O March!
At A Glance Author Jay Lee Contact enulede@hotmail.com IAM enthean When Three months ago Artist Erynn Studio Adrenaline Piercing and Tattoo Location Vancouver, BC
It is a time of new beginnings, of rebirth, of joy and hope. It is the time when the trees shed their nakedness and put forth new green leaf; when robins sing, anew, on the wing; and when the sun – so shy in winter – shines tentative spring rays upon the new grass.
I, however, noticed naught – for at the time I was inside, sulking in my room.
But let me backtrack a bit. If, two years ago, you had told me that I, with my one gunned lobe, would ever consider letting a stranger stick a large, sharp needle in my lady parts, I would probably have strongly urged you to seek medical attention, or perhaps smacked you over the head with a catechism. However, fast-forward a year and a bit and I had undergone a double-navel project, a septum, a helix, three lobe piercings, and a smiley. Most of these I'd eventually had to retire due to rejection or complications from a horrid metal allergy.
The addiction to that rush of needles, metal and endorphins that I'd come to know and love could not be sated, however, and with my 18th birthday fast approaching, I found myself spending more time on the internet, gawking at the pictures of beautiful jewellery nestled in girls' most intimate regions. These sorts of pictures both shocked and amazed me – they were extraordinarily pretty, but who would willingly and shamelessly expose themselves to a complete stranger in such a personal way? More research simply made me fall in love with the idea of having genital piercings more and more, and eventually I decided that I would make a project of it – I wanted several pairs of inner labia that would enable me to lace both sides together in a chastity project. Because I was afraid of exposing my bits to a stranger, I decided that I would do this myself.
A crooked, self-done inner labia made me rethink piercing my own nether region, so I decided to wait until I reached 18, so that I could have a genital piercing as my right of passage. During that waiting period, my desires began leaning towards having a vertical hood piercing, as the ones I had seen were so incredibly gorgeous. I was now in a moral dilemma – this piercing wasn't (unlike the labia) simply aesthetic, but more sexually stimulating as well. I am Catholic, and debated with myself for several months about whether this might be considered something that would fall under the "sinful" category.
My 18th birthday came and went, and still no piercing; the moral dilemma and simple lack of funds added up to finding myself where I was at the beginning of this story – sulking in my room, a month after turning 18. I can't quite remember what it was – perhaps asserting my newfound "maturity" or an unexpectedly larger amount on my paycheque – but during my sulking, I had an epiphany and thought, "Screw it. I'm getting pierced."
I'd taken a weekend off work because I had several Chamber Choir concerts to perform at, though the first one was around 4 o' clock on Saturday. I decided to use that free morning to go get my VCH done. I made sure to prepare carefully – showering and shaving the region meticulously, bringing along a couple pantyliners...and wearing my favourite "I am Canadian" underwear. I was ready to rock. I made my way to Adrenaline Piercing and Tattoo in Vancouver, where I'd gone for pretty much all the piercings I had gotten done professionally. There I met Erynn, who had done pretty much all the piercings I had gotten done professionally.
"Hey," She said grinning, light reflecting off of her sparkly medusa. "I haven't seen you in a while."
"Yep," I said, grinning back. "I'm 18, and I want my hood pierced."
The people at Adrenaline have always seemed so happy to have me back to continue my mod journey with them. I filled out the required forms and flashed my all-too-often-seen-at-that-shop ID, whereupon as one of the first customers of the day I was led to the piercing room almost immediately. Erynn put out all the required sterilised equipment out on her tray and pulled out a set of stirrups from some strange hidden compartment of the piercing bed. At this point I was hit with a case of nerves and had to run to the bathroom to relieve myself before I peed my pants from anxiety. I came back and the bed and stirrups awaited me. This time, I took a deep breath and dropped my pants and underwear, whereupon the area was cleaned.
"Is that good?" Erynn asked, upon marking the placement. I wrinkled my nose a bit and asked if the placement could be higher.
I have never seen anyone unexpectedly break out into a grin like that before. "Oh you want to be all hardcore," She said with a laugh, wiping off the marking and placing it higher, then grabbing a longer sterilised 12ga barbell. The time finally came for those dreaded stirrups, which felt cold under my feet. Naked from the waist down, I felt kind of vulnerable, and I don't think I could have gone through with this if I hadn't known Erynn for so long and trusted her. She slid a receiving tube beneath my hood and I was surprised at how uncomfortable it was. Pressing up really hard against all the nerves in my clit, it hurt a little. I peered down at where Erynn was standing between my legs with a receiving tube in one hand and a 12ga needle in the other.
"Breathe in," Erynn said gently. "Breathe all the way out. Breathe in, breathe all the way out..."
The needle went through the skin on my hood with an unexpectedly sharp pain that made me literally go, "Guh!" – but the pain lasted less than half a second, and by the time it had registered it was already over. The receiving tube had been worse. The jewellery transfer made me squirm a little, but when it was done I had a perfectly centered and beautifully-placed VCH.
"And you're done," Erynn finally said with a smile. "Was it really that bad?"
Thanking Erynn profusely, I got my aftercare instructions, paid and left the shop extremely happily. Healing was unproblematic – the "worst" part of it was the constant sensitivity and stimulation I felt over the first few days. This was a bit of a problem on the evening of the choir concerts because I was a bit distracted from singing (go figure), and I can't forget the embarrassing moments in bio class when I sat forward too fast and let off a rather conspicuous squawk. I primarily left it alone, though in the shower I'd clean it with a small amount of Dial.
It's been about two and a half months since I got my VCH done and I couldn't have been happier with the way it turned out. The overstimulation has subsided but it still feels more pleasant than it would without the jewellery. It's a piercing I'd recommend to anyone wanting something elegant, functional and beautiful.