Introduction to Male Genital Piercings

12.09.2010 | By: Elayne Angel

In this article Elayne Angel addresses some of the common questions and concerns men sometimes have about genital piercings.

Introduction to Male Genital Piercings by Elayne Angel (Photoxpress)

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Introductory information common to both male and female genital piercings is discussed in a previous article. Below I address some of the common questions and concerns men sometimes have about genital piercings, and then I provide details about the most popular of these piercings: the Prince Albert (or “PA”).

Male Genital Piercings: Urinating

Urine will run directly over certain piercings, including the Prince Albert and foreskin. Bodily fluids are not a problem—if they are your own. Urine is one of man’s first antiseptics and, if you are healthy, your own liquid waste will not harm your piercing. The regular passage of urine over the jewelry helps to minimize crusting, too. Urine can sting during the first few days of healing, so drink lots of water. This dilutes the urine and lowers the acidity, which minimizes discomfort. Cranberry juice or large quantities of orange juice or vitamin C will make your urine acidic, which may cause excess discomfort.

Additionally, you can pour a clean cup of water—warm or cool, as you prefer—over the area as you urinate. This rinses off the urine so it doesn’t linger uncomfortably, and the water feels soothing. Alternatively, put some water in a big, clean cup, submerge the piercing, and urinate underwater.

Putting unwashed hands anywhere near your piercing poses some risk of infection, even if you don’t touch it when you use the bathroom. To avoid contamination from dirty fingers, wash your hands before you urinate, use a tissue or toilet paper to handle yourself, or sit down, but make sure your piercing never touches the inside surface of the toilet bowl.

Male Genital Piercings: Bleeding

I always apply the amusingly named “rubber chicken” wrapping for piercings on the head or shaft to help you avoid an embarrassing mess. This dressing consists of sterile gauze around the piercing plus tissues for extra absorbency, covered by a medical glove (the drooping fingers look like a chicken comb). I secure it with a rubber band that is snug enough to keep the bandage in place, but not so tight as to diminish your circulation. Prince Albert, ampallang, and apadravya piercings regularly bleed enough to fill a whole glove multiple times. Keep the rubber chicken on until it is full and needs to be changed or until you must urinate. Reapply a leak-proof wrapping if there is any sign of bleeding, and for a day or two longer.

Prince Albert and guiche piercing (Photo: Elayne Angel)

Male Genital Piercings: Sensation

You need not be concerned about feeling continuously aroused and distracted by your new genital piercing. Unless a piercing is being handled or moved, it will produce almost no physical sensations. This is true even for a fresh piercing once the procedure is over and your nerve endings settle down. It is possible, however, that the idea or the appearance of your new ornament will result in an excited state. Because of the much wider distribution of nerve endings throughout the penis and scrotum, desensitization and hypersensitivity are seldom issues with male genital piercings.

Male Genital Piercings: Cock Rings

If you wish to wear a cock ring with a male genital piercing, discuss this openly with your piercer if it ordinarily rests near the pathway of the piercing. This can be of concern for pubic, guiche, and high scrotum piercings. You may need to put on your favorite model so your piercer can see if there is room for both. Even if you have space for a cock ring, you’ll probably need to forgo wearing it for a while to avoid excessive pressure on your new piercing.

Male Genital Piercings: Erections

It is natural to get an erection during the cleaning or marking phase of a genital piercing, and this will not surprise an experienced piercer. In fact, this can allow him to obtain an accurate jewelry measurement, which is advantageous for certain piercings. If you are still erect when the time comes for your piercing, the procedure will be more difficult or impossible for your piercer, and you will surely bleed more. Try to think about baseball or dinner at Grandma’s house for a few minutes to alleviate your condition. Getting an erection from seeing your piercing with the jewelry in place is also a frequent occurrence. Again, bleeding is a common consequence.

The jewelry you wear in genital piercings must accommodate your largest engorgement. If your jewelry is too tight when you are erect, return to your piercer as soon as possible for a larger piece. Jewelry that is too small can cause discomfort, migration, and healing problems.

When your piercing is new and tender, you may want to keep a glass of ice water by the bedside to douse any nighttime or morning erections. If there is dried matter on your jewelry, getting an erection can be painful, as the crust gets pulled into your piercing. This rough material can also be injurious to the delicate tissue.

Frequent saline soaks will help to keep your jewelry smooth, safe, and comfortable.

Prince Albert and lorum piercing (Photo: Elayne Angel)

The Prince Albert piercing is the most analogous to the VCH piercing for women, which was discussed in my post here:

http://www.intimatemedicine.com/sex-in-society/introduction-to-female-genital-piercings/

Like the VCH, the PA heals quickly (4-6 weeks), and passes through just a small amount of tissue.

• Initial jewelry style: Ring—circular barbell preferred, or a curved bar

• Initial jewelry gauge: 12 or 10 gauge

• Initial jewelry size: Minimum 5/8 inch, but anatomically dependent

In the world of modern body piercing, the Prince Albert is a historic piercing, not because Queen Victoria’s consort wore one—he didn’t. It is because during the early years of modern body piercing, the PA was the most popular male genital piercing. Many heavily pierced men describe the Prince Albert as their favorite.

