I got my fourchette pierced about five months ago, fought with it while it tried to migrate out, and finally took it out last month. I tried, this time, to do everything differently from my last genital piercing... basically, it didn't work one bit. Some things are just doomed from the start.
At A Glance Author bootsy Contact diannaw@uclink4.berkeley.edu IAM bootsy When Six months ago Artist William Studio Gottsi Location Berkeley, CA The piercing was done by William, at Gottsi in Berkeley. I'd been in there to get a couple of ear piercings, decided I liked the shop, and asked about prices for a fourchette while I was there. The price was reasonable, so a couple of months later I went in to get it done. William recognized me and was friendly and helpful (I've never seen him act any other way). We talked about gauge and jewelry-- he said he'd suggest starting at 10 gauge and the choice of ring or barbell was up to me. That was perfectly fine by me, since I'd already decided that I wanted a 10g ring if possible. He pulled out a couple of 10g rings of different diameters and had me choose a bead (red tiger eye), checked my ID and I filled out the usual paperwork. He also asked at this point if it would be OK if the shop's female apprentice came in to watch and take pictures for the shop. I said yes to both, since I'm all in favor of female piercers and modesty is not a big concern with me when gettin g pierced anyway.
William deposited me in the piercing room and told me he'd wait outside while I got ready (e.g. took off my skirt and underwear). So I did so, and he and the apprentice came in and started getting everything set out and ready. He told me that to reduce bleeding, he'd pierce at 12g and taper up to 10. Fine by me. So the apprentice situated herself at the end of the table to watch, William got me cleaned and marked, and voila. The piercing, as piercings go, didn't hurt much. William's very fast, and he doesn't use clamps so there's none of that long drawn-out pinching. He just got the needle lined up with the marks, waited until I told him I was ready, told me to take a deep breath and then pushed the needle through when I breathed out. I don't remember the tapering feeling like anything at all-- that, and putting the jewelry in, are somewhat of a blur. When the jewelry was in, the apprentice took a couple of pictures and she and William left to let me get dressed aga in. I did so, and went out to the front of the shop, listened to the standard aftercare instructions, paid and left with a 3/8" ring in my crotch.
Tapering nothwithstanding, it bled like mad for a couple of days. But after a couple of days of wearing loose underwear and sitting down very, very carefully, I was pretty much back to normal. I cleaned the piercing with glycerin soap and the occasional salt soak-- my usual formula for caring for piercings. And, for a little while, it was perfectly happy and gorgeous. William had told me when I got the piercing that if I wanted to come back and get a smaller ring he would change it for no charge. After a couple weeks, I decided to do so, since the 3/8" ring stuck out a ways and had to shift to one side or the other every time i sat down. Unfortunately, when I went back he didn't have any 5/16" rings in stock, but he told me he'd order one and call me when it came in. So I waited. And... waited. He'd warned me that trying to get jewelry manufacturers to make tiny diameter rings was like pulling teeth-- apparently he really wasn't exaggerating.
Meanwhile, I noticed the piercing was starting to migrate a little. It wasn't hurting or anything, it just went through less skin than it had originally. The major problem was this: anything, well, anything trying to enter my cunt would pull at the skin around the piercing and/or push on the ring itself. Tampons, toys, anything. That got a little annoying. After about two months I considered taking it out because it was in the way, but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt until it healed and until I got the smaller ring to put in it.
What eventually happened was that I just lost patience. William still hadn't gotten my ring from the manufacturer, and the 3/8" ring was hanging on to a piece of skin less than a quarter of the ring's circumference. I decided one night that it had to come out, and since I couldn't get the ring out myself I would go the next day and have it taken out. Gottsi's a little far from my house, so I figured that since anyone with ring-openers could take the ring out, I'd go someplace closer. Industrial Strength's piercer wasn't available, so I wound up at Zebra. Do not, I repeat do not, ever do that. First of all, they charged me for it. But I wanted that sucker out pretty badly, so I paid my $5 and went into the piercing room. The piercer asked what I needed done, and I said, "I need my fourchette taken out." He looked at me and asked, "What the hell's a fourchette?" Not terribly confidence-inspiring. I dropped my pants, he opened the ring and took it out, I left.
The next day, I was back at Gottsi for other reasons, and as soon as I walked in William handed me a 5/16" ring. They'd gotten it, and not been able to call me because my phone wasn't working. I told him I'd taken it out the day before, and he said that if I wanted he could still taper it back up and put the ring in. What the hell-- I decided to go for it. I don't know exactly how much it had closed up in 24 hours, but it started to hurt as soon as he got the small end of the taper in and just got worse from there. But eventually I walked out with my new ring, which was definitely an improvement over the old one. It stuck out less, got bumped around less, and didn't look nearly as hopeless.
My next brilliant idea was that I would like to be able to take it out if it was getting in the way. The 5/16" ring was even less likely to budge without pliers than the 3/8", so I decided to order an 8g 1/4" cherry bomb from BME. My theory was that since it could just be unscrewed, and at 8g it wasn't going to go anywhere. So after a couple of weeks, I got my ring, brought it to William and had him put it in for me. This meant a little more tapering, but it was nowhere near as bad as the last time. He put the cherry bomb in and again, it looked better. The amount of skin the piercing passed through was pretty small by this point, but it was a decent amount for a 1/4" piece of jewelry.
About 4 days later it was dead. I'd taken the cherry bomb out once to have sex (it was uncomfortable with the jewelry in), put it back in, taken it out again a couple of days later and just given up. I finally came to terms with the fact that a genital piercing that makes sex unpleasant is really defeating the point any way you look at it. What I have now, a month later, is a little tunnel of hard scar tissue through my perineum, a 10g ring and an 8g cherry bomb that I probably should never have bothered with in the first place. I don't regret getting the piercing-- it was pretty while it lasted, and you never know how something will work out until you try it-- but I do regret trying so hard to keep it when it was obviously migrating. The body is the one in charge of healing things.... the mind would do well to listen to it once in a while.