hood piercing

Here it is, the surface VCH (Vertical Clitoral Hood) piercing of the day. This is not where the piercing should be placed! In fact, it is off by the piercing equivalent of MILES.

It was done by Tasha at Way of Ink, in Springfield VA. Naturally the piercee was quite upset. My advice was to ask for her money back and abandon the piercing, and to seek a more competent professional if she wants a properly placed piercing.

The photo below shows the "inverted-V" of the hood. The bottom ball should be coming out from under this location so the jewelry rests underneath the hood against the clitoris.

The image below shows a properly placed VCH piercing with jewelry that fits well.

I got a message from a woman who was having some problems with her VCH piercing (which I did not perform for her--though this particular healing problem can crop up even when everything is done properly).

Hi Elayne, I'm having issues with my VCH piercing. It began after being agitated after sex (it seemed to be healing fine at the time). I noticed it stung sometimes when I sat down, sometimes when I walked. Upon closer examination, I noticed something that looks like an extra bit of skin under the top ball. I paid extra attention to it during cleaning, and noticed there was a bit of (off-white) discharge. I started doing soaks, the discharge went away, it stopped stinging, but the extra skin didn't go away. I did that for about 1.5 weeks.

This morning, I woke up and the discharge came back and it slightly stings again. I just did a soak... But I'm not sure what else to do.

 

 

In reading your book, I think it may be a keloid, but I'm not sure. Maybe an abscess (but I don't feel any hard localized mass). If it is a keloid, should it just be taken out? How can I be sure there's no infection still inside the piercing?

I received a message from a piercee in Italy who was concerned about her piercing:

I'm Italian and I've just ordered your book because by exploring your website I've understood that maybe you're one of the best piercers in the world.

Last week I got my first genital piercing, a "Nefertiti", but it is so short that it really looks like a VCH. Now I wear a 14 gauge curved bar (1.18’’ long) and after the healing time I really wanted to do a Triangle piercing, but I’ve contacted two different experts(both Italian professional piercers) and one of them thinks that I’ve a proper shape, whereas the other one says that it would be dangerous for me to make such a piercing.

My vaginal shape seems an apricot, but the upper side of my hood comes a little bit out from the outer labias. If you want I can send you a photo of it so that you can judge if you think I’ve the right shape to do this piercing or not and you can say how do you think my Nefertiti is made.

I’m really concerned about it and I hope you will help me!

Many thanks, R.

My reply:

You appear to be somewhat small built for a triangle piercing. I need to see the other photos as shown and explained on this page: http://piercingbible.com/female-genital-piercings#Photo to properly evaluate you for a triangle.

I received a message from the husband of a client I performed multiple genital piercings on:

Dear Elayne,

How are you doing? Hope all is well.

We have a quick question, Sharon unfortunately needs a knee replacement & will be the hospital for 3 days. We need remove her VCH  & the outer labias that you did (both are 10 gauge). They might be out at least 2 days before I could put them back in. We read your book & you suggest retainers, where should we go to in NYC or what can I do myself. I could get fishing line but I not sure it comes in 10 gauge & how to close the ends so it does fall out for the 2 days.

Again so sorry to bother you,

Thanks again, H.

Sorry to hear about S's knee surgery. I hope all goes well.

You can order inexpensive 10 gauge retainers here. That is a reliable website that is respected in the community.

I'm not sure where you could buy them locally, though. You'd have to call around.

Let me know if you have any questions and please send her my wishes for a successful procedure and a speedy recovery!

Thank you,

Elayne

I received a message from a woman who got a VCH piercing. Fortunately, it wasn't a surface VCH, and it didn't accidentally pierce through her clitoris (VCH placement problems I've seen numerous times). However, it wasn't centered, and she wanted my opinion about that. She wrote:

So, here it is, the botched genital piercing of the day by Mystic Piercing In Crofton, Maryland. The unlucky woman who received it wrote to me:

Hey I see it's probably a centimeter too high from the hood apex (that is if I understood the location properly) I'm just wondering if it looks ok... And safely done. It's 2 day old so It is still a hoop rather than the bars I've seen on your site. Thank you very much for letting me know, of course my best friend and my fiancé Dont know how it is supposed to be, I hope to hear from you soon! Thanks,

My reply:

No, sorry, you have a hood surface piercing, not a VCH piercing. What you're referring to as the "apex" is actually the edge of your hood. The apex is up underneath your hood, at the deepest natrual part of the little "one-ended tunnel."

I received a message from a woman I pierced and she wanted to know if it was normal that her jewelry often leaned to one side of her hood or the other. She sent photos. My comments are below.

This piercing looks great and these photos do a perfect job of illustrating a common phenomenon: the propensity for VCH jewelry to rest to one side or the other (depending on build and tissue tightness or thickness). Many hoods have very fine (thin) skin and are very pliable or malleable.

She described the tendency for the jewelry to rest over to her left, as in the second image. In this particular case, I noted her asymmetry, which likely contributes to this issue. In the image with the jewelry centered, I can see that the left side of her hood has a kind of "ridge" or "hill," where the right side has a sort of a "valley." It would make sense that the side with more tissue could be heavier, resulting in the tendency for the jewelry to favor that side.

Argh! I received yet another message from a woman who went in requesting a vertical clitoral hood (VCH) piercing and ended up getting her hood pierced to her clitoral glans pierced due to visiting an unqualified, untrained piercer. She wrote:

I recently got a VCH piercing but I think its not placed right. As you can see the piercing does not come through the hood, the lower ball is too far down. When i got the piercing it was very painful and a lot of blood came out.

My reply:
I'm sure it was very painful, because that is NOT a hood piercing: YOU HAVE HAD YOUR CLITORIS PIERCED!

Your hood is actually pierced to your clitoris. You're going to need to take that out but you should talk to the owner of the business and get your money back.

Where did you get this done?

She wrote again:

I had thought it was pierced through that from the pain i went through.

I will try and remove it myself as i don't want to go back to the place that did it.  I got it done in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland.

I was going to go to a piercing shop in Belfast tomorrow to see if they would remove it for me, as I don't want to make it worse.

Then she said: