| At A Glance | |
| Author | Spacy |
| Contact | Spacy@bme.anon |
| IAM | Spacy |
| When | A month ago |
| Artist | Me |
| Studio | My House |
| Location | Liverpool, UK |
I've seen people pierce their own suspension hooks before and I was curious about whether I'd be able to do it. A lot of things I try because of curiousity. I like to know how different things feel. I knew it would probably be more painful to do myself as it was slower and I remember my chest hooks hurting before. I was also unsure about whether I'd have the strength to get the needle through. I'd pierced other people's hooks before, and I'd pierced my labia at 2.4mm with EMLA, but piercing my own chest was different.
I decided the time to do it was a few days after I got back from a London suscon. I hadn't done anything that weekend and I was feeling all inspired from watching other people and had been day dreaming about hooks all week. I already had the equipment in my house, some 3.2mm (8g) hooks I'd bought from Benwah a while ago and some 2.4mm (10g) needle blades I had in my drawer from wildcat.
I prepared a clean area on my desk by wiping it down with antibacterial spray and covering it with kitchen roll. I scrubbed and washed my hands. I then opened the needles packets out without touching the inside of the packets, and left them with the needle on top of the open packet without touching the needle. I did the same with the packet of hooks (they'd come to me ready autoclaved). I then took some KY jelly and squirted it onto the end of the needles, without touching them with the tube. I then put on a bikini top and wiped my chest down with an antibacterial wipe. I was a bit silly and didn't mark my chest, I thought I'd be guided by my previous scars. If I was doing it again in the future I would mark it. I then scrubbed my hands thoroughly again, making sure not to touch anything afterwards until they dried. I didn't wear gloves, as I prefer not to when piercing myself. However, this is my own risk, I wouldn't do that with anyone except myself.
Next I inserted the needle in the end of a hook, sat in front of a mirror and put it where I wanted on my chest. I did the left side first as I'm right handed. I find it easier to push needles through with the hook. I pinched with my left, pushed with my right and felt it go through. It didn't hurt as much as I imagined. I pushed and watched it go under the skin, then decided it should come back out the other side. The exit of the needle was more of a sharp pain and made me grimace a bit, but I got it through. I think it took me a few minutes to get through, I'm not sure. It wasn't quick, but it didn't take forever. I then scrubbed my hands again and repeated with the other side. This time it was harder as I'd right handed and the needle didn't go where I wanted it to go. I ended up getting the hook too high up and not in as good a place to pull as I'd wanted it. I decided to keep it where it was, as I didn't want to go through putting it in again. The pain of doing it myself was nice, as I was more prepared for it than when others do it and it wasn't such a shock at once. However, it did take longer, and the exit hurts, so I don't think I'll do all my hooks myself :)
Next came attaching myself. Ideally I should've had carrabinas and proper rope. However, I didn't. So I found some clean rope I had in my cupboard and tied it to the hooks. I then went to find something to pull agaist.
First I used some things that are above my friends doorway. It was nice, a bit like suspending but not as it was light. The hooks pulled differently on each side, due to my bad piercing placement. But it was ok, and workable :)
I decided I wanted to sit and chill and pull though, so I needed something heavy to pull against. I found a heavy old fire we have left in our house, so dragged in to the settee and wrapped the rope around it and tied it back to my hook. I pulled against that for a bit. I like gradually getting used to the feeling, pulling my skin out further and further. I don't feel the actual hooks to much, just the pulling sensation and pressure where the hooks is. I think the hooks hurt most when they're first done before the pulling. I watched a bit of TV while I was pulling, and my housemate Suuz took some photos. After a while I detached myself from the fire, and pulled for a bit with my hands instead, lying down and relaxing on the settee.
I think I pulled on and off for about an hour, maybe less. When I'd finished I detached the ropes, and watched my hands. I rubbed some KY onto the hooks, then pinched and took them out. There was some bleeding, which I like, but not too much. I then cleared everything away. The needles had been put in a sharps bin earlier, straight after I'd used them. The hooks I washed in antibacterial soap and put in a bag until I can autoclave them. I washed my chest with soap.
The hook wounds healed well, and there was a tiny bit of bruising, not too much. Though I still have the scars, which shows people how bad my piercing placement was :) I feel really good that I've had this experience. Its good that I know what it feels like to pierce myself, and I feel a sense of achievement that I did it. It was also nice to do a pull in the comfort of my own home, for no-one else but me :)
I would not recommend that you do what I did in this experience, unless you have experience of this sort of thing. I didn't do everything exactly right, so its not a good idea to copy me! There's more pictures on my IAM page, and in the pulling and trucking section of BME.
