Intimate piercings might be one of the most fascinating parts of the piercing industry. They are part of our history, culture and the reason that the modern piercing industry looks the way it does.
During this post I will be using the term ‘male’ to discuss AMAB, or assigned male at birth anatomy. These are piercings of the penis and surrounding anatomy. This also includes trans folks who have had gender affirming surgery (“bottom surgery”) and now have a penis! If you have undergone HRT, but not had gender affirming surgery, we recommend coming in for a consultation so we can discuss your anatomy and see which piercings can work for you.
Male intimate piercings have tribal roots. They are often used as a rite of passage from boyhood to adulthood. In the modern day, male intimate piercings are more of a subcultural endeavour. The modern piercing industry was founded by 6 gay men, who came together due to a love of intimate piercings. We would not be the industry we are today without these piercers! One of those 6 men was Mr Sebastian. You are welcome to read more on this fascinating man, and I’m sure we will write more about him in the future. Aiden has these piercers in his lineage, and is incredibly proud of that.
Here at Rogue, our head piercer Aiden is an intimate piercings specialist. He has over 11 years of piercing experience, and has performed a huge number of intimate piercings in both the UK and abroad during his life as a travelling piercer. If you choose to come to us for your intimate piercing, know you are in safe hands.
Sadly, intimate piercings are dying out in the UK due to a lack of passing the knowledge on to our apprentices. We want any adult who wants an intimate piercing to be able to come to us and have a safe piercing that is performed by an experienced expert. This is why we are proud that our apprentices wants to follow in Aiden’s footsteps and learn to pierce intimates as well as all the more standard piercings! This means that if you are pierced by us, you have the option to let our junior piercers assist in the piercing procedure to aid her training.
Male Anatomy
It’s important to take into account the internal anatomy of the penis when discussing male intimates, and how different piercings will feel and heal. There are minimum gauges that each piercing must be pierced at to avoid issues- This is often quite large. For Prince Alberts and other similar piercings, we pierce at a minimum of 10g, but will recommend larger depending on anatomy and lifestyle.
Hafada and Lorum
These are truly the easiest intimate piercings. They are piercings on the scrotum! There are pierced with BCR rings. The scrotum is the easiest part of the male anatomy to pierce and heal. The scrotum is soft, stretchy and does not contain any major blood vessels, so the piercing itself and the healing process is very simple. These are a good piercing to start with if you want to explore the world of intimate piercing!
Prince Albert and the Reverse Prince Albert.
These piercings work with some of the bar or ring sitting inside the urethra, which you can see sits low in the underside of the penis. The most important part of any male intimate piercing is to be aware of the blood vessels that run through the shaft and to be confident that you aren’t hitting any of them when piercing. The main blood vessels are the Deep Dorsal Vein and the Pudendal Artery. These are major blood vessels! This is why a piercer must be incredibly experienced and confident in their ability before performing these types of piercing.
Any piercings that pass through the lower part are less complex and are good beginner intimates. A Prince Albert is quite a good beginner male intimate as it passes out of the bottom of the penis, and so you can see doesn’t actually pass through as much tissue! The Reverse Prince Albert, however, passes through the top of the penis and passes through quite a bit of tissue, including the corporal tissue. This makes the RPA a much more advanced piercing – You really need to put your trust into an expert!
If you want to read more about the Prince Albert and it’s surrounding mythos, then click here.
Ampallangs and Apadravyas
Ampallangs and Apadravyas are piercings that pass through the head of the penis. Ampallang piercings cross the head horizontally, whereas Apadravya piercings cross vertically. These, along with most male shaft piercings, have the intended purpose of increasing pleasure during sex. This is often the reason for getting these piercings alongside the aesthetic effect. However, we cannot guarantee any improvement to sexual experiences- We pierce for aesthetics only.
Consultations
We require a consultation before any intimate piercing so we can check your anatomy and fully discuss the procedure, aftercare and the full experience. Once you have had your consultation and are happy to proceed, you are more than welcome to book for your appointment!
There are so many options when it comes to male intimate piercings, and that means that there is a piercing for every person and every lifestyle. If you know you want an intimate piercing, but aren’t sure which one, you are more than welcome to book a piercing consultation with Aiden where we can discuss what will work for you. We would love to pierce more intimate curations, where we pierce a project of many piercings over time.
Intimate Piercing Aftercare
Aftercare for these piercings varies greatly, depending on location. If they are more surface-level piercings such as lorum, hafada, frenum or pubic piercings, we recommend a standard aftercare approach of twice-daily cleaning with sterile saline solution. If the piercing passes through the shaft such as with a PA, RPA, or Deep shaft piercing, then we recommend saline soaks. The reason we recommend soaks with these piercings is because they pass through a significant amount of internal tissue and cleaning the outside only doesn’t quite cut it! You can’t clean the inside very much, so a good soak allows the saline to reach the inside and reduce your discomfort during the healing period.
Intimate piercings are quite straightforward to heal. The tissue is soft and has an excellent blood-flow, which means they heal very fast! You are looking at three months for a complete heal, inside and out. We ask you pop back for a checkup after 2 weeks as we may need to alter the jewellery once your swelling diminishes. After this downsize, you are set and do not need to do anything if you don’t want to!
Stretching
Male intimate piercings can be stretched to larger gauges, and this is quite a common practice. Commonly stretched piercings include the Prince Albert, Reverse Prince Albert, and trans-scrotal piercings – Although any piercing can be stretched!
We recommend waiting at least 6 months after piercing before stretching, just to make sure that the piercing is fully healed and settled. Stretching can be done at home, but we recommend letting us stretch these piercings for you if you are at all unsure! Stretching involves using a lubricated tapered insertion tool to gently introduce the new jewellery. This allows your body to more easily accept the new jewellery!
So there you have it. A good overview of penis piercings! We understand that this is a huge topic to tackle and we can’t do it justice in a single post, but we hope we have enlightened you to a bit of the topic. If you would like to have an intimate piercing, get in touch via email or instagram and we can begin the process for you!
