A brief history of my scrotal piercing.
At A Glance Author Stephen DeToma Contact Stephen DeToma@bme.anon IAM Sacred When Ten years ago or more Artist Rob Smith Studio now closed Location Framingham, Ma My scrotal piercing began its existence as an idea. I remember seeing an old black and white photograph, possibly of Jim Ward, and I was struck by the piece that the model was wearing. A centered scrotal piercing, described to me as a perennial hafada, was at that moment the most impressive piercing and I decided to have it done.
So it came to be, like many other piercings before it, that the decision to have a piercing is generally rather quick, but the actual follow through tends to take a bit longer. It was roughly 7 years ago that I was actually able to have it done. I was working at a piercing studio, completing my apprenticeship and I had decided to have the piercing done as a kind of gift to myself.
I had, at this point, only been pierced with a 10g needle at the largest. I made the decision to have my hafada done with a 6g. I knew it was something I wanted to do, but I was terrified of the unknown. It's very similar to standing in line for a roller coaster, inching closer and closer to the cars, the whole way muttering under your breath "What the fuck am I doing, I don't want to do this", the whole time though, you know you want to do it. And immediately after the ride, you're glad you did.
Well, I was inching towards the roller coaster, though in this case, it was about to take the form of a long, black massage table. I mounted the table, stripped from the waist down and tried to steady my nerves for something completely new. The piercing went perfectly fine; the area was cleaned and marked (I left the placement to the discretion of a coworker who was performing the work) and I began doing deep breathing to help relax my body and mind. The piercing was quick and was more of a surprise to me than a sensation of pain. Adrenaline coursed through my body making me both warm and light headed, but not at all in a way that would make me want to pass out, simply more of a the calming warmth the washes over you like a good bourbon on an empty stomach. I sat up, refreshed, and saw what had been done. I was pleased.
And so, thus began the age of everyone seeing my new trophy. People wanted to see and I was always willing to show. I wore the 6g captive bead ring for several months and something curious happened; I found that as I was healing, I was also stretching. Within the first few months, I had stretched up to a 4g with relative ease. Having slowed the stretching of my ears, I was thrilled to have a new option.
I could go on for days about how and when I was stretched, but there are key elements in the history of this modification. While playing in a paintball tournament, I was wearing a 00g circular barbell; over the course of a 7 minute game, a ball managed to unscrew and the piercing slid out. Thus began the stretching and re-stretching of said piercing. Traveling a great deal through airports, I became nervous that a piece of steel in my body that was 7/16th of an inch thick would set off a metal detector. I began removing it before security check points and occasionally would get so busy that I would forget to put it back in. No matter what though, after it was a year old, I could take it out for months at a time, put a small piece back in and over the course of an afternoon on my feet, the weight would open the hole again, allowing a much larger piece to be worn.
The biggest piece I've ever worn in it has been a 5/8th hollow Pyrex plug. The weight was perfect but unfortunately, the length was simply a little too short, so I had to remove it. At times, the sides of the piercing would slip up and over the edges of the plug and the skin would become dry and irritated, shedding off dead skin. I currently wear a ½ circular barbell with an inside diameter of around 3/4. The weight of the steel allows the hole to remain between a 9/16 and a 5/8 so when I am able to find something that will fit me comfortably, I can re-stretch.
Day to day wear on a piece of jewelry this size and weight I wear can be somewhat awkward at times. Just the other night, I was on my way into a lounge for a drink when it occurred to me that I had forgotten my identification in the car. I sent my friends inside to get me a drink while I went back to the car for it. I began to jog and when I did, the piece, having significant weight, began to swing like a pendulum and came back and struck me directly in the nuts. Alone I stood on a street corner in Hollywood, kneeling down, holding my crotch all alone in the dark. What a sight that must have been. When I'm in bed, lying on my side allows the jewelry to hang down and take everything with it, not the most comfortable. Making love is also somewhat of an adventure, as I try and make sure that a large chunk of steel is not hitting my lady love with all the sensitivity of a ball peen hammer.
All in all, I love my hafada, scrotal piercing, whatever you wish to call it. Its been one of the most comfortable, versatile piercings that I've collected over the last 10 years. It's also become my signature piece, whenever someone doesn't know what to have pierced, the first thing I suggest is a 6g scrotal piercing. Well, to the boys that it.