It seems so long ago now, but I guess it's probably been close to three and a half years since I started apprenticing under Mark Wiseman on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Mark was the only trained professional piercer in the area and also the only piercer to have stuck a hole in me. I was working graphic arts for a few years and knew that eventually I would have to change industries if I were to expose the septum I already had pierced or to get the visible tattoos I had planned, so I contacted Mark about an apprenticeship (yes this all pertains to the PA).
At A Glance Author xPeenkx Contact xPeenkx@bme.anon Artist Brett Studio World Class Tattoos Location New Orleans, LA Not long after completing my apprenticeship, I relocated to New Orleans and began working at World Class Tattoos on the westbank. when I first started there I was still pretty inexperienced, but I quickly learned some tricks of the trade and most importantly I gained confidence in my abilities. I had really been wanting to get more experience with genital piercings so I set out to research as much as I could. I contacted Mark via phone and asked him about any questions I had, I read old Gauntlet literature that a friend of mine loaned me. I even watched a video release from Pleasurable. I studied these things over and over, along with recalling information from my apprenticeship. By this time I had already done my first supervised genital piercing, Tracy (the other piercer at World Class) helped me do a Frenum. I was really feeling the urge to delve more into this world of modification. To learn more and become more knowledgable as well as helpful. I decided I was at a level confident enough to perform my first Prince Albert piercing. And I was excited about it.
You see though, the problem with not having a lot of experience is finding the people that will trust you to gain experience with them. For a lot of people this happens through very good and well-loved friends that will never know the great deed they have done for us. We lovingly refer to them as pin-cushions. Of course, there aren't a lot of pin-cushions to be found that will let you put a receiving tube in their urethra, let alone push a needle through their manhood.
So I decided the only fair thing to do was volunteer myself. If I was confident enough to pierce a stranger shouldn't I be confident enough to trust myself? I knew I could do it, did I think I was good enough to pierce myself? So I sat in my piercing room setting everything up and preparing for the procedure. It was after my shift had ended for the day so I didn't have to worry about customers looking for me. I had as much time as I needed, no deadline.
I cleaned the area (including the urethra). At the time I thought the urine should keep it clean enough but one of the pieces of literature I read described swabbing the urethra, so I did. I wiped the Betadine off with Benzylkonium Chloride. I have been accustomed to using alcohol but whenever I do genital piercings I don't take a chance at the customer possibly feeling discomfort, the Benzylkonium Chloride has more of a cold feeling than a stinging feeling. Cleaning twice was always stressed in the videos I watched so I changed gloves and repeated the procedure. Once again I changed gloves to try to limit possibility of cross-contamination. At this point I would like to point out how very cheap gloves are and how appalled I get at the lengths some piercers and tattoo artists will go to in order not to waste them, like using their wrists to answer the phone instead of removing a glove. I would also like to point out that most piercers/artists don't use sterile gloves... they are in a box but they aren't individually wrapped, while changing gloves frequently helps to keep down the chances of cross-contamination, gloves really serve a stronger purpose for keeping your artist safe from whatever may be in your bloodstream.
So back to the point, I marked the entrance point just behind the glans and to the right side (I usually hang to the left and thought this might help balance me). Luckily I had researched this or I would have marked it directly in the center, I have since heard horror stories of people paying to get their PA done by someone not aware of the need to avoid the center-line. I had selected an 8 gauge, 5/8" (it was actually slightly larger in diameter) Captive Bead ring. It was sufficient for my penis size, I suppose that could be depressing.... I don't know. I lubed the receiving tube up and inserted it into my urethra. This is not a pleasant feeling. Perhaps I could accustom myself to it over time, but I really don't think I want to. I removed a sterile 8 gauge needle which all of a sudden appeared to be more like a 2 gauge needle. I believe I even held it to the jewelry to make sure it was the right size. It was. I prepared myself mentally. I reassured myself that I could do it. I put a little pressure on the receiving tube so I could see it through the underside of my penis. It seemed fairly thin there. I could see the tube fairly clearly and there didn't seem to be any large veins or arteries in the way.
I told myself I was just gonna line the needle up and push it through quickly. I must push it through very quickly. Only one problem, I've never been able to pierce myself half as quick as I can pierce other people. I slowly pushed the needle through my skin and into the receiving tube... it really wasn't that bad. At this point I had worked myself up so much I was starting to feel that endorphin high that a lot of people claim to get during mods. I knew the signs of temporary unconsciousness and I thought I might be getting ready to faint. I sat back, propped my feet up, loosened my shirt, turned the fan on... a few seconds later I started to feel better. I looked down at my penis and guess what? There was blood all over my lap.
You see, a large gauge needle has quite a substantial taper on the end of it, and while I thought the needle was firmly in the receiving tube, I guess the far end of the tapered edge still hadn't gone all the way through the flesh. Blood was dripping into the tapered end and running out the backside of the hollow needle, whereas normally the thickness of the needle would have filled the space. I hurried and pushed the needle the rest of the way through, that wasn't so bad.
I felt a little bit more comfortable once the receiving tube was removed, but when I went to insert the jewelry... I wasn't too happy. There seemed to be a tough layer lining the urethra that didn't really want me to put the jewelry in, it was a little difficult but I got it in without losing connection. The bleeding was basically stopped by now, although my pants told the story of what happened. I closed the ring and inserted the bead. I wrapped my "little man" in a Dri-Lock bandage and an extra glove, just in case it started bleeding again. I cleaned up the area and even though my pants managed to catch all of the blood I bleached everything down just in case, I tried using chemicals on my pants too. I was ready to leave, one step outside and I didn't even get to the door before everyone was like "what happened? Are you OK?"
So I told them the story and they laughed at me as well as making some remarks about being crazy for piercing my own weiner, but in the long run it was a very valuable situation that cannot be replaced. The piercing was not hard to heal, I didn't notice discomfort the first time I urinated. Although I must say that I missed standing up to urinate because now the urine followed the flow of the jewelry and sprayed all over. Sitting down is no fun, but thank God for public restrooms, half the time they are already covered in piss before I even go.