The PA looks like a severe puncture of the male organ. However, the piercing traverses only a very small amount of tissue, encompassing much less skin than the average earlobe piercing. In fact, it goes through some of the thinnest pierceable tissue on the body. Because it goes through the urethra, men are often concerned about whether the Prince Albert piercing is more dangerous, harder to heal, or more susceptible to infections. To the surprise of many, it is an easy piercing both to receive and to heal. Your own urine is not harmful to the piercing. In fact, it functions much like the salt-water treatments that are suggested to promote healing.

Prince Albert Piercing: Placement and Choice of Jewelry

The piercing is made on the underside of the penis at the juncture of the head and shaft; the jewelry rests within the urethra and is worn out the tip of the urinary meatus (urethral opening). Many men greatly enjoy the sensation of jewelry inside the urethra, though it may take a short time to become accustomed to its presence. The urethra is not in the center of the penis—it runs along the bottom—so the piercing passes through a membrane of skin.

Prince Albert piercing (Photo: Elayne Angel)

The 10 gauge is a reasonable maximum starting thickness; the 12 gauge is less apt to bleed and can easily be stretched later. Let your piercer know if you have plans to stretch to jumbo gauges, because this should be factored in when marking the placement. If you don’t have a large penis or a high urethra (allowing for a substantial distance between the piercing and the lower edge of the urethral opening), the piercer can mark the placement a little further down the shaft to cheat some extra tissue into the piercing. The skin it pierces through won’t be any thicker—it will just be a little further from the tip of your penis. You should have no less than 1/2 inch of tissue between the piercing and the edge of your urethra when your penis is flaccid. If you want to stretch up to large gauges, the piercing should encompass at least 5/8 inch.

You need not become erect during the procedure because your piercer can get a measurement for the jewelry diameter by simply pulling on the skin near the end of your penis between the spot for the piercing and the tip of your urethra.

Circular barbells are versatile for PAs because you can modify the ring diameter for a precise fit by spreading or narrowing the gap between the balls. You can make adjustments (or have your piercer help) even when your piercing is new.

Instead of a flat, pierceable surface, many men have a cordlike web in the center of the area where the Prince Albert is worn. In this case, the piercing can sometimes be set a little further down the shaft, or, more commonly, slightly off to one side. The web should be avoided because penetrating it makes an unstable, uncomfortable PA and tends to result in little flaps of cut tissue. If the skin is not webbed, then the piercing can safely go right in the center (if no visible blood vessels are present). Sometimes PAs are placed unnecessarily off to the side, probably for the same reason that a lot of so-called “pros” don’t pierce the midline under the tongue: poor training.

Another PA piercing (Photo: Elayne Angel)

Several factors can help you and your piercer decide whether the piercing should be placed to the left or right of the web if it can’t go in the center. The piercer should look for visible blood vessels and, obviously, select the other side. He can also see if one side lines up better with your urethra; the jewelry will sit straighter when the piercing aligns with it.

If you are uncircumcised, you may still be built for a PA piercing. You must be able to comfortably retract your foreskin far enough for the piercing to be placed in an appropriate location. The piercer must check your tissue with your foreskin in both positions to be certain the jewelry will fit properly. If your foreskin fits snugly over your head, a curved bar may be needed for healing. You must not wear a ring so large that it prevents your foreskin from resting in its natural position. The ball at the tip of your penis must not be so small that a curved or circular barbell easily slips into your urethra. This will cause the remainder of the ring or bar to hang down from your piercing, which can irritate your tissue and might feel unpleasant inside.

Prince Albert Piercing: Anatomy/Hypospadias

Approximately one in every three hundred male children is born with a form of hypospadias, a birth defect in which the opening of the urethra is not located at the tip of the penis.6 The Prince Albert piercing is inadvisable in severe cases. In milder cases, the urinary meatus is still on the head of the penis (sometimes in the spot where a PA would traditionally be placed). A piercing might still be possible by situating it further down the shaft. You must consult an expert piercer if you have hypospadias.

Prince Albert Piercing: Procedure

This procedure may be difficult for you mentally, but it is not terribly challenging physically. Many men compare it favorably to an earlobe piercing.

I perform the Prince Albert using a needle receiving tube. For your comfort, I warm the tube between my gloved fingers and lubricate it before inserting it a short distance into your urinary meatus. The NRT is not overly large, but many men still find its presence inside to be the most unpleasant part of the procedure, so I leave it there as briefly as possible. My technique is to just slightly overshoot the dot when I insert the tube, so when I draw it back into position underneath the mark, I am certain the tissue inside the urethra is taut and flat. In most cases, I can see right through the skin to the tube inside. I make the piercing from the outside, through the mark, into the protective tube, which safely guides the sharp tip of the needle out your urethra. I transfer in the jewelry following the direction of the needle.