VERY loosely put one of those tiny band aids in the area, it kept the movement down. Keep it loose so air moves... but just enough to keep it from moving too much or getting caught on anything.
2. Discovering the above, I figured out it would be MUCH easier to shave right around the area of the piercing BEFORE having it done. Every time I changed that small band aid, I'd rip out a little more hair.
3. Check things out first and don't put the jewelry in too soon. I had the gold in, probably a bit early. And to be honest, the gold itself probably wasn't a good idea. No matter how much I thought things were healing, I always found a way to irritate it.

If you want one... go for it! I may do one again, but so many other things to do first, like tattoo's for one. Then maybe I'll go back and try again.