I actually got my Prince Albert piercing many moons ago, by Ed at Chrome Inc in Cardiff, Wales. Well, when I say many moons ago, I'd say that it was probably around five years ago. The piercing went very smoothly. I must say that there was some minor discomfort as the 2.4mm needle was slid up the urethra. The piercing itself was the usual short sharp sting that by the time you've registered the pain, the piercing's over with. No great hardship and certainly not worth the stigma genital piercings have regarding pain issues.
At A Glance Author Dreadlocksmile Contact Dreadlocksmile@bme.anon IAM Dreadlocksmile When A week ago Artist Dreadlocksmile Studio At Home Location Cardiff, Wales Over the ensuing weeks the healing process was quick but somewhat painful. Every time I went to urinate over the first few days, it felt like I was passing razor blades through my penis. The more concentrated the urine was, the more the piercing seemed to sting. I won't pretend to know why this is, but I certainly stand by these findings. So now I was in a bit of a dilemma. The more liquid I drank the less painful it was to urinate, but then the more I drank the more I needed to urinate. I soon found the happy medium that kept the need to take a leak to a minimal whilst keeping the concentration of urine to a reasonably low concentration. It also didn't help that I have a bladder that's the size of a peanut!
Soon enough though, the stinging pain disappeared and the piercing seemed to heal within a couple of weeks. During this period I cleaned the piercing on a regular basis of twice a day with luke warm salty water. Obviously each time I took a leak, the urine would be cleaning the piercing for me as well which is a added bonus for this type of piercing.
A few years passed by with me being very happy with the piercing apart from the occasional dripping when urinating. This at first proved very awkward, with the main stream of piss firing forward in its usual way, whilst a constant dripping occurred from the underside of the piercing's BCR. At first I would lean right into urinals so it would catch both lines of piss, but over time I learnt to adjust my foreskin to minimalise this problem.
After some further time had passed by, I decided to stretch up my Prince Albert piercing, so I purchased myself a 3.2mm BCR to exchange for the 2.4mm one currently in there. I applied a thin layer of vaseline to the new BCR and carefully made the swap. The stretching went very smoothly indeed, giving no resistance at all to the thicker jewellery. At the time I didn't have any stretching tapers, so I simply slipped the new ring in to stretch it up.
Afterwards there was absolutely no aching or soreness that sometimes goes along with a newly stretched up piercing. The new jewellery seemed to cut down the amount of dripping that occurred when urinating which was a nice added bonus. I'm not quite sure why a thicker ring helped this, but it did.
After a month or so I decided to try and stretch the piercing up again to accommodate a 4mm BCR now. A similar procedure ensued, with me lubricating up the new thicker jewellery and then slipping it into the piercing. Surprisingly the stretching up was remarkably easy once again, offering little resistance to the thicker ring. There was a slight aching afterwards for a day or so, but this was expected and it was nothing too harsh.
By now I was ever so slightly addicted to stretching up my Prince Albert, so I ordered a 5mm BCR at the same size as the previous ones. The new 5mm ring soon arrived through the post and I waited a further few weeks until a month had finally passed between stretchings.
With the month gone by, I removed the BCR from the piercing, lubricated the new thicker ring as before and tried to slip it in to the piercing hole. No such luck! I applied some more lubrication to the ring and attempted to slowly squeeze the jewellery through the hole, but alas, it was having none of it.
Slightly disheartened by this first failed attempt, I put the old 4mm BCR back in and decided that I was obviously trying to stretch it up too quickly. I surmised that the first few easy stretches were probably down to the fact that the piercing was a good few years old before I had tried to stretch it up, so the flesh was probably quite flexible by now.
I left it for another month or so and then tried to try to stretch it in the same way again. Alas, I still could not push the 5mm ring through, however much I tried to force it (which is definitely not recommended). By now I was getting a little frustrated with the whole thing.
I once again left the piercing alone for another few months, by which time I had invested in a set of stretching tapers. With the new tapers in hand, I applied a mountain of lubrication to the taper and the ring itself and tried the stretch it up again. The taper slipped halfway through then would not budge even with a reasonable force behind it (again, this was stupid of me as forcing stretching is really not a good idea).
Defeated once again, I slipped the old 4mm BCR back in and left it alone.
During the following few weeks I was stretching up my right ear lobe from 24mm to 26mm using layers of electrical tape forming a temporary 'in between' size to help the stretching process. As I slipped the new 26mm flesh tunnel in, I pondered whether I could accommodate a similar approach to stretching up my pesky Prince Albert.
I soon put my idea in to action, and with the 4mm BCR removed, I wrapped around a couple of layers of electrical tape to the ring's diameter. Using a measuring gauge I checked that the new thickness was approximately half way between the two sizes (now 4.5mm) and squeezed the slightly thickened out ring into the piercing hole.
Even though the new addition of the electrical tape only brought the jewellery thickness up an extra half a millimetre, getting the ring back in was still somewhat of a difficult mission. I wasn't entirely sure if this was going to work out or not, as the tape will obviously have to endure a flow of urine over it time and time again during this 'in between' stretching stage. With the tape merely secured to the BCR with its own glue, I thought that there might me a good chance that it would gradually unravel itself. By now though I really wanted to get the piercing stretched up, so I decided that 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' and proceeded with the plan.
After three days had passed by, I decided that I really should remove the taped up ring and see if I could finally replace it with the 5mm BCR I had been hanging on to for so long. This wasn't down to impatience, but more due to the fact that the taped jewellery probably wasn't the most hygienic of ideas for stretching up a Prince Albert. However tight you wind the tape around itself, microbes and germs will still be able to find their way between the gaps and breed in this newly found home. With this thought in mind, I wanted to finish the stretching quite quickly.
So out came the taped up 4mm ring and then somewhat apprehensively, I started to slide in the lubricated stretching taper followed by the 5mm ring. Success! The new thicker BCR slipped in nicely with very little effort at all and the most minimal of aching afterwards.
Now it's been a few days since the stretching and the piercing is still fine. I will be waiting a good couple of months now before I contemplate a further stretching up again. I'm hoping the next stretch will go fine without having to use any tape for an in between size.
So, that was my experience at stretching up my Prince Albert to 5mm. Even though it worked successfully for me, I still would not recommend to anyone the use of electrical tape to stretch up this piercing. The edges of the tape can become rough and cut at the delicate flesh inside your urethra, the glue that holds the tape down can irritate the piercing, and the small gaps underneath and between the tape edges can harbour some horrible microbes and germs that could breed there and cause a terrible infection.
All in all it wasn't the smartest idea I have ever come up with, but now that it's done and it all luckily worked out for me, I'm a damn happy man.
If you want to see some photos of the final stages of this stretching process, then take a look at my diary pages located on my IAM page (a link can be found at the top of this page). The final stretching took place on the 8th September 2007, so you will need to locate that date to see the photos. The same photos have also been placed on BME under the Prince Albert piercing section.
All the best...
Dreadlocksmile