The self-made Prince

At A Glance Author anonymous Artist myself Studio self Location Daytona Beach, FL

I don't know what drew me to it, because most of the people I know completely hate the whole thought of putting needles through anything other than ears. When I got my nipple pierced a couple of years ago, everyone who found out looked at me like I was psychotic, and tried to figure out how someone so "normal" like me would take an interest in something like that. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing that I have shocked the hell out of someone by doing something unpredictable, when I'm usually relatively predictable.

So that's partly why I wanted to go for a PA. Naturally, this isn't something that is going to be as widely known, however, those who will know about it don't think I have the balls to go through with it. Boy, are they going to be surprised!

Those of you who read this, who are knowledgeable about piercing will be quite disappointed in me for doing the piercing the way I did. I fully admit that I'm stupid for doing it this way, especially since there is practically a body piercing shop on every corner in some parts of Daytona, but I was a little too self-conscious about having someone do it for me. People always say that Mr. Happy tends to play turtle when they're getting ready for a PA piercing, but I had a bad feeling that this would not be the case for me, and I didn't want to find out the hard way. So I bought a 10G piercing needle about a year ago when I really got serious about wanting to get a PA, thinking I would just get the needle and do it myself. I am aware of the sterilization issues, and I had a bottle of betadine from my nipple piercing (the piercer provided it in a piercing care package) so I am relatively satisfied that this will be sufficient.

The experience started two days ago. I had a little time to myself in the afternoon between classes so I got my needle out, cleaned it up, and started inspecting to see where would be the best placement for the piercing. A little prodding helped me to determine a small area, in a good position, where the skin didn't seem too sensitive. I was able to put a lot of pressure on the needle without feeling too much. Unsure of how it would feel though, I had myself convinced that I needed to take it slowly. Eventually, I got to the point where the skin finally broke open under the pressure of the needle point, and WOW did it hurt!!! My reflex reaction was to pull the needle away before I could even start swearing!

The pain subsided within a minute, but the area was tender and bleeding quite a bit. As it turns out, I had only just barely broken the surface of the outer layer of skin, and there would be a long way to go. I decided that I had made progress, but I didn't think I could get finished before my class, so I cleaned up, and stopped for the day.

The rest of that night, I hardly knew I had done anything to myself. There was no pain and only minor sensitivity if I touched the area. The next day, yesterday, I spent the whole day thinking about whether I could keep going through further, or not. I didn't feel like going anywhere last night, so once my roommate had left, I dragged out the instruments again, and went through the same process. Here's where I started getting really stupid. I realize that you're not supposed to use the same needle again, even in a case like this one, but I made sure I used plenty of betadine and got the needle perfectly clean again. I started putting the same pressure on the same area, and to my surprise, it didn't feel any worse than it had the day before. I spent the next hour and a half, working the needle through slowly, millimeter by millimeter, as I was able to generate tolerance for the pain. I know as well as anyone else reading this, that the best way to do it is to just get the needle through as fast and straight as possible. However, I don't have the kind of pain threshold that would allow me to do that to myself, which is another reason why I didn't want someone else doing this to me. I know that once they started, they would not be able to react to the pain. In retrospect, that's probably a good thing, because I ended up spending almost three hours in the bathroom last night, slowly working the needle through.

I had a small drinking straw that I thought I could use as a receiving tube, however, the edge of the straw was too uncomfortable inside my urethra, so I never did leave it in while the piercing was taking place. Eventually it got to the point where I could see a slight shimmer of metal showing through the skin from the inside of my urethra. I had built up enough tolerance for the pain by this time that I was able to work the needle so that the point of it started showing through. From there, the worst was over... all skin that needed to be broken was broken, and it was just a matter of getting the full diameter of the 10G needle to finally make its way through. With a little more working the needle finally went through.

At this point I started getting a little worried, though, because I had come this far, and now that the needle was showing through in equal amounts on each side, which really looked quite awesome, I was having a hard time getting it to move through the hole any more. I had some antibiotic creme that I was planning to apply after all was said and done, so I used that around the remainder of the needle, and managed to get it moving again. Alright, all that was left was the placement of the jewelry. I had a rather large diameter, 10G ring with a big bead on it, that I estimated to be the best choice for the initial jewelry, so I made sure it was sterile and proceeded to attempt to insert the ring. Still the needle was quite difficult to move, however, I again figured that if I had already endured this much, it should be nothing for me to go ahead and put some pressure on the ring and needle, and it would eventually move into place. The next thing I knew, the needle slid through, and the ring followed it, and sure enough, I was the newest, proud owner of a self-made Prince Albert!!!

I cleaned the area up really well, applied some more antibiotic, wrapped it up with some toilet paper, and covered it with a condom. I slept well last night, my first night with the new jewelry. There was virtually no discomfort when I woke up, and very little blood loss during the night. I have since had a shower and as I type this now, it is clean and painless, and the feeling from the weight added by the big CBR is out of this world! I am so excited that I have managed to do this myself, and at the same time, mad that it took me this long to get the balls to do it. Only a fraction of the PA experiences on BME are bad ones, and that fraction just got smaller! It is early for me to say this, but at this point, I highly recommend a PA for anyone out there who thinks they might like it and can't make up their mind, just don't do it the way I did it. I can only imagine what it's going to be like when I finally get to take this thing for a test ride!!!