Ampallang in NYC

At A Glance Author charles Artist Bee Studio AllSouls Location Manhattan

I am a corporate lawyer on Wall Street . What does body modification mean to a corporate lawyer? I remember a few years ago, it was the summer of 1997 I guess, as I was leaving my office, a TV crew in the street (NBC? CBS?) was looking for corporate types with tattoos and piercings for a program they were putting together.

I discovered piercings soon after I moved to the US from my native country, France. The first piercings picture I saw were in a brochure by Gauntlet. I felt I wanted to try. I went to Gauntlet and had my left nipple pierced. I thought that would be it, but a few months later I felt the urge to experiment a genital piercing. In the meantime I had relocated to Indianapolis. The only piercing shop available there -in the Early Nineties- was Body Accents. I asked for an ampallang, but they did not performed it. So I settled for a frenum. Frenum is a most useless piecing, and I removed it the day after. On the occasion of a visit to NY (it was December 1995) I went back to Gauntlet in NY, determined to obtain my ampallang. Mick was an apprentice there at that time. Being cheap, I could not pass the chance to get a piercing for $15, plus I liked Mich, he seemend trustworthy. So there I was, with Mich laboring under the vigilant eye of Denise, Master Piercer.

To be very honest, for the first time in a piercing context, I was worried. You know, the piercing looks so deep, so much tissue is involved. I thought: What am I doing? Would a person in his right mind do such a thing to his john? Mick saw my worried expression and conforted me. He said it was not going to be so bad. But I will alsways remenber how Denise was holding my hand as I was sitting on the chair with Mick doing the preparative work on me! Not only Denise was being kind and supportive to me , but she was also directing Mick with precision and competence, which made me feel great. \

Oucch! Ampallang is a mostly painful piercing, not as much during the piercing process, but especially in the following few days. It did not bleed right away, but it bled copioulsy overnight. THe tissue I was wearing wrapped around got soaked.

Moreover, it is very impractical, especially for a non-circumcised european like me. Bottom line: I removed it after a week.

I removed my nipple piercing during a vacation with my inlaws and then the hole closed.

Flash forward: january 1997. Finally I got a great genital piercing, the PA. Ruth at Gauntlet did it, great job she did. It is a really neat piercing in terms of stimulation. The only problem: my then girlfriend (now wife) did not like it. Bottom line: a few months later I had to remove my beloved PA. End of my story with genital piercing. I miss the PA a lot, maybe some day I will get it back. But I could not just give piercing up, you know, being a corporate laywer...it is that I just get an immense kick from my little secret. We live in sad times, when we can rebel only by inserting pieces of metal into our bodies, because the possibility of a true rebellion has long been taken away from us! Or hasn't it?

So last year I re-did the left nipple by myself. Two weeks ago I felt the urge to get the right nipple pierced as well. So I went to the fantastic place called All Souls in the Upper West Side. I had been there before for a couple of tatoos by Will. This time Bee, one of the owners, took care of my right nipple. The nipple seems an easy piercing, but in reality the tissue is pretty tough, so it is hard to do it by yourself. I guess I could re-do my left one because it had been done before, so the tissue must have remained sort of soft.

So now I really feel almost complete. I plan to re-pierce both of my nipples and form a sort of cross. The only problem is that they cannot show through the white shirt that I usually wear in the office, can you imagine a client inquiring about the bulges on my chest from below the shirt. It would be a shame. Therefore, i need a pretty unconspicous piece of jewlery, perhaps some mini-stud. But, if I could, I woild get the PA back any day, because of its fantastic stimulation, its comfort, even for a non-circumcised person, and its look. I only have to convince my wife at this point. Please Patricia!

charles