Why the Hafada? For me I think this was a stepping stone. I am a fairly self conscious individual and I am not one to just get my genitals out in front of anyone. I don't even like taking my shirt off in front of a doctor. I had however made the effort and got my nipple pierced a few months earlier, which I quite liked and now wanted to explore my boundaries further. A Prince Albert was my intention, but this was too far for me to go and as such I opted for this to 'break the ice' into piercing in that region.
At A Glance Author Yorik Contact Yorik@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Mary-Ellen Studio Four Roses Location Adelaide, South Australia I live pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the Outback (slang for country) of Australia. This in itself presents more than one obstacle, firstly the nearest city is 1600kms (1000 miles away) and I do not trust the piercers here as they are basically backyarders, secondly it is really hot here and heavy sweating is an everyday occurrence so piercing placement must take into account the position for comfort, aesthetics and ease of aftercare.
On holidays from work, I travelled to Adelaide in South Australia (not the nearest city, but a city none the less) where I was partaking in a lot of my usual holiday activities- heavy drinking, long parties and jumping out of the occasional aeroplane. One morning after a somewhat hard night (long party, lots of drinking, some memory loss) I woke up feeling very sorry for myself with a thumping headache and my stomach churning away. I then realise that I had nothing planned for the day. This was bad, the idle mind is dangerous, "I am getting pierced" was the first thought into my pounding head, which was quickly followed by a few thumps of an ever increasing headache.
Now I did not take any painkillers for the headache as I did not want to thin my blood with the over the counter painkillers that I had as they contained aspirin. I really should have put it off until another day, but that would not be me and I needed something to do. I had this in mind and I was going to do it.
I drove into the city to a familiar Piercing Studio, Four Roses Piercing, which is located in the city centre, in Hindley Street above Four Roses Tattoo's. I parked in a car park a fair way off and proceeded to walk to the studio, some 4 cigarettes later I arrived, probably shouldn't have taken that long, at the time I blamed it on the hang over, but it really was fear I think. I walked upstairs into the secluded studio and spoke to the lady on the front counter, as I had it planned to get two procedures performed (the other was my right nipple) to which she said she could do the nipple, but the hafada would have to wait for another piercer in a few hours as she didn't do genital piercing. I got the nipple done straight away, which hurt due to my hang over (I believe) but this is another experience, which you should be able to find in the nipple experiences.
After the first procedure, I went for a walk for a few hours, tried to eat something, which wasn't working, mostly due to my hang over, but also my nerves were fairly high and I was quite frankly a little scared.
After the nominated time I went back to Four Roses for my hafada, I was pleased to see a familiar face in Mary-Ellen, the piercer who had done my left nipple some months earlier. After some paperwork we discussed positioning, this is where I wish I had done some research as I had only really considered positioning for the reasons mentioned above. I chose to get it horizontally placed at the bottom of the scrotum; this is mainly due to not wanting to have to worry about sweating or having it sit uncomfortably.
Then it was down with the pants and I was being marked up, surprisingly I was not too worried about this part, I was concerned earlier, but now I was more worried about the piercing, the nipple hurt earlier and I was not keen on too much more pain. After I was marked up, I moved onto the bench where I still felt a little nervous and was promptly told to stop clutching the table, which I was doing sub-consciously.
I will take this opportunity to give some advice, that I have learnt the hard way. I strongly advise NOT to get pierced when you are hung over or have been recently drinking. Alcohol does some weird things to your blood and can affect the process of clotting, also for some people sense such as pain are heightened while other senses are dulled. I will not and have not since been pierced whilst hung over.
The positioning of the instruments was a little hard for the piercer, understandably as the scrotum is just excess skin and it can not be the easiest to deal with. Once positioned I was told to breath in, I did, then breathe out, which I also did, but after the pain of the nipple some hours earlier I was pre braced for pain, and pleasantly to my surprise there was basically none, more like a little sting from an insect. The jewellery was inserted and we discussed aftercare, which was now double due to the nipple as well.
Aftercare was relatively simple, washed regularly with antibacterial soap (still to today I do this with all my piercings) and saline soaks a few times a day for the first few weeks. I did find it uncomfortable to sit down for the first few days as pressure would increase, so I stopped wearing jeans. Three days later I jumped out of plane, I just positioned the harness so I was safe and all was good. I have since changed the barbell out for CBR, I think it was good for the healing process but the CBR is better for a healed piercing. I have considered getting another up behind the penis, but I have since moved onto other genital piercings and have not had much thought put into it.