Prince Albert

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Due to the amount of questions we receive regarding this particular piercing, we have included some information here, which we hope you guys (and gals) will find useful when decided whether or not to "go for it".

This information is courtesy of one of our customers, who has "gone for it" and has a lot of knowledge in this field. He has kindly offered to share it to make others aware of the pro's and con's of the piercing commonly known as the PA or Prince Albert. Thank you Rik!!

MY STORY- THE PRINCE ALBERT……………

Being an average male who led a fairly sheltered life! Who never thought about having any body piercing although they are quite a common thing these days and the most obvious ones being pierced ears, nose studs, tongue studs etc

Most of us will have seen at least one of these which are now fashionable for men to get their ears pierced and for the more adventurous eye brows, lips and other facial piercing.

That’s just the ones we can see on a daily basis these days. The others are nipple piercings, belly button, genital piercing such as the clit hood, labia (the lips on either side of the vagina), the Prince Albert (PA) being a male genital piercing and many others, to many to list here.

It all started for me with having my nipples pierced but that’s another story….

The PA is a male genital piercing that goes through the head of the penis, now your initial thoughts will be that it sounds very painful and why?

First of all let’s dispense with the pain concern. Most professional piercers will use a spray anaesthetic which if applied correctly will leave the area to be pierced num, so therefore you will feel no pain during the piercing. This can be readily bought over the internet, but a word of warning this type of anaesthetic will only work on skin that is porous! As most of our skin water proof it will not work, this only works on such as the tongue, female genital area and the head of the penis. Any where else on the body you will know about it and the amount of pain you may initially feel depends on many factors, such as the skill of the person doing the piercing, your pain threshold and of course which part of the body you are getting pierced. As I mentioned before that I have had my nipples pierced and this was very painful, so you are forewarned!

I have seen nipple piercing on the internet of a famous female pop star getting her nipple pierced during a concert break and went back on stage afterwards but she was given a local anaesthetic with needle in her nipple area, so she felt no pain apart from the injection. Due to regulations in the UK you will most likely not find any piercer in the UK qualified to do this.

So having the PA done is normally painless, now as to the WHY. Well that’s down to personal choice. Although this is a fairly common piercing for men out of the whole male population it is about 1-2 %. It can have the effect of making the penis look longer, more appealing to the opposite sex, and spice up your sex life or just a fashion thing!

Any piercing will take time to heel and will usually require some action by you to keep the newly pierced area clean and protected from accidental knocks. For the PA 3-6 weeks and nipples 3-6 months, as you can see there is a big difference in time and every piercing will differ as will be any follow up care.

For the PA it is recommend to wear tight fitting underwear to stop the little fella from moving around to much and as for sex usually 2-3 weeks depending on the individual but in all piercing the person doing the piercing should offer full guidance as to what is recommended.

The PA (Prince Albert) as mentioned before goes through the head of the penis this piercing goes through the hole in the middle of the penis and comes out just below the head at one side of the piece of flesh that connects the foreskin to the head of the penis.

See pictures:-

The normal gauge for piercing (i.e. thickness of the bar, normally surgical steel) is 1.6mm, however this is to thin for the PA and could act as a cheese wire! So usually 2-3mm gauge would be used. The PA tends to heal quite quickly and no special attention is required apart from careful handling after the initial piercing. In fact urine will help to keep it clean and help the healing process, but if you feel happier you can buy wound wash from a well know high street chemist.

Once the piercing has fully healed you can quite quickly increase the gauge of the piercing by gradually going up in size, typically for most men 4-6 mm. This is made easy for the PA as the skin at the head of the penis is designed to change in size but for the nipples it is quite difficult and can be painful and once again it depends on what type of piercing you have and the location. With the larger gauge PA’s it is quite safe to leave them out for a few days and refit them, for the smaller gauges it could start to close and heal up.

Special equipment is required to do most piercing and therefore I would not recommend that you attempt any of these on your self. Always go to a well know studio, preferably recommended by friends or at least view 2 or 3 studios to see how they operate and what the costs are, have a chat to them, ask as many questions as you want, do you feel comfortable with this person, what facilities they have and most critical is hygiene. Studios offering special deals or appear very cheap may be reusing equipment or poor quality fittings. Having said that I got all mine done by trainees under supervision of a qualified piercer at half the normal price and being watched by other trainees. You may not be comfortable with that and prefer to be done by the qualified person without an audience. Most studios will allow you take a friend with you while you have the piercing done. Men and women carry out these piercings and if you prefer a person of the same sex then you need to make this clear at the time.

Typical fitting for the PA is the BCR (Bar Closure Round), see photo:-

There are many variants to these and go by gauge size and internal diameter as you can see from the photos. The most typical is round closure and a ball to complete the circle. The ball has two small indentations which allow the ball to be trapped by the closure ring and can be quite easily (but fiddly) fitted by hand on the smaller gauges up to 4mm. 6mm upwards may require the use of a special pair of pliers (these pliers can be readily bought on the internet) to open the ring closure to fit the ball. This type of fitting is more secure. Other types of fitting have a screw in ball, again is quite secure and some have an easy fit ball for the larger gauges. The problem with the easy fit ball is that it can sometimes cause an embarrassing situation, the ball can come off during intercourse and if not noticed could allow the ring to rotate and come off the penis which can be painful when you hard at it! Not to mention you have to spend several minuets trying to find the lost ball in the vagina. Therefore I would not recommend the wearing of a BCR with an easy fit ball during intercourse. So careful consideration should be given as to the type of BCR you fit.

It is not uncommon for people, mainly men to see how large a PA they can go in gauge terms! Mine is currently 8mm and I am planning to go to 10mm. The only issue with this is as you go up in gauge size the internal diameter is reduced and to compensate for this you have to increase the internal diameter of the BCR at the same time. The reason for this is to maintain the overall shape of the penis head and keep sufficient spacing between the point of insertion and exit of the piercing. Failure to do this could result in the flesh between these points reducing and eventually splitting. This has happened!!!!

Other down sides to the PA and once again depending what you have fitted, can make things difficult for oral sex and may need to be removed before hand. Another minor issue is when you go for a wee, as it now sprays in two directions. One in the normal direction the other is down your leg!! Therefore it is best to use a toilet and sit down!!

I have no problems with the PA, we have normal sex with it fitted and my partner loves it!! And it intrigues other women :)