At A Glance
Author	vicky
Contact	vicky@bme.anon
IAM	vicky-dreamer
When	N/A
Location	England

For over 3 months I have been preparing to perform a Christina on myself, but I was never able to get up the courage and confidence that I needed, that was until November 27th, 2002.
The week prior to this date I had ordered myself a new piercing needle and a 14 gauge, 28mm barbell from Wildcat, the order arrived within a couple of days but I decided to postpone the piercing until I knew I had a few days off of work; just in case I was going to be walking like a penguin.

I wasn't worried about the pain of a new piercing, I wasn't worried about performing a genital piercing on myself either – my only worry was that if I was going to do it then I had to do it right, the piercing would have to be straight and deep enough.
I had some confidence in my own piercing skills as I have successfully pierced both of my nipples myself, but I wasn't as fortunate when I attempted to pierce my navel and it decided to migrate.

When preparing to pierce myself again I found BME was once again a great resource of information, but also a great comfort, simply reading peoples own experiences gave me an idea of what to expect, but I also knew from my other piercings and from my own common sense that everyone's experience with a piercing differs and so never expect yours to be just the same as theirs.

As the day slowly began to draw into the night I started to focus my mind and prepare myself for the task ahead, as with all my piercings I found a clean serving tray, and placed all of my supplies on it – some clean kitchen paper, cotton pads, iodine tincture, antiseptic wipes, a glass of ice, clamps, needle, jewellery, marker pen, torch and smelling salts.
You may be wondering why I had the smelling salts at hand, I thought that they would be a good idea as in my previous piercings I tend to start feeling faint just before the piercing is completed and so it's a good way of helping to reduce the chances of any such occurrence.
Since all of the "tools" were ready it was time to prepare my body, I decided to take a relaxing shower to calm my nerves and also so I could take that opportunity to clean the piercing area in preparation for the procedure.

Once I had finished my shower, I dried myself off and got half dressed; leaving my lower body naked I carried out the final preparations, I rolled a sleeping bag up and sat it against my bedroom wall, in front of that I placed a chair and propped a mirror against it; to one side I placed the tray with all of my supplies and all that was left was for me to get in place.

I sat so that I was leaning against the sleeping bag and had my legs spread in front of the mirror, all of my supplies were on hand and my mind was focussed, I was now finally ready to begin.

I used the torch to check on placement and to make sure that there were no blood vessels in the way and then took a cotton pad and dowsed it in the iodine tincture, I cleaned the area and watched as the iodine left a yellow/brown stain behind on my skin and then suddenly I felt as if my skin was burning, I quickly grabbed another cotton pad and dunked it in the glass which had a few small pieces of ice left and the rest was just ice cold water, as soon as the cotton had absorbed some of the water I cleaned the iodine off of the lower part of my pelvis in order to stop the burning sensations, thankfully the water worked and I was then able to carry on with the procedure.

Using the purple marker I carefully made two guide dots, unfortunately I felt that they were too close together so I rubbed one away and replaced it with a dot slightly higher up, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they looked straight and so with the guide marks in place I took my clamps and carefully aligned them to the marks, when I was sure that the clamps were in a good position I closed them and used an old hair band to fasten the clamps together.

Holding the clamps in my left hand, and also holding a small fragment of ice in place with the same hand I took the needle in my right hand and lined it up with the top guide mark. I took a deep breath and then slowly started to push the needle through.
I didn't feel any pain as I was expecting to, so I continued to push the needle into my skin watching as its length was breaking its way through my flesh.

After pushing for a short while the hair band which was holding the clamps together become loose and so the clamps opened up causing them to catch and the needle and pull it out of my skin. I felt as though I was being stabbed so quickly clamped the skin once again and pushed the needle back through the hole that it had already made, by now blood had started to ooze out of the new hole but I decided to ignore it and get on with the job at hand.
As my confidence built up again I decided to give one last push in an attempt to get the needle all of the way through the skin and out through the lower guide mark, this final attempt worked as I had hoped and it didn't even feel painful.
There was a small amount of discomfort as I removed the needle and quickly replaced it with the barbell, some more blood seeped from the new holes and the thread of the barbell felt as though it was tugging at my tender new piercing as it made its way through the fresh wound.

When it came time to put the bead in place my hands were shaking uncontrollably and so I was unable to thread it together with the shaft of the barbell. I had to sit still and wait 10 minutes for my nerves to ebb away so that I was able to finally thread the bead in place.

When the procedure of the piercing and jewellery placement was complete I continued to sit still in my space on the floor, I was shocked and elated at what I had achieved, it looks great and is deep enough and perfectly straight, the barbell is long to allow for any swelling but I shall be ordering a better fitting one in a week or two.

For aftercare I am using a solution of warm water and sea salt soaks twice daily as well as a clean with mild "simple" soap when showering, trying not to play with the piercing is hard, but I know I must keep my hands off it in order for it to heal properly.
There is a picture of my new adornment on my IAM page for anyone who has a membership and would like to take a look.

I have always maintained the thought and attitude that self piercing isn't safe, but I am sure I will continue to pierce myself. I only hope that people who read this will decide not to pierce themselves, but to go to a professional, reputable studio and have their piercings performed correctly and safely.