At A Glance
Author	Stacey
Contact	Stacey@bme.anon
IAM	Scottish Princess
When	A week ago
Artist	Myself
Studio	Home

DISCLAIMER: Before I begin my experience, I'd like to point out that the environment in which I carried out this piercing was far from sterile, and although the tools I used were sterile, there was probably some amount of contamination. Self-piercing is a hazardous thing to do, and although the modern piercing industry wouldn't be what it is today without people piercing themselves to find out what worked and what didn't, I would recommend you go to a professional artist who will pierce you in a sterile environment as this would be safest.
If you think you can do it yourself, then by all means go ahead. I did, and it would be contradictory to say not to do it yourself, but being pierced by a professional is safest as they know what they're doing. And lets face it, no-one's house is going to be as clean as a piercing room, regardless of the measures you take to try otherwise.

This is the story of my long sought after but now retired Christina piercing.

To start the story, I have to say that I've always had an interest in genital piercings, ever since I was maybe 10 and found out about Prince Albert piercings. At that point I didn't know you could get female genital piercings aswell but I was very much in awe and this was a new element of piercings that I didn't know about, so I was fascinated.

Genital piercings went out of my thoughts for maybe 5 years until I turned 16 and had my clitoris hood pierced vertically. (Yes I realise it's illegal)
After that my interest in genital piercings increased dramatically and I began browsing the pictures on BME, trying to decide which I liked best. I've since decided that I want quite a lot of genital work but it will have to wait. One that stuck out most though was the Christina. It was just so very cute, and even though I thought it would look strange with my hood piercing also being vertical, I decided that no one else would see it apart from me, so it didn't matter.
This happened a few months ago, and since then i've been itching to get it done. I've recently discovered the joys of self piercing and although it's not wise in general to pierce yourself, it's exceptionally stupid to pierce your genitals. Still, having thought this over for a few weeks I decided that I was prepared for any consequences that may occur from this.

So, having set my mind to pierce it myself, I went ahead an researched. And researched. And researched a little bit more.

After a few months, I felt that I was ready to do this. A few days before I pierced it, I made a special effort to go to the health food shop and buy some pure sea salt (Before this, with all of my self done piercings I'd been practicing the LITHA method and it had worked exceptionally well, but i'd read that christinas were notoriously hard to heal, and my vulva/pubic mound is not a place where I want to have issues with pus and scarring) I also bought pure tea tree oil, as a just incase. It's always good to have a "just incase" back up plan.

Friday the 6th of April was the date i'd chosen to pierce myself. It was just a random Friday night and I had nothing better to do with myself so I thought to myself 'why not now?' and got myself set up. Before I did anything, I went and showered. I cleaned myself up and shaved.
I wasn't sure what effect this would have on healing, but I decided it probably wouldn't be too detrimental.
After I showered, I dried off etc and got set up.

Kitchen towel, clean jewellery, clamps, sterile needle, mirror and myself. I was all set.

So I sat in the least attractive position possible as I sat with the mirror between my legs leaning against the chair. Really not attractive at all.
To be clear though, I wasn't relying on this as a guide when I pierced myself, I just wanted to make sure that my markings were properly straight from every angle.
I have to say, I chickened out and used EMLA to numb the area before I did anything. I love to be pierced and can certainly handle the pain well if I'm being pierced professionally, but when i'm self piercing, the last thing I was is to be taken by surprise and for my lining to go all wrong.

After an hour, I poked the area with a play piercing needle and felt absolutely nothing. And so I began. Markings looked perfect so I put on gloves and clamped myself which wasn't too bad at all. I had my jewellery prepared which was 14ga 20mm bioplast bar which I curved the day before and had held it's shape (which surprised me)
After i'd made sure my clamps had the markings perfectly in line, I unwrapped the needle, lined it up and pushed a little bit. I couldn't feel anything so I pushed again and the needle suddenly hit no resistance and slid through until I hit what was presumably the final layers of skin. When the needle had slid through I had felt the slightest twinge, so I braced myself, held my breath and pushed the needle through, expecting to feel more resistance but was very surprised to see i'd come out the other end.
I was elated.
With shaky hand I removed the needle and took the clamps off leaving the cannula in my skin. With even more shaky hands I placed the jewellery into the cannula and pulled it back through. This bit is always unpleasant and it did twinge a bit was mostly painless thanks to the EMLA.
I'd previously threaded the bar so putting the ball on the top of the bar was no real problem.

I was done! I looked in the mirror and was hugely disappointed to see that the bottom was squint as I hadn't hit the mark just so but I didn't care as I was in love with it.

It did bleed rather a lot so I went for another shower and just carefully ran the water over it to clean it off.

The day after - I was working this night and it was still bleeding on and off, although not as heavy, just enough to make little blood crusties. When I got home that night, I made a seal salt soak and soaked it until It felt better. I was happy.

Day 2 - No more blood but no crusties either, healing very uneventful. I used sea salt soaks in the morning and at night.

Day 3 - Crusties! Whenever I self pierce, crusties always make me unbelievably happy. Soaked it in the morning and the evening, and I began to notice the littlest bump form on the bottom hole. I decided this was due to it being slightly squint so I babied it and kept my fingers crossed.

Day 4 - Still soaking it regularly but the bump was a bit bigger, so I used a dab of tea tree oil and hoped for the best.

Day 5 - Bump was bigger again and beginning to itch. Not a good sign. So I continued to soak it and use the tea tree oil. It seemed to look a bit happier so I was happy too.

Day 6 - The Christina was highly unhappy, and the top hole had begun to swell and go red. I know part of this was due to the fact that it was bioplast and obviously didn't have as good a bend as a proper curved barbell would. Today was the day I decided to retire the piercing. I only decided this after I pulled my skin up to look at the bottom ball, I squeezed it and green-ish pus came out. I made the decision then and there to retire. However much I loved it, it was not worth it. I can always try again.

Some people may say that it was FAR too early to retire as it's only the Thursday after i'd pierced it, but I know my own body and it wasn't happy.
It will be back though, I plan on keeping the area clean and massaging it with Vitamin e oil to break down any scar tissue that may have formed.

I turn 18 in 3 weeks, maybe I'll get it re-pierced on my birthday as a present to myself.

In the end, the piercing isn't functional, but it was so cute and I adored it. It will be back.