In my opinion, genital piercings are the most amazing and intense piercings that you will ever have. There is no way to describe the nervousness you will experience before the piercing, and the feeling of being pierced "down there" is indescribable.
At A Glance Author Sarah Contact Sarah@bme.anon IAM porcelina When A year ago Artist Tanya Studio Primal Urge Location Perth, Australia I've always felt that it takes a fair bit of courage to get any piercing, let alone having to walk into a studio and spread your legs in preparation for someone to poke a needle through your most sensitive bits. One piercing is generally hard enough, but here is my story of the day that I got three piercings – 2x outer labia, and a Christina piercing.
At the beginning of this day, I had no idea what I was going to get pierced. I was leaning towards the idea of getting some more outer labia to add to the two that I already had, however I was also hoping that I might be suitable for a Christina piercing. On the other hand, I was still undecided as to whether I would get one of those piercings, or something more "normal" (at the time I would classify piercings as either "normal" or "you know... down there", luckily my attitude to piercings has changed quite a bit since then).
I walked into Primal Urge and was greeted by Tanya – this would be the first time that I had been pierced by her, although I had come into the studio many times before. I said that I wanted some sort of genital piercing, I honestly had no idea what but wanted to know if it would be alright for her to check and see what my anatomy would suit.
So after a couple of minutes, I walked nervously into the piercing room and she had a look. I was hoping for maybe a horizontal hood or a triangle, but was told that due to my heavy outer labia I would be suitable for neither. Outer labia piercings would be possible, as would a Christina. I wasn't sure which one to get, then I decided "stuff it, I'll get the whole damn lot".
So I picked my jewellery – 12ga ½" stainless steel captives with pink crystal balls. I didn't have a huge choice with the jewellery for my Christina – it was 10ga tygon with plain steel balls. Not the most attractive choice, but I figured I could always change it later.
So off I went to the ATM to get some money out and wonder why on earth I was paying someone to pierce me not once, not twice, but THREE times. Its times like that I question my sanity but tend to get over it (with the amount of piercings I've had by now you'd hope I'd be over it!).
So, butterflies in my stomach and not feeling the best I walked into the piercing room and got ready to begin.
Tanya spent a few minutes marking up where the outer labia piercings would go, we decided to make them match as closely as possible to my current piercings so the angle and depth were pretty much the same (considering I pierced the top two myself they were fairly shallow but I wanted them to match). Firstly though, she stretched up my current piercings to 12ga and put in the matching jewellery so I wouldn't look lopsided with 2 14ga piercings and 2 12ga piercings.
She put the clamps onto my outer labia and I tried to breathe deeply and think happy thoughts while she pierced me. I'll admit, it was one of the most painful piercings I have ever had. It was a very sharp quick pain, which by the time I felt it the needle was already through but it was still a shock. After the first one I was NOT looking forward to the second, let alone getting my Christina pierced after all of this.
But soon enough, she positioned the clamps on my other labia and pierced that too. Again, it was a terribly sharp pain but the pain subsided as soon as the jewellery was inserted.
Now, for the scary bit – it was time for my Christina piercing. Being a bigger girl, I have a lot of tissue on my pubic mound so while it would be beneficial as there would be enough tissue to "anchor" the piercing and hopefully reduce the chance of migration, it also meant that piercing it was going to be a bit harder as there was a lot more tissue to pierce through.
After a few moments of attempting to clamp the tissue, it was time. The piercing had to be done with a 12ga needle as there were no 10ga needles in at the time – in hindsight I probably should've left it for another day as I believe this put unnecessary strain on the piercing but there isn't anything I can do about it now.
The clamps were extremely uncomfortable on such dense tissue so when I felt the needle it was actually a relief in a way. My body was so fired up on adrenalin by this stage I thought that it would be the most painful piercing, but I barely felt it. I sort of screamed from the shock of feeling the needle sliding through by skin, but pain-wise there was very little to speak of. This is only the second piercing that I have had where I could actually feel the needle sliding through every millimetre of the way, and its an experience that I'm still undecided as to whether I enjoy it or not!
So after all was said and done, I received my aftercare instructions (use Microshield on the piercings twice a day in the shower, however after a few days I realised it was too harsh to stuck with salt water) and was on my way.
I wish I could talk about healing for these piercings, but unfortunately my Christina was a very short-lived piercing. It was pierced with a 22mm piece of Tygon, and within a week it was short enough to fit my 10mm curved barbell in. When the piercing first started rejecting, I wasn't sure whether it was rejecting or whether the swelling was just going down which was why there was so much of the bar showing (I'd never had a piercing reject before) but once it got to about 8mm of the bar sticking out, it was time to face facts and realise that the piercing wasn't going to last.
I had slightly more luck with my outer labia piercings. I ended up keeping them in for about 3 months, during which time they did eventually end up healing, however with the shallowness at which my first pair had been pierced at and the close proximity of all the piercing, eventually they all started to rub against each other and wear the skin away and over a period of about 2 months I ended up losing all of my outer labia piercings.
I believe that the failure of my Christina piercing was due to inappropriate jewellery first and foremost, however Tygon has worked successfully for many people so my anatomy obviously wasn't suited to the material used – I have since had my Christina repierced with a curved barbell and 6 months later it is still intact, so heres hoping that I'll be able to keep it for a lot longer.
My outer labia piercings were another matter, I believe that if I'd gotten the second set pierced a lot deeper I wouldn't have had so many problems with healing and ultimately rejection. My first set were extremely shallow as they were the first time that I had pierced myself, and it was because of my need for symmetry that I requested the second set be pierced at a similar depth.
At some stage I am planning on getting my outer labia re-pierced however next time I will get them done at a thicker gauge (I'm leaning towards 8ga, but obviously that will depend on whether I will have enough tissue to support them at that size initially) and also I'll request that the piercings are done a lot deeper this time.
Even though this was yet ANOTHER failed piercing experience for me, I still think it is important to tell my story as not everyone is able to successfully heal certain piercings, and I think that it gives a nice sense of balance to see the story from both sides.