The Beautiful Kind

I have a friend who is into play piercing. What’s that? Oh, sticking needles into yourself for fun and decoration. At first I thought it was fucked up, but with a little more thought I realized it was a lot like tattooing, only less permanent. And sometimes a lot more attractive. GOD there are some hideous tattoos out there. The pic to the left is of my friend and her arm corset. And here, my dears, is my first fetish interview!

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How did you get into play piercing?
Years ago a friend of mine turned me on to www.bmezine.com. I spent a lot of time there looking at various real piercings, to get an idea of what piercings I might like for myself. Eventually I got a blog page there and through that blog page met someone who would later become a very good friend of mine. He and I would send each other interesting pictures of things we found on BME, and a picture of a woman with rings running down her spine with ribbon threaded through them like a corset really caught our eyes. We talked about getting some needles and trying it ourselves. Years went by and we never tried it, but I discovered that my roommate was interested in trying it as well, so we decided to go for it.

Is it sexual?
I think that no matter the person, the answer is yes. For some, the sexuality is right there on the surface. They find it kinky, it turns them on, etc. For me it is sexual, but in a more subtle way. There is a build-up and a release of tension, intimate penetration, relinquishment of control, primal communication between two people…

Does it hurt?
The act of pushing a needle into your skin causes pain which is on par with the prick of an injection. The act of watching the needle crawl under your skin and through the underlying fascial layers actually causes no pain at all, and then the most pain comes when the needle exits through the other side. Different parts of your body react differently to the needles. However for me, this pain is pleasurable, and I enjoy blurring the line between pain and pleasure.

Do you consider it self-mutilation or self-expression?
For me, it is self-expression. For something to be mutilation, it has to be degrading to the appearance or function of the body. Some people may personally consider play piercing (and other types of body modification) mutilation. To them, a piercing, tattoo, or other body mod takes away from the person. I enjoy the way the needles look in my skin, mostly because of what they represent. I think play piercings can be beautiful, especially when placed into the skin in an appealing pattern, or when you use ribbon to connect them.

What do you get out of it?
I’ve found that nothing in this world is simple, and that goes for play piecing as well. There are many layers to it. We are wired to withdraw from pain. By intentionally picking up a needle and pushing it into my own skin, I am subverting and thus taking control over very primitive drives. It is an exercise in control over oneself. I get an endorphin rush both from the physical act of piercing my skin, as well as from the psychological act of being strong-willed enough to overcome my own anxieties. It is very similar in some aspects to diving from the high-dive or doing anything else you’re afraid to do, but you do it anyway regardless of your fear. There is a build of anxiety and excitement and then at some point you just need to let go. I seek that feeling of letting go, of owning myself, and seeing how far I can push my own boundaries.

I have also allowed others to pierce me, and I have pierced others. When I am piercing someone, I enjoy having someone else trust me enough that they allow me to penetrate them so intimately and relinquish control to me. I enjoy giving them pleasure and being so intimately involved in helping them accomplish whatever it is they set out to accomplish -transformation, overcoming fears, etc.

When I first began piercing, I thought I would be unable to pierce myself. I imagined that I would get out the needle, clean my skin, put it to my skin and be unable to actually push it through. Yet when I finally was ready, my mind simply cleared into almost a meditative state. I had a profound sense of disassociation - it was as if I had stepped back into myself to let someone else take over. I felt like I was an observer instead of a participant. Only afterwards did I have time to think, “I actually did it. There is a needle in my arm. I did this.”

Where do you get the needles?
There are actually quite a few places online to get play piercing needles. Usually they are fetish medical supply stores (www.kinkymedical.net) or you can also get them through BMEZine’s online shop. They also come in different guages - the bigger the needle, the harder it bites you.

What did it look like after you took the needles out?
There were little tiny mini-drops of blood at each needle hole. The needles leave tiny dots which fade after a few days. If, however, you pierce through a blood vessel, it can bleed quite a bit more and leave a bruise. Usually no one can tell where I’ve had the needles. Different parts of the body may bleed more than others, especially vessel-rich areas like the face.

Did you do it yourself?
The work in the pictures was done by me, except for one needle. Midway through applying needles to myself I thought, “Wow, I would not want someone else do this to me.” The fact that I was anxious about trusting someone else to put needles into me made me realize that I should, therefore, allow someone else to put a needle into me. So I asked my friend (who was sticking needles into himself) to put the last one in. As he did, I could not help but look away like most people do when they get an injection at the doctor’s office. I was trying to lower my anxiety threshold by looking away. Next time, I plan to completely relinquish control to him and watch everything he does. My way of overcoming fears has always been to dive headlong into them and then tell myself, “See, that wasn’t so bad!” I also had the same friend straighten out the corset and tie the bow because that’s not easy to do with one hand.

Do you have a fetish you want the world to know about? Contact love [at] thebeautifulkind . com