1. THE LIFE
At A Glance Author Miranda Contact Miranda@bme.anon IAM RingOfEndlessLight When Three months ago Artist Penelope Studio Lucky's Tattoo Location Northampton, MA Even a year ago, I would never have pictured myself with a genital piercing of any kind. The world of body modification swept me up fast. Various cartilage piercings in April and June of 2004, nipples in September, and very soon after that I was thinking about my first genital piercing.
When I started researching female genital piercings on BME, it was no contest. I didn't like the look of labia piercings at the time, and they didn't seem like me. Vertical hoods somehow always looked crooked and unfeminine. Horizontal hoods were pretty, but I wanted something a bit more daring. Triangle piercings looked so gorgeous, and the stimulation they promised made them all the more attractive.
I decided to go for a triangle piercing after coming back to college for the semester, in January 2005. When my boyfriend got his ears pierced at Lucky's Tattoo in Northampton (where I had gone for previous piercings), I had Penelope check to see if I was built right for the piercing. I was so convinced that I would not have the anatomy for it, I was already trying to figure out what I would get instead. She had a bit of trouble locating the shaft of my clitoris (apparently it's buried deeper in me than in most women, and goes straight instead of curving up, or something. This made sense to me, since I had never been able to orgasm from clitoral stimulation. I hoped a triangle would help me out in that department), but finally told me that I was built perfectly for a triangle. Excited, I told her I'd be back in a week or two. Already I was a bit nervous, especially since just pinching the area hard (as Penelope had done) hurt.
Two weeks later, I returned to Lucky's, boyfriend in tow. As usual, I wasn't nervous or excited at all until I got into the piercing room. I hadn't decided if I wanted a 12ga or 10ga CBB, so I looked at both. The 10ga looked daunting, so I chickened out and went with the 12. I could always stretch, after all.
There was one girl before me, getting her nose pierced. I came in right before a girl getting a navel piercing. I couldn't help but feel a little pride– those were easy piercings. Mine was much more impressive.
The girl before me got pierced, and then–eek!– It was my turn. I went in, stripped off the skirt and yoga pants underneath (I wanted to go with a skirt for comfort, but it was a cold day, and the skirt alone wouldn't cut it). I was left in just my socks. I put my feet up in the stirrups while she set up her stuff and clamped me. At this point I was extremely nervous. My legs were shaking and I just wanted to jump up out of the chair and run away (my boyfriend later told me that he half expected me to do so). She marked me with a Sharpie (which I was the sole user and then owner of), and then came the clamps. She said I'd have to let her know how they felt, because she needed to know where my clitoris ended up– she definitely didn't want to pierce that, nor did I want her to. It was hard to tell whether the clamps were on or over or under my clitoris, because they were so uncomfortable and painful either way. After a few tries they finally seemed right and it was time to pierce.
Penelope had me take a few deep breaths, which came out as quick nervous gasps. I clutched Kevin's hand and tried to breathe slow. Usually when I get pierced I'm much more composed– I was close to panic as she told me that she'd pierce on my next exhale. I half considered holding my breath forever. But I exhaled, and she pierced me quick (thank God she pierces so quickly)– I yelped and my whole body jerked. It was probably more due to nerves and surprise than pain, but it did hurt intensely for a second. Penelope laughed. "You're done, you're done. Scares you, doesn't it?" She slipped the barbell in– I didn't feel it– and I looked at my new piercing in the mirror.
IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. I was shocked at how beautiful it was. The whole time I was more concerned with the pain, and hadn't even thought about the end product. And there it was.
Penelope explained that because she only had externally threaded barbells, she used an 11ga needle, so the threading would go through the piercing easily. She took a picture– I'm in her portfolio twice now– and I was done. I got up and dressed carefully. It didn't really hurt at all. I came out and the girls in line behind me (the navel piercing and her friend) stared at me with knowing looks. I guessed that they either overheard and knew what a triangle was, or heard my yelp. We carefully crossed the street and ate sushi. I was twingy, but fine. No pain really.
There was a lot of blood the first night. A LOT. I filled up a couple of maxi pads and my ENTIRE circular barbell got encased in a giant coagulated blood clot. I tried to clean this off in the shower, but it was far too tender. I had to clean it all off the next day. Cleaning it was stingy and the piercing was sore for a few days, and it would still bleed just a bit the first several nights, but it stopped bleeding for good in under a week and thereafter felt okay. I'm iffy about using soap (even good soap like Provon, which worked fine for my cartilage) on my genitals, since there's such a delicate pH balance down there and I don't want to cause a yeast infection. Also my nipples never did like soap very much. So for my triangle I just stuck to sea salt soaks, which worked fine. I started having sex again (carefully, with condoms to guard against icky boy germs) two days after I got the piercing. It seemed to heal up fine.
2. THE DEATH
For over four months, I waited for my triangle to become comfortable. In the first place, it never caused me any extra stimulation, beyond the extra sensitivity to the entire area in the first two weeks or so. After this, it was like the piercing wasn't there, as far as clitoral stimulation. In the second place, although it felt fine at times, it always sort of got in the way. When I sat down, it would twist in uncomfortable ways and I had to adjust it. If my boyfriend hit against it at all during sex, it hurt.
To try to get more stimulation out of the piercing, I decided to see if stretching would help anything. I had my piercer stretch it to a 10ga, which didn't hurt at all. She put a CBR in, which was just as twisty and uncomfortable as the CBB, if not more so. I switched it to a CBB with a little more space between the balls so it could lie a little flatter. This didn't help either, and things got worse and worse in the last month I had it. There was a little lump of scar tissue on one exit hole, which hurt and even bled sometimes. Sitting, wearing tight pants, and having sex were all sources of discomfort and pain. Still, I wanted to try to wait it out. This piercing was a triumph to me, and I didn't want to lose it. The last straw came when I was having sex, my boyfriend slipped out of me, and whacked me in the clitoris. This was after I had gotten (and fully healed out) a VCH. With no piercings (and even now with just the VCH), this kind of mishap would not have hurt very much at all. I think what happened was that my clitoris got pinched between the triangle and hood jewelry. This sounds like it would hurt, and it did. We had to stop immediately, I whimpered like a kicked puppy, had to keep myself from crying, and I'm sure I made my boyfriend feel terrible about it. That was it, I thought. This can never happen again. It's ruining sex for me, and it's time to take it out.
A few days later I sucked it up and took the triangle out. Immediately it felt better. I could sit down or lay down comfortably in any position without adjustment. Sex was fun again; I wasn't constantly conscious of protecting a piercing. Going to the bathroom, wearing tight pants– everything was easier. The holes of the former triangle were sore for a few days, but it's been a couple of weeks now and everything feels fine. The scar tissue is softening up and fading away. I noticed after I took it out that the holes– which started out perfectly horizontal– were quite uneven. One of them, the sore one, had migrated a few millimeters. This, I imagine, was from the constant twisting.
I would still recommend this piercing to someone who is built for it. Just make sure that you not only have the anatomy for the piercing itself, but also for the jewelry. A small straight barbell might have been a better option for me, or even a CBB with lots of space between the balls as initial jewelry. It was probably too late by the time I switched it to that. But be warned, a triangle can be a finicky thing for many women, so be prepared to have to part with it at some point.