I've been thinking abut getting a pair of hafadas for quite a while now, initially I thought maybe I would go to my piercer and get them pierced at say 1.6mm or 2.4mm and stretch them up, because I like both the look and feel of larger gauge jewellery.
At A Glance Author Jonn Contact T_O_P_G@hotmail.com IAM theNOTHING When A week ago Artist Me Studio In my bedroom Location Cwmbran, South Wales It never occurred to me when I initially had the idea that I would end up doing the piercings on myself.
Anyhow, to give the story a bit of history I should probably talk about my experience piercing myself. It all started about 4 years ago, about a year or so after I started to 'collect' piercings. Initially it was just a bit of a party trick, I'd be at a barbecue and to freak people out I'd stick some safety pins through my arm. Anyway last July I started doing amateur piercing/freak shows and so I started piercing myself with needles, just play piercing at first but then I tried a few permanent piercings.
Well, to get back on track, I have in my possession quite a large amount of large gauge (3mm) needle blades from some stunt that never ended up in a show. When the idea first struck me that I could try piercing the hafadas myself I at once decided I didn't want to pierce them at 1.6mm and have to wait all that time to start stretching them up. I had read in the past that some people like to pierce with a large needle then follow through with a stretching taper and, after reading up on the procedure, I decided it was the one for me.
The day I decided that I was going to do them I took 4 of the needle blades to my local piercer to be autoclaved. Even though I was only doing 2 piercings I decided that getting some extra needles sterilised would be a good idea in case I dropped one or something else untoward happened. I also got Se@n (my piercer) to autoclave his 4mm taper and he agreed to let me borrow it overnight.
Because he didn't have another 4mm taper I had to wait till the end of the day to borrow the taper just in case someone came in and wanted stretching. Thankfully no one did and I got home around about 6pm and set everything aside because I had some other work to do and I didn't want my parents to call me or come knock on my door halfway through.
I spent most of the evening researching any information I could find on the procedure and for photos that I could use for reference. I eventually found a photo of piercings in the same sort of place that I wanted after trawling the vastness of bme's vaults for hours and I had a good idea of what I was doing and, at about 4:30 am I was ready to begin.
I borrowed my mum's digital camera to capture the moment from downstairs then went into my bedroom, locked the door and started to set up everything I would need. I set down a towel on my bed in case there was a lot of blood, put some KY out onto a piece of kitchen towel and got my needles, taper, gloves, alcohol wipes, and jewellery (which I'd also had autoclaved that day) spread out ready. Now I was completely ready I opened one of the needle blades and one of the segment rings and the taper and prepared myself.
I cleaned off the left side of my testes sack, dipped the needle into the KY and prepared myself then pushed the needle through. It took a little while being a larger gauge made it somewhat harder to push through. When the needle popped through I felt a tight pinch and then nothing, no pain, evidently my endorphins had kicked in at this point.
Next came the bit I had my reservations about, the taper. I needn't have worried though, with a bit of KY it slid through easily. However here is where I came across a slight problem, the rings wouldn't locate to the taper! I ended up having to put the taper back through to reopen the hole, but thankfully still no pain. After 2 or 3 attempts it became evident the rings weren't going to go through, they were segment rings and had a flat edge, luckily I had a couple of 4mm labret in a baggy on my desk. They hadn't been autoclaved but with a testicular sack that was starting to bleed quite a bit I figured I had no other choice, so I cleaned them thoroughly as best I could with the alcohol wipes and again tried to locate it to the taper, with a little difficulty and some force I got it in on the second attempt then cleaned it up and got myself prepared for the second piercing.
This one was slightly harder as it was on the right side and I'm right handed so I had to twist my body and testes around to get in a good position. Again I cleaned up, lubed up and prepared. It took longer than the left had to get the needle through but again, with a pop it went through. It was also slightly more painful. This time I didn't even try the segment ring I went straight for the labret, located it to the taper and with a little difficulty and a LOT of force it went through on the third attempt.
After cleaning up and tidying up all the used needles and paraphernalia I started to wonder why it had been so hard to locate the jewellery but being tired and somewhat drained I retired to my bed. The next day I went down to the piercing studio eager to show off my new piercings to Se@n and question why the jewellery had been so hard to get in. On quickly measuring the taper the reason became evident, Se@n had accidentally picked up the 3.5mm taper not the 4mm! But like they say, no harm no foul and I was far too happy with my new piercings to be mad with him.
If there is anyone who is considering the large needle and taper method for piercing I would definitely recommend it, however self piercing may not be for every one and i warn you to be careful. Read up on what you plan to do and gather as much information about it as you can. Speaking to a professional piercer that you know well is also a good idea. Other than that just make sure that everything is sterile as with anything else and use your common sense, and of course make sure you have the right size taper!