I finally retired all my genital piercings on 10/16/06. Here is my story.
At A Glance Author RKS1st Contact RKS1st@bme.anon When A week ago Artist self Studio my home
My adventures in self-piercing continue; most troublesome has been my journey in genital piercing. I have written about this previously in "Self-done Triangle and VCH." In that experience I described the history of my attempts at a horizontal hood, a VCH and, what I thought was a triangle (it was more like a deep hood). Since writing that experience (the horizontal hood never was successful), I retired the VCH as I did discover that I really did not like the constant rubbing against my clitoris. Like I have read with many other women, I too, found it annoying and uncomfortable. Further, it was actually shrinking my clitoris, which is, of course, absolutely unacceptable! I am aware that many women absolutely love this piercing, just clearly not me. Although I love the idea of a VCH, my body does not respond well to it at all. I kept the deep hood the longest, it was definitely not a triangle and was purely decorative. I like the idea of demonstrating genital pride even without specific function. I retired that piercing finally on October 2, 2006, as my interests (obsession?) turned exclusively to getting a triangle. How that came to be follows.
It was September 24 and I was attempting a second deep hood. Having failed when attempting to give myself a triangle and getting a deep hood instead, I laughed quite a bit on realizing that I was trying for a second deep hood and wound up with a triangle! I once again used EMLA cream, which I just love. I am not one who subscribes to the belief that piercing must be painful to somehow be "real," or worth it or that pain must be endured in order to symbolize some rite of passage. Since I deal with chronic pain on a daily basis (see my page for more information), I do not believe that I must "tough it out," at least not in this specific area. As with my other endeavors, there was an attempt, a correction, a third piercing, and so on. On my last try, my skin was not as anesthetized as it should have been and the piercing process was very painful. I clearly felt the needle pass through one thickness of flesh, a second thickness and then a third. I immediately panicked a bit when it occurred to me that I might have just pierced my clitoris. I slid the jewelry through anyway though, cleaned up and went on with my day. It sounds easy in reading this, but it definitely was not!
Once a few days had passed, the soreness diminished, and my curiosity got the better of me, I tried out my new piercing. I was still looking for that magic change in sensation that I have only read about and had not yet achieved. Much to my happy surprise, I discovered I had given myself a triangle. Crooked as it was and with one side clearly over traumatized, I still loved how it felt! I was much more sensitive and it now took such little stimulation to reach orgasm. I was thrilled and kept trying it out, over and over again!
However, since the piercing did have problems, I took it out on October 16. One side of the piercing was swollen and became less painful over the next few days, but I think scar tissue kept it large and tender. Self-piercing is risky, even dangerous. My adventures into genital piercing are unique in that these particular attempts have, for me, involved many tries on different days, have taken hours, and have been torturous, unnecessarily painful, and complete with inaccurate placement and corrective attempts further adding to the ordeal. I now fear that I have caused myself so much scar tissue that I will encounter some sort of trouble in functioning in the future. Do yourself a good turn and go to a professional piercer and read on, because this is ultimately what I have decided to do.
I finally thought to myself, "Hey! I could take my own advice and go to a pro in order to be assured of placement and that the piercing would look level." So now, with all my genital piercings gone, I am focusing on massaging the surrounding tissue regularly with Vitamin E oil to help break up the scar tissue and calm the surrounding area. I intend to make an appointment with a woman I know of who has a studio and has been professionally piercing for years. I have not yet decided if I will use EMLA cream or not for that visit. If I am not doing the work on myself, I anticipate the pain level to be much shorter and may just decide to go "au naturale." But again, I do not feel any shame in using an anesthesia for pain control when it comes to genital piercing. I will probably write about how it goes! I am periodically tempted to make another attempt myself but am trying to take the wiser course.