u/Glad_Ad_61

This is my now 20 year old Apadravya, which is at 4mm/6G. I plan to go up to a 2G or 0G bar soon which I’ll start by wrapping some ptfe around my existing bar to stretch.

I am UK based and did not have access to needle blanks and receiving tubes like is common in the USA and rest of the world. Here in the UK, cannulas are used 9/10 times for piercings and only those piercers with experience of other countries, are the ones usually using needle blanks. I think needle blanks are far superior for piercings, but I used what I had at the time. I started by giving myself a PA.

Issue with a cannula, is one, the plastic sheath is larger than the needle shaft, only by 0.5-1mm thickness, but that transition from needle tip to plastic tube, isn’t that fun and that added a level of discomfort that didn’t need to be there.
And two, because i used a cannula, I had to go from the inside of my Urethra to the outside, not the traditional way of putting a receiving tube down the urethra, and piercing from the outside into the tube.

In terms of procedure, it was no different, I just had to make sure the needle was backed out of the plastic sheath when inserting down the urethra, and then pushed the needle through once aligned.

Once I had done the PA, I left it heal for 6 months and then used a cannula again to go through the bottom healed hole and then through the top of the glans.

For healing and pain purposes, I am pretty glad I split it up into the two piercings rather than trying to do all in one.

For me, yeah it hurt, but nipple piercing still remains the absolute worst I’ve ever done on myself, and I would take an APA over a nipple any day of the week.

If anyone needs one for their own journey, then I can provide a more detailed explanation of the procedure, but I do think that people are better off using needle blanks and not cannulas, but if like me you live in the UK or EU where they are less common, then I can make a detailed explanation guide and provide that to you to help as much as I can.

I will always say that going to a professional for an APA is a good idea, but I’m not to judge your reasons for not, so all I want is people to be safe.

*A bit about me* - my name is Finn, I’m 39 and live in the UK. Been self piercing and doing body mods since I was 17, and I used to have 40 piercing at one point, including 3 genital (one APA, one PA and one Frenum) and including vertical labrets, a stretched centre labret, all the ear piercings, and many successfullly healed micro dermal implants.

I was a member of BMEzine for 10 years, known as Finevitable, and while I did not partake in any very extreme body mods, I was friends with many who did.

I still would love my tongue split at some point in my life, but the UK has gotten so draconian that body mod practitioners are now being put in jail for doing heavy procedures on people even with consent forms. It’s pushed all of this body mod scene to the EU now. Sad times.