If you've read any of my other experiences, you'll know that by the end of June 1999 I was the proud owner of 19 piercings; 9 ear, 2 horizontal nipple (one of which has since retired), 1 vertical nipple, 2 navel, 1 PA, 1 lorum, 2 hafadas and a guiche.
At A Glance Author GothPaul When Five years ago Artist Lee Studio Artline Location Bedford, UK In my experience, if you can find an artist/studio you trust, stick with them as long as the trust lasts; your experiences will tend to be much happier and less traumatic.
I had enjoyed a good relationship with my original piercers (Paul, Jan and Jim at 'Paul's Tattoo Studio'), but Jim always seemed to be the most competent somehow. Don't get me wrong, Paul and Jan are in NO WAY incompetent, quite the reverse in fact. I simply had more trust in Jim, so when he left 'Paul's' to set up, with another piercer called Lee, as 'Artline' in mid 1998, I followed.
Sometime around Xmas of 1999, Lee decided that the studio needed to move to better premises, closer to town; I think Jim disagreed, so Lee bought him out, 'Artline' moved to a little shop in the town centre and I followed.
In early 2000, I lost my job and piercings went on the back burner for a while. August 2000 I was employed again and began thinking about what work to have done next. I had an idea that I wanted some more genital work, but was at a loss as to what/where (everywhere down there seemed to be full!).
Lee suggested a 'Jacob's Ladder', which I had never heard of at the time, but when he described a line of piercings running down the underside of my penis, from just below the glans all the way down the shaft and scrotum to the guiche (basically a combination frenum/scrotum ladder) I was sold. In addition, mine would be the only one in Bedford at that time and, it would virtually double my piercing count in one fell swoop, which made it even more attractive!
Lee and I were both busy for a while (he building his customer base and sorting out the studio, and I settling into my new job and getting used to commuting 20 miles each way every day) so we couldn't schedule the work immediately and I had to wait.
A Thursday evening in early October 2000, Lee agreed to open the studio for me at 7:30 pm (when I got back from work) and, when I arrived, I found Lee and his receptionist/apprentice (a youngish girl whose name I can no longer remember) waiting for me.
I signed the disclaimer and we agreed the terms for the project; the ladder was to comprise 15 piercings, done in two sittings (8 then and the remaining 7 a couple of weeks later to allow some healing), using 1.2mm (16G) x 6mm straight barbells. The price quoted was £100 for the whole project or £6.66 per piercing, Bargain! I almost laughed when Lee said that because the piercings were so quick and easy to do, he wouldn't feel right charging for each one individually!
We moved through to the piercing room and Lee asked if I'd mind if his apprentice watched.
I've noticed that the more genital piercings you have, the less embarrassing it gets to show your tackle to anybody; I'll now get mine out at the drop of a pant! This seems to be true for most guys; I remember one night at the local rock club when 10 of us lined up on the dance floor and got our PA's out for a girl, simply because it was her hen night and she'd never seen one before!
Anyway, I said Lee's apprentice was more than welcome to watch and, dropping my pants, sat in the chair.
Lee was very businesslike, got a pair of gloves on and got straight to work, cleaning the area and marking dots. He was going to start at the top and install 8 bars, the first just below my glans and the last just above my lorum.
The marking complete, he asked my opinion, and when I approved the placement, he checked that I was OK and applied the clamp to the first one.
"Ready?"
I closed my eyes and nodded.
There was a slight pinch as the needle went through, then I felt the clamp being released and repositioned and Lee asked if I was OK.
Looking down, I saw that Lee had done the first piercing, removed the needle, but left the cannula in place without fitting the jewellery. I commented on this and, as he was positioning for the second pierce, he explained that, because the piercings were quite close together, he would do them all and then fit all the jewellery. This would mean that he could clamp around the flexible cannulae rather than solid bars.
The clamp was now in place on the second set of marks and Lee again asked if I was ready.
This time (and for the rest of the procedure) I nodded, but didn't close my eyes; I was intrigued and decided to watch.
The pinch was slightly harder as the second needle went through (the pain seemed to come as the needle exited rather than at entry, which I thought was interesting)
Lee again asked if I was OK before moving on to the next pair of marks.
This process was repeated another six times, with the pain getting more intense with each successive pierce until, as the last needle went through, I actually groaned.
My penis looked a bit like a porcupine at this point, with 8 cannulae embedded in the skin. There was, at this point very little blood, just a slight staining over the whole area.
Lee stood up and stretched before changing his gloves and picking up the first of the barbells.
As I said earlier, the jewellery was 1.2mm (16G) x 6mm barbells. Lee had some problems with the insertions; the tiny bars went in easily, but tiny bars have tiny balls (guessing about 2.5mm diameter) and the piercings were pretty closely packed together, so we had several fumbles and had to retrieve more than 1 tiny ball from my pubes.
Eventually, the bars were all in place and Lee wrapped a kitchen towel around my penis and told me I could get dressed.
I offered to pay, but he declined, saying that I could pay for it all when it was finished. We then scheduled a follow-up appointment for two weeks later and I was on my way.
Two weeks of trouble free (sea salt twice daily, normal soap in the shower and otherwise LITFA) healing and I was back. Again Lee had reopened the studio at 7:30 pm on a Thursday for me and he and the receptionist (wish I could remember her name!) were waiting for me when I arrived.
Lee asked how it had been so far and I replied that it was fine, no problems at all.
We immediately adjourned to the piercing room and I got naked and sat down.
These seven pierces went pretty much exactly the same as the first eight; progressively more painful from first to last and struggle to screw the balls on. Lee had decided to space this set of bars more widely apart than the first set, but even so they still only reached to the midpoint of my scrotum (the bit that is parallel with the ground when I stand up) rather than all the way to my guiche as originally planned, but I was happy with that (As I've said, I have never actually seen my guiche, so I'm glad I can see all of my ladder.)
All in all, it looked (and still looks) spectacular.
I paid him, tipping an extra £20 and left to begin my aftercare.
Healing so many, small gauge piercings at once was 'interesting'!
We decided to do the piercings at 1.2mm in the hope that smaller holes would heal quicker and we could successfully fit more into a smaller space. Neither of these assumptions proved to be true.
The length of the bars (6mm) combined with the size of the balls (2.5mm) and the density of the piercings (approx 3mm apart in places) resulted in all sorts of complications. Several of the balls were repeatedly pulled/pushed into the piercings, splitting and stretching the holes. Cleaning was also quite tricky and the balls, because they were in contact with each other, had a tendency to unscrew, which resulted in my losing at least 6 balls over the next 6 weeks (I'll never forget the plink-plink-plink-plop of the first one falling into a urinal at work!)
So, with one thing and another, healing was not really going terribly well, until I decided to swap all of the bars for 1.6mm (14G) x 8mm CBRs. This was done by myself, over the course of about three hours of pain, sweat and a little bit of blood on New Year's Eve 2000. (I upsized my PA from 2.4mm (10G) up to a 4mm (6G) x 22mm CBR at the same time) From that point on everything has gone fine and the healing completed without further complications.
The problems during the first few weeks, with balls being pulled into piercings, have resulted in a few of the holes merging on one side (three rings each go in to a separate hole, but they all come out of the same large one). This is not an issue for me, as the piercings are functional as well as decorative and the merged holes are only apparent when there is no jewellery in them.
Do I regret it? No, not in the slightest; it was, and remains, my most unique and favourite set of piercings. If I didn't like it, I would have retired it long before now.
Would I have done it differently with hindsight? Yes, definitely, but, as I've said before, you live and learn.
My advice to anybody contemplating this type of ladder?
1. Start at least 1.6mm (14G). You'll avoid at least 1 unpleasant stretch, a lot of fiddly tiny jewellery, and it'll heal better.
2. If you want lots of bars close together, get them done in at least 2 sets, the first set pierced twice as far apart as you want them to end up, then, when the first set have healed, put the second set into the gaps between them. This should avoid the hole splitting issues I had and should make them easier to clean.
If I'd learnt these lessons the first time, my next experience wouldn't be about another ladder. However...
Enjoy