This is the story of my vertical hood piercing, something I didn't think I could ever pluck up the courage to get done, nothing to do with the piercing itself, the pain or healing, but for the sheer terror of getting naked in front of a stranger. At the time, almost 3 years ago now, I was extremely uncomfortable with my body, being overweight. I still am I guess, both overweight and uncomfortable with my body, but its getting better!
At A Glance Author BenchWarmer Contact BenchWarmer@bme.anon IAM BenchWarmer When Two years ago Artist Rick Gilmore Studio Adorned Location Calgary, Canada To set the scene, I first started thinking about the piercing when I moved to Canada after finishing university in Glasgow in 2002. That year was the happiest of my life so far, and I made some great friends along the way. It was not until March, when I was living in Calgary that I was wandering around town freezing my ass off looking for a studio for my friend Corinne who was getting her navel pierced and was having me along to keep her sane since I'd not only talked her into it, but was giving it to her as a birthday gift. I came across Adorned, which from the outside looked nothing much, it was up a flight of stairs, that lead to a fairly plain, but well decorated waiting area, shared with a tattoo studio as well. I got chatting to the piercer, Rick, and had a look through his portfolio, which looked great.
Rick specialises in ear projects and there were some pretty cool unique orbital and industrials, but anyway, Corinne and I went along a few weeks, and he remembered me coming in, but I was the only Scottish person daft enough to wander about Calgary in a snowstorm, so of course he remembered! Rick had a really great bedside manner, made little jokes, really put my very nervous friend at ease, so when it came to my birthday my mind went straight to Rick.
I called in a few weeks before my 22nd birthday and asked a few questions, mainly stupid things, but he answered them with all the patience in the world, and I made an appointment for a few days before my birthday. The day of the piercing dragged in, but eventually it arrived, I'd booked a morning one, so I could go home and uh, rest after the big event. I ended up being a few minutes late since I got a nosebleed on the train on the way there! So arriving late, and with a sore nose, I ran in apologising and stressed. Rick had me sit down and fill in the forms, mostly I was just using the time to calm myself down, because it was my turn to be nervous, I'd been very close to cancelling, even that morning. When I'd filled in the forms Rick took me back through to the piercing room and got all the piercing stuff set up, then the big moment arrived. Having to get naked.
Several people have said a skirt would have been more convenient, but I'm not so sure anything would have helped, just in those few seconds unzipping my jeans would have been as bad as pulling up my skirt and removing my pants. Rick kept up the gentle banter, which really helped me relax. If you've never met Rick, at first he intimidated me, he's a big guy, with full sleeves, huge stretched lobes and a rather large ring through his septum, but he is actually a great guy, as camp as a row of tents like, which I can honestly say was something that warmed me to him, its not like he would be looking at my bits and thinking too much about it. Yeah I know any decent piercer wouldn't, but it's the same as seeing a female doctor about girlie problems, it just makes me relax more!
Rick had me lie on the table on my back with my feet together to make my hood more accessible! After several changes of gloves and shifting around, I wasn't really paying much attention to anything other than the ceiling and keeping my breathing normal, Rick swabbed me down in something cold, to clean the area and then went through what he was going to do, starting with placing the receiving tube underneath my hood which was a little uncomfortable at worst, mainly because it was so cold. I started breathing deeper, getting ready for the pain, I'd been warned not to move my knees when the needle went in, apparently it's a reflex reaction! But anyways, he counted me down from three and pushed the needle through on the one.
Honestly, it wasn't that sore, ok, it stung for a second to two, and for another second while he fitted the jewellery, a 10ga internally threaded curved bar, but it really wasn't as bad as I was imagining. Once I'd gotten my pants off and was lying down with my legs open I started worrying about the pain, but don't worry about it, it only hurts for a few seconds, and its well worth it in the end!
Rick went through aftercare with me, and also gave me an aftercare sheet, since I was likely to forget it once the rush of endorphins had ended. Healing was uneventful, at first I was tip-toeing around, being really careful not to sit down too fast or cross my legs, but soon got over that. As long as I was careful and didn't go around straddling anything there was no pain at all. I did sea salt soaks for about the first 10 days, which are not that easy to do! Its not like an ear that you can just sit in a cup of water, I found cotton balls were the way to go, and loads of warm saline. Showers were definitely easier to use than baths to clean a genital piercing.
I first experimented with it a few weeks after that, and noticed a big difference! I have noticed a slight downturn in sensation since then, but that's just my body getting used to it I suppose. I think it does add something to sex, both physically and psychologically as well. To this day I haven't told many of my friends, well apart from those on IAM I guess! its something I can have as my little secret, and would recommend it to anyone!