A craftsman tale. Chapter 1.

    It was in October of 1998 that a plain brown envelope came with the post. Addressed to my 22 year old daughter, it was opened by my wife who said "Ted look at this" . Ive explored the whole field of wrought metal work over the past 30 years including making jewellery for 20 of them, all of which was worn "on" the body. When I took a look at the catalogue , I saw metalwork that was designed to be worn "through the body". I was fascinated with what I saw, particularly the titanium, (a metal I had been working on a large scale for 10 years). So started my interest in "through the body" jewellery. Working outside of the main stream of applied metalwork I have always sought to push the boundaries of my chosen art beyond the established concepts of the day. This daily challenge has been the spur that kept me going, when really I should think about putting my feet up, however craftsmen never really retire, they go on till they fall over. Im 65 and my wife Alison, is 52. I couldnt put the Wildcat catalogue down for several days, with ideas flooding through my head. I was so ignorant about this new jewellery form that I had to go to the net and look for a prince albert to find out what it was!! My wife and I were looking forward to our 25th wedding aniversary in 1999, and one morning I thought, how could I make this milestone something special?. I put forward the idea over supper that we should mark this special year with a piercing each . She was somewhat shaken with this but realised it was inevitable knowing me!! This would be a daily reminder of our comittment to our life together. She has always had a career of her own in the medical profession, so after considering the health risks we agreed to explore the idea further. Altho the prince albert is the most popular male piercing , having considered it I felt it was not for me, for a number of reasons. firstly, im "as born". My parents decided that if they made me with a foreskin it was meant to be there so didnt have me circumcised. Secondly, our children are far apart in years and with the younger still around the house, I wished my piercing to be a private matter. so it musnt be seen. This didnt give me many options other than the "dydoe". It would be covered up when not in use and all one might see would be the bumps like genital beading," if" one knew what to look for., Researching the internet I came upon BME. A great wealth of information, images and personal experiences. Then followed a month of information gathering as to type, size, material etc. One image amongst the BME dydoe section was what I admired the most. It is the multiple dydoe with 8 piercings through the glans. I showed my wife this image and she thought it was beautiful , as well as being artistically done. She sees lots of genitalia in her work. So the decision for me was made . For her, it was a lot easier. We had decided some time ago that our family was large enough, (I had a vasectomy some years ago, so no more contraceptives for us!!!) and for her no more breast feeding. As she has good nipples, that was where she would have her piercings. Similarly she needs to keep hers hidden in her professional life. Next who is to do the piercing??. My wife declined altho she is competent enough to do it. She said we should have some one who does it everyday. So we considererd going to Patrick at the London piercing clinic, or the Leeds and Manchester, piercing Co, as we wanted the best. however I decided to look at all the piercing outfits in our local Bournemouth /Poole, Dorset (Central southern England) area first, and finally found my way to "Two Tribes" run by John, who had been piercing a number of years after a varied career. He had some superbly artistic tatoos, so he knew good work and wore it!. I took my wife to meet him and he showed us round. He also has some superb airbrush images of Athene the patroness of the arts amongst other artistic things in his studio, which convinced me he was our man. Looking next at the body jewellery commecially available, altho well made it was designed for the mass market, being made on cnc automatic machines. I felt that if I was to have something through my penis I would want it to be specific for me.. ( Afterall it is for use!!) I also love titanium when its fire oxidised.( the colours dont fade and are much clearer.) So I chose as initial keepers till I had healed up, 5mm titanium beads on 14 gauge Teflon or PTFE. I drove the 250 mile round trip to Wildcat in Brighton to look at the biggest range of jewellery in the South and bought enough titanium and ptfe for us both and more to experiment with. Winter being a slack period of the year, I had plenty of time to get the feel of making bcr's and barbells etc in titanium. Amongst some tooling I bought up from a retiring minter/stamper some years ago, were a lot of victorian press tools., Amongst these were some stars which just have to be for nipple shields and some viking cape roundels.. I made these up in a variety of metals including 925silver with titanium beads on the 6 points of the star. Needless to say very fetching when worn by my wife. Her nipples held them in place,( to get them through the best way is to suck them!!) But to continue with our story. It was mid November when I phoned John knowing that my wife would have 3 days off call. He agreed to see us at 2pm, she drove us the 20 miles to his studio. I gave him my jewellery which he put into the autoclave, and he asked what music I wanted. As i'm an oldie, he found our local classical fm band and they were playing Brahms piano koncherto. One of my favorites. When all was ready and I was marked up for 2 dydoes, at 10 and 2 o'clock Alison sat by my side held my hand and watched. John told me to breath deeply. Despite the use of a topical local anasthetic, this was cosmetic. I asked him to take the piercing deep into the glans so it came out half way to the top. I didnt want it to migrate out. He uses the introcan needles with the ptfe sheath. He withdraws the needle from its sheath when its through and puts the ptfe bar into the sheath end. This feeds it through the pierce as he draws the sheath back out. As a smith I knew what pain was all about. I WAS NOT DISSAPOINTED. He took about 5 seconds and this Ist PIERCE will remain with me for a long time!!!. When the first side was done the procedure was repeated on the other . With the adrenaline and endorphins, this time its was less painful. After the usual cleanup I felt a dull ache and shortly after we were on our way home. Before we left, John told us I was the first dydoe piercing he had done!!!. 10 out of 10 I said for a 1st class job. When home we did the chores putting all the animals to bed,(outside of course) and I decided to go to the bathroom . I unwrapped the tissues and was about to rinse my John Thomas when the next thing I knew my wife was propping me up against the bath tub. My blood sugar had fallen low and I keeled over with a real crash.!! Anyway, I recovered ok, we had a lovely meal together and turned in. The next day I was back to normal with a dull ache now and again. I asked my wife what did she think of John and his work?? she replied excellent he's genuine I like him. I then said would you go to him today? as it was her turn. After a pause, she said yes. so I phoned John , asking if he could fit us in again at 2pm. He did so and we were there on time. When all was ready and she was marked up I sat alonside being my turn to hold her hand.. I cant remember the last time anyone has squeezed my hand so hard !!. My wife has very sensitive nipples so I knew it hurt. When both sides were done came the first look in the mirror for her. I could tell she was pleased because she didnt slouch!!. I drove home this time, did the chores, cooked our supper and there you have 2 happy bunnies well pleased with themselves. Chapter2. Our healing took its normal course so that in 2 weeks I was well enough to give my 2 dydoes a very gentle trial run. All was well medically tho I was beginning to think there could be a lot of improvements to the jewellery. All the personal experiences I have read indicate that as the gauge goes up, the benefits for ones partner get better. This isnt the case with dydoes using barbells. However the flexibility of the ptfe was the right choice, as was taking the piercing deep through the glans. I had some 8mm titanium beads which looked great when installed, but were difficult to cover with the foreskin. these were put to the test and the response was" I can barely feel them". I had by now some 10mm titanium rod and turned up some 10mm beads from this material, drilled and tapped for the 14 gauge ptfe. These were the right size but I couldnt cover them with my foreskin and when I was erect the beads behind the glans hurt a lot, due to their size . Obviously I needed to do some rethinking of the bead design before I had the other 2 dydoes done at 4 and 8 oclock . The 65,000 dollar question "What if" resulted in lots of sketches of a penis with different shaped beads all over them. It dawned on me that the "ideal" shape for the beads on the glans could only be "Half round" , with the flat side on the skin. Looking then at the angle of the ptfe as it exits from the skin, it meant that the drilling and tapping into the flat side would have to be at 45 degrees. Titaniun is a most difficult material to work, let alone drill and tap at this angle! I turned up some half round beads,5mm high by 8mm wide, and spent half a day drilling and tapping about one of the most difficult jobs I have done.. Polishing and fire oxidising was easy as I do it to all my titanium work. The next consideration were the beads behind the glans. Ideally these needed to be flat on the shaft of the penis, To allow for the height of the corona, I turned these up 6mm high by 10 mm wide. I drilled and tapped them parallel to the flat side 1mm in. They looked mighty strange when finished . I fitted them to me and thought erotic thoughts. John Tomas responded and it was really satisfying to see the result. The beads on the glans were held flat and the ones behind the corona were tight and flat on the shaft. With a little ky jelly,(Johnson&Johnson) the foreskin slid back and forward over the 4 beads of the 2 dydoes without any snagging !. A great improvement on the round beads. That evening, we gave it a test run. At last!! the results we were after!!. The beads were most comfortable for me(not that I need any more stimulus) and my wife could at last feel a good stimulus from the larger beads. The next day, I made up another pair of these special barbells to match the 1st pair and phoned John for an appointment. It was now some 4 months since he pierced me first, and I was ready for the next 2 dydoes. These were a repeat of the first experience, and looked great with the other 2, as the hardware all now matched. Healing this time was much more comfortable. I kept the foreskin over the glans and with proper attention to hygene, just a surgical scrub cleaner and the application of our own mix of lavender , orange, teatree oil in a sweet almond base healed me in 2 weeks. Tho still somewhat tender, now to the moment of truth. We gave it a gentle test run with plenty of ky to help, and Yes, the results were what my wife wanted. This development of the dydoe piercing into a fully useable version has been a most interesting exercise. For those of you that are uncircumcised , I keep the glans covered till I am about to penetrate. I use ky on my penis and my partner to assist in entry. the foreskin is retracted by the labia and sexual movement is normal thereafter. Currently, Im talking to a manufacturer to make these specially shaped beads in a number of sizes to add to my product portfolio.. The applications for this new shape of bead are limited only by the imagination. Dydoes using barbells arn't the only way to place jewellery through the corona of the glans. Todd Bertrang has used BCR's in this position to great effect. His current partner, Ms Ellen Thompson, the editor and producer of" Fetish magazine" has been kind enough to give me her personal experience of Todd's dydoe bcr's in use and to quote from her letter in this story!! I quote :- My question, Are you able to describe the difference in your sensations between an unadorned penis and an adorned one? "Yes, by all means, I can most certainly feel the difference. I'd had plenty of boyfriends with genital modifications, and was married to a man whom I bought 4 10 gauge bead implants for, which were placed along the top lenth of the shaft (and which he later removed, the bastard !!). My ex and I started our relationship together experimenting with body modifications, and planned on growing with more and more mods, especially genital modifications. I would have to say that Todd is by and far the most exceptional; what with his subincision( which flays wide the penis) and the abundance of large gauge jewelery he has adorning it. I am quite aware of my own g-spot, and how to move with a lover to get the most feeling and satisfaction. Sex with a partner who has major genital modifications feels so much more defined and much more intense. Todd's extreme modifications made a big difference in my orgasm(s) as well ; especially when he went to pull out. I got another delicious shudder as all the rings rubbed me in the opposite direction. I'm afraid that I nearly wore the poor guy out on the first night we got together, I liked the feeling so much, I kept wanting more." Ms Thompson continues with her description of Todds subincision,and its benefites for Todd. This tale has now reached the present day, Im experimenting with body jewellery designs using flexibe materials, my wife has some very special nipple rings I made for her in titanium and gold. She has had some other piercings I did for her. I'll have to ask her wether i can add these to our tale, as they are much more private. Any further developments will be written up as and when they take place. I hope you enjoyed my story. Ted Frater Titanium smith. Dorset England.. ?