When I first started getting pierced five years ago, when I was fifteen, I started with a labret/lip ring piercing. I was warned that piercing was very addictive and that it would not be my last one. My thoughts at the time were completely opposite. I decided I would only get the one piercing, not even my ears would be next. The studio I went to gave me a buy ten get one free card. Five years later my card is completely full and I have been pierced sixteen times. However, I never imagined I would get a genital piercing until I moved to Canada.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Rick Studio Adorned Studios Location Calgary I moved to Calgary last fall ('01) to attend Alberta College of art and design. I became more and more interested in body modification through students at my school and just poking around bmezine.com. It was the first time I didn't have to worry about finding a job with piercings in my face. I had the freedom to adorn my body however I wanted! This is when I kind of started to kick around the idea of getting a genital piercing but I had no idea what I wanted to have done or who I could trust to do it. Then, through a great friend of mine who has also been getting into body modification, I heard about Adorned studio. He had learned about it through bmezine.com when looking around for a place that would perhaps perform a suspension. After talking to Rick Gilmore, the owner of Adorned, we learned that suspensions weren't something performed on public inquiries, but that if he continued to show interest that there was a possibility he could have it done in the future at some point. So every week, we would scramble up a little left over living expenses or slave wages and go get something pierced or buy jewelry at Adorned.
Rick's studio is the nicest studio I've ever seen. It is only a piercing studio, no tattoo, which I like because it tells me that piercing is what this man does entirely. He is maybe more expensive than some of the other studios but his experience and quality jewelry is guaranteed. This was very assuring, and I'm always about quality over quantity especially when it comes to my body and even more so a hole in my genitals. His studio is decorated in a more tribal approach to body modification and carries a lot more strange organic jewelry than most studios.
I have always been pretty stubborn about having a woman be the person who is piercing my body and more so when it involves getting naked. At my old studio back home, when I had my nipples done I demanded the female tattoo artist, previously the piercing artist, do it over the present male piercing artist. The lady told me she thought it was sweet that there was actually a shy person left in this world. so having rick do my hood piercing was a major detour according to my personal rules.
I talked with some friends for a while deciding that I really wanted to have my hood pierced. I liked the idea of having a hood piercing because of its location, balance and shorter healing time. Rick had done other genital piercings on both male and female friends and none of them were disappointed. I decided that Rick was the man to do the job for me. All that I had heard about adorned studio was that it was the best place around to get pierced. I figured it would be a nice gift to myself after having completed my first year in college and a neat thing to get done with a good friend along.
The next time I was at Adorned I talked to Rick about what was involved in getting my hood pierced. He said it was one of the more favorable female genital piercings to have done and all I would have to do is shower before coming. He also said there are a few percentage of women structured so they cannot have a hood piercing, so he would have to look at how I was put together to decide if I could have on and to decide if it would be vertical or horizontal. a week after speaking to Rick, on april 24th, I had saved enough money and I ventured down to Adorned with a good friend. I was not sick, and I had eaten and exercised previously within the day so I was nice and mellow and balanced feeling. However, I was more nervous for this piercing than even my first ever piercing.
I had no trouble taking off my clothes in front of Rick. I did not feel shy. He was very informative about the procedure and had a very calm voice. He talked about how and when the piercing would happen. Then he had me sit on the examining table, facing him sitting in a chair lower than the table. I rested my feet on his legs while he went over my anatomy with me briefly. I was astonished that he new more about how I was built than I do! He decided that since my hood was pretty short and sunken in that a vertical 12g ring would be best. Next I chose to lay down on the table and have the palms of my feet together. Then he pierced me. It was a different sort of pain than any of the other piercings I have had done, which jolted me. Other than that Rick said that I handled the pain very well. I felt silly though because the first thing I asked was, " How's it look?" Rick just laughed and said, "beautiful!"
Since then my piercing has healed better than any other I have had, and there has been no pain. I think the one thing that it has offered me beyond adornment is that it basically added surface area for added touch and sensitivity. I would recommend a hood piercing but it is very important to check out who is going to be doing it and the quality of the jewelry before getting it done. Quality over Quantity!