About two years ago I got a Prince Albert piercing. I'm the last guy who you'd ever think would get this sort of thing done. I still can't believe I got it done. I started off with an 8 gauge piercing but I gradually stretched it throughout the years. I primarily wore a circular barbell, but once I reached 4 gauge that sort of jewelry was really irritating the piercing. I am uncut, so I assume the foreskin and the weight and size of the jewelry just clashed. Due to that, I switched to a curved barbell for my primary wear.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Jacob Studio NEXT! Location Vancouver, B.C., Canada Before I continue, my stretching history went as followed:
8 Gauge to 6 Gauge: Used a taper, went smoothly
6 Gauge to 4 Gauge: Used a taper, went smoothly
4 Gauge to 2 Gauge: The piercing naturally stretched, I bought a taper for the stretch but it wasn't needed (which pissed me off a bit that I spent the cash for a taper that wasn't needed)
Roughly six months ago I was at 2 gauge, for a good 4 months. I was itching to get to 0 gauge. Honestly, I was not prepared for the jump. The stretch happened after a night on the town - I'm home, drunk, drinking more... I had the tools with me, the taper and the jewelry. Previous attempts sober failed... so during my drunken haze I just forced the stretch.
Things went downhill from there. It was extremely painful. I ran out and bought a curved barbell, because I had a circular barbell there and I thought that was the problem. I switched the jewelry.
A couple of days later, the pain didn't go away and I noticed that the skin around the piercing was swollen. This didn't phase me too much, but I did have some concern about it. A day after, in the middle of a work day, I suddenly experienced a sharp pain. I got up from my desk, ran to the washroom, and took out the jewelry. When I got home about 5 hours later, I noticed the piercing was "blown out" so to speak and the side of my head where the piercing was located was even more swollen. A week later, the swelling went away but the hole appeared to be closed. I was choked!! This piercing gave me so much self-esteem and I couldn't believe it was gone.
A ring of skin around the piercing (the blown out effect I assumed it was) was starting to die. One night that layer of skin just fell off. It wasn't a lot of skin, and it didn't hurt at all, but it weirded me out.
A week later, (probably three weeks into this whole ordeal) everything settled down, but it still appeared the piercing was closed. One night I decided to try to stick in an old taper of mine, to see if it was really closed or not. The taper went through, and I managed to get in my old 8 gauge circular barbell in. I was ecstatic!! The piercing was my baby, I was so attached to it.
A week later, the piercing seemed to open up naturally. The 8 gauge piece of jewelry I had in there was way to thin so I took my collection of curved and circular barbells and tried them on one size at a time... 6 gauge fit.... then the 4.... then the 2.... then the 0!! I was so happy!
Fast forward to now... the piercing was stretching naturally, urine was leaking out from the piercing with the 0 gauge jewelry in, so I decided to head by the body mods shop I go to for my jewelry and pick up a 00 gauge curved barbell and a taper. They had no 00g tapers, but they had the barbell. I decided, why not I'll grab the jewelry now and find a taper later.
Curious me decided to see if the 00 gauge jewelry would fit... so I took out the 0 gauge piece, and compared the two jewelries. My thought "No f***ing way this would fit, it's like double the size!!" I looked at the piercing hole though, compared the jewelry to it... and just tried...and it went in without a problem!
Now after some drama, I'm a proud owner of a 00 gauge prince albert piercing. I'm so crazy excited over it! I just want to leave it be for a while though, just in case playing around with it aggravates anything. (this thing is massive!!!!!) Next pay cheque (it will allow some time for it to get use to the jewelry), I'm off to get a circular barbell for show. If I were to buy it now, I'd want it in now, and I'm paranoid about going through what I went through.