I go through phases with piercing. I have fixed plans for tattoo pieces usually way in advance of when I can afford them, so they happen whenever I have the money for the next stage. But piercings, costing relatively small amounts and easily available as they are, are subject to cycles of waxing and waning desire. For the past two and a half years I've had no real urge to get anything new (my last piercings were my nipples, for the second time, and for the second time retired due to inexplicable and undefeatable hypertrophic scarring a year later), but in those last two years I lost many long-standing piercings to various operations and dental work and was feeling the need for some new decoration.
At A Glance Author Ribibe Contact webmistress@greenfairy.com IAM Ribibe When A month ago Artist Rob Studio Perforations Location Brighton, UK I'd been turning over the possibility of a daith in my mind for a while, and though I liked and wanted the piercing, it wasn't one that immediately declared itself as something I must have immediately so I waited until something came to mind that did. The christina wasn't something I'd ever actively considered before, but browsing one day through the BME piercing galleries to avoid writing one of many pending essays the look of the Christinas just appealed in a way they never had before, so I knew it was the right piercing at the right time. So after about half an hour or so of knickers-off prodding, pinching and comparing in front of the computer screen to try and determine suitable anatomy, I rang up my friend who'd offered to pay for a piercing for me for my Christmas present to declare I'd found the perfect one for me, and would he mind presenting himself and his £25 at his earliest convenience?
His earliest convenience turned out to be about three weeks later, though thankfully for an impatient person like me I didn't have too much time to spend in agonies waiting for the day to roll around, obscenely busy as I was with all those essays I'd put off until the last minute through being on BME instead. We met early one afternoon for lunch before heading down to Perforations. I'd made an appointment because after two and a half needle-free years previously I was unusually nervous about getting back into it and didn't want to hang about in the studio making myself feel more anxious so when we arrived after signing the waiver we went straight through to the piercing room with Rob, the piercer. Trousers off, knickers down and onto the couch. Rob had a small poke around and wiped the area with those little wet squares that nurses use before they give you an injection (do they have a proper name?) and then asked me where I want it, because basically a christina is just a female pubic piercing in a specific place, and there is lots of scope for exact placement and length. I decided the bottom ball should rest just above the start of my clit hood and the top one about a centimetre and a half above that vertically, so Rob had me lie perfectly straight with my legs together while he marked the placement, and then again with me standing up so he could double check his marks.
I looked at it myself in the mirror and declared it perfect, so I lay back down again while Rob got out his callipers and measured the distance between the two dots in order to cut the 1.6mm PTFE barbell we were using to the correct size. He cut the length of the barbell to 14mm, and then bent the PTFE into a staple-shaped surface bar. While he was doing this I warned him that I have an annoying (rather more so for the piercer than myself) tendency to involuntarily move my legs when I'm getting pierced and that on this occasion it would probably be a bit worse, considering I've essentially forgotten what it feels like (a few years ago, also after another break of about eighteen months between piercings, I nearly startled the poor piercer at Cold Steel who was bent over me doing my vertical labret into falling on his face by trying to bring my knees up to my chest) but that I'd do my best to quash the urge to knee him in the chin this time.
After the jewellery was fashioned Rob offered spray-on anaesthetic, which I declined, and then applied the Duval clamps to the area which was uncomfortably pinchy and, as I do not shave there, a touch twangily tugging, but not my any means actually painful. When he was satisfied that all was in order I took a few deep breaths and on the third Rob pushed the needle through the markings. I was surprised by the intensity of the sensation, but I suspect this is due significantly to the fact that I've just forgotten what getting pierced feels like and not any objective indication of how painful it was in comparison to other piercings I have had. On reflection, it was much less painful than any ear cartilage piercing (rook, conch) I have had and a good deal less sharp and stinging than some (nostril, labret) have been.
It was more of a deep, dull sensation, and it lasted for two seconds at the most. I did try and cross my legs while it was being done which can't have been easy for the poor man, but he coped admirably. I lay back and relaxed while he painlessly slid in the PTFE surface bar and screwed on two 5mm titanium balls. Rob said that as with my previous wrist piercing (which he also did for me), the 'stems' of the jewellery were a little oversized to accommodate potential swelling, and that I would more than likely need to come back in a few weeks when things had settled down to trim off any excess from the jewellery to enable it to lie absolutely flat. I gingerly climbed off the couch to look at my gorgeous new piercing in the mirror.
I walked the twenty minutes back to the train station like somebody had glued the joints in my legs together, before I realised that walking normally did not in fact affect the piercing in the slightest and I sheepishly started bending my knees again. There was a small amount of discomfort just from the jewellery hanging in the piercing, which is something I remember from the immediate days after my nipples were pierced where I had to wear a bra twenty four hours a day for the first week or so to take the weight off the rings. Although the jewellery is objectively extremely light, anything at all resting its weight in a fresh piercing can sometimes for me produce uncomfortable pulling sensations for a while, but this had all but disappeared entirely by the time I got on the train.
When I got home an hour and a half later and went to take of my trousers to admire my latest addition however, I got a bit of a surprise. Blood had soaked right through my knickers and left the entire crotch my of jeans completely saturated. I have no idea why it started bleeding spontaneously (or, indeed, why it had taken so long for me to notice) as there was little to no blood when it was pierced, it wasn't bleeding at all when I left the studio and I am sure I would have felt it had I inadvertently knocked in between then and home, but it certainly explained why people were giving me funny looks on the train. The flow of blood had ceased by this time though, so all I had to do was gingerly prise away the sodden tissue and underwear from the jewellery. I decided not to try and clean myself up, fearing that attempting to dislodge the dried-on blood may make it bleed again.
The first couple of nights I was worried that I might roll or otherwise put pressure onto it in my sleep that might cause it to start bleeding again, but despite waking every morning face down that hasn't happened, nor has it started bleeding significantly again of it's own accord. In the first week immediately after it was done it wasn't sore or troublesome in the slightest (except for the tiniest amount of dried blood around the top hole occasionally in the first couple of days) though I did have to keep reminding myself not to be so hasty when pulling my knickers down (that sounds altogether wrong...) after catching the top ball once or twice on the waistband, and there is a whole untapped market out there for specialist vulva-shaped containers which will keep their vacuum for salt soaks.
That was about four weeks ago now and it's healing beautifully so far. There is a teeny tiny excess of PTFE on either side, but not enough so that the piercing isn't essentially sitting flush to my skin so I am not concerned with trimming it at the moment. I plan to swap the 5mm titanium balls for smaller 4mm jewelled ones in a few weeks as I prefer the smaller, more discreet look, but not right now as I don't want to tug the piercing around too much while it is still quite delicate or rum the risk of the smaller balls getting 'pulled' into the still healing wounds.
I have only had one previous surface piercing, my wrist which I kept for the best part of a year trying to heal before migration made the decision to remove it for me. I could not say if that experience was an indication of how well I am able to heal surface piercings as obviously it was in a completely different place and subject to different stresses than my Christina will suffer, but I hope not because it's a piercing I'm extremely enamoured of already and I should love to keep.
