I’ve never been one to get off on the pain of piercing. The pain to me was a vital step in the piercing process, it is what made it so rite-of-passage, so event-marking. Without the pain you do not deserve your piercing. The (minimal, I must admit) pain I went though for my genital piercings makes me cherish them all the more. I had a horrible experience getting my tongue pierced, (a malicious piercer and almost passing out from pain) and at first I thought I would take it out, but since I’ve kept it in that horrid experience has somehow made me cherish the piercing all the more, as it is visible evidence that I made it through that experience.

My ears have always been unlucky with piercings before. When I first got my ears done in middle school, 8 weeks later I slept with them out one night, and they closed up over-night and I had to get them re-done (and oh, isn’t piercing through scar tissue fun!) I used to have 5 piercings on one ear, and 7 on the other. But they always got infected and I eventually took out all the earrings when I got my labia and clit hood done, and said "fuck it" to the whole ear piercing thing. But recently, I’ve felt this urge to have nice dangly things around my face again, and so I decided to get those old original holes stretched. The first stretch (to a 10 gauge) was hell. One of the old piercing holes had closed in the back, and the piercer did not realize this until he was halfway through and met a little wall of scar tissue. It took him three goes with the dull stretcher needle, but he eventually got it through. I didn’t cry till I left the piercing shop, but I did cry all the way home.

I was horribly trepidatious about the next stretch (10 to 8 gauge) but is was so painless as to be laughable. I still had the rush of adrenaline that comes with body modifying, but I almost didn’t deserve it (not that I’m complaining, mind!) The 8 to 6 gauge stretch was more intense, but it was a new kind of pain for me. It was more like the way my old yoga instructor described what we students called "pain", she said "it’s not pain, it’s just sensation, if you breathe into it, it will go away." Of course we all raised our eyebrows at the time, "yeah, right, that’s not pain!" But as I’ve been doing yoga more and more I begin to see what she means. And in 6 to 4 gauge that is pictured on my site, I actively did yoga breathing and "got into" the stretching.

I was intense! And rewarding. The adrenaline kicked in right away and the headache I’d been trying to ignore all day instantly fled. The stretching of the flesh itself was a very interesting pain sensation, and trying to describe it would be like trying to describe orgasm to a virgin. But a part of my brain clicked *on* and I suddenly understood why piercing and stretching junkies are addicted to the pain (never-mind the rush!)

Piercing and the stretching of piercings, is not for everyone. Many people find the concept of pain untenable, and se no reason to volunteer for, and pay for, pain when life will eventually hand out your quota, free of charge. But as someone who has played with pain for emotional, spiritual, and even physical gain, I put forth the (entirely unoriginal) idea that learning to take pain on your own terms means that you can better deal with the pain dealt you by life. The rewards of pain adding to pleasure, making it more intense, are not really the topic here, but I will leave you with a question: can learning how to deal with, even appreciate, pain help you to learn how to enjoy and be in control of pleasure more?

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