For exposure as a result of broken skin, clean the exposed area with soap and water. Squeezing blood out of the wound has no added effect.
If exposure is to the mucous membranes, flush the affected area with water for 15 minutes.
Contact your primary care physician immediately. If there has been possible exposure to HBV, medical treatment needs to begin within 24 hours. Opinions vary as to when prophylaxis treatment should begin for possible exposure to HIV: from 30 minutes to 4 hours has been recommended.
Exposure to infectious diseases must be taken very seriously—they can be life-threatening. Get tested for HBV, HCV, and HIV for your own sake and for the safety of those you scene with. Positive HBV, HCV, or HIV status does not preclude future scenes involving blood so long as standard precautions are taken. Be open to your partners concerning your medical status. It is inexcusable to have an infectious disease and not tell your partner about it.
NEEDLE WORK AFTERCARE
If a wound is going to become infected, it will usually happen in the first 24 to 72 hours. This statistic is based on infections arising from open-wound trauma that required closure. Infection rates for a “clean wound,” such as the ones created from operating on intact skin without entering any internal organs, is 2.5 percent. These rates are compiled from surgical incisions, not tiny holes from a needle. What you are doing is puncturing normal healthy tissue. To prevent infection, clean the area twice a day with clean gauze and a mixture of equal parts hydrogen peroxide and water. (It’s not necessary to use sterile gauze.) If desired, and if there is no allergy, apply Neosporin to the area one to three times a day.
Consult a physician if you develop any of these signs and symptoms of infection:
• Slight redness around the insertion site is normal, but redness should not spread beyond the site. Red streaking leading away from the wound is a definite sign of infection.
• Pain and tenderness and mild bruising are normal, but the pain and swelling should be greatest during the second day and should then diminish.
• Increased redness or warmth
• Any drainage from the site
• Any fever above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit
PIERCING IN A SCENE
I love everything about play piercing: the desire to develop and maintain an advanced skill, the intense intimacy during the scene, the visceral animalistic emotions brought on by blood, and the satisfaction of pleasing my partner. Piercing play requires trust between partners, and the feelings of vulnerability, anticipation, and the power exchange provide just as much of a rush for the piercer as the physical sensations do for the one being pierced. There is an element of performance art to it as well. I do not consider myself an artist, but when working with needles and a willing exhibitionist, I can explore that part of my personality.
Please keep in mind that this is an introduction to needle work. There are many places to go from here. You can combine needles with other types of scenes—here are just a few ideas. To add some more pain to the equation, spray 70% isopropyl alcohol on the fresh piercing holes to make them sting. If your bottom likes humiliation, have him walk around a public dungeon all bandaged up or with a hundred elastic bandages stuck all over his body. Piercing can easily be combined with virtually any other type of scene. Once a person is in bondage, needles can be placed anywhere that you can access skin. The needles themselves can be used for bondage by looping a string around the ends and attaching the other end of the string to a stationary object.
For a more artistic flair, needles can be placed to create various shapes and designs. Some folks layer the needles to make a “button.” This is accomplished by inserting a needle in regular fashion and then inserting another needle just under the first, but at a 90-degree angle to it—think of a pinwheel. Multiple needles can be placed in the same area using this technique. Just use one of the needles you already inserted to lift up the skin to ease placement of subsequent needles. After the needles are in place you can press on the “button” with a gloved hand or finger to increase the intensity of the piercing. Be extra careful not to get poked. After you’ve pierced the flesh and the sharp end of the needle has come out the other side, you can carefully put the end into a sterile cork or decorative “cap”—it’s a great way to prevent getting poked.
Are you getting the idea that there is more to needle work than simply placing the needles? Of course there are more things to do to up the excitement. Rotating the needles, pulling on the needles, and using larger-gauge needles are ways to be a little more sadistic. Just use your imagination and have fun.
I want to share one more thing about the story I told earlier. As I write this, Katie and I are waiting for her nipple jewelry to arrive. You see, Katie asked me to permanently pierce her nipples. But she gets to watch me do it. Funny how that worked out.
CHAPTER 9
BRUTAL AFFECTION: PLAYING WITH ROUGH SEX
FELICE SHAYS
The sweet intersection of slap and kiss. The rough and tumble of pound and caress, of commanding voice and gentle stroke, of laugh and growl. Welcome to the intense and gorgeous world of rough sex.
Rough sex is not one person deciding desires and limits. Rough sex is not one person accepting whatever is done to them or when it stops. Rough sex is not polite. Rough sex is not abuse. Rough sex is not payback or punishment.
Rough sex is consent and desire.
Rough sex treads on taboos, giving them a wink and the finger.
Rough sex is the clear permission to take and give power.
Rough sex doesn’t care about what gender you are, how you look, who you fuck, or who others say you’re supposed to be.
Rough sex is release, dominance, resistance, objectification, humiliation, imagination, role play, giving in, giving over.
Rough sex is connected, laughing, loving, silly, growling, playful.
Rough sex is awareness, calculating, tender, self-confident, respectful.
Rough sex is primal, raw, spiritual, animalistic, unruly, breathless, ruthless, famished, predatory, ecstatic.
Rough sex is unfolding and claiming your desire.
Rough sex is using your hands, genitals, mouth, heart, toys, and brain.
Rough sex is passion and ache.
In this chapter, we will explore how to find and express your own desire, push through fears, communicate, negotiate, and define your physical and emotional limits and release. Plus, I’ll let you in on a compelling assortment of techniques, ideas, and safety tips so you can get busy expressing your brutal affection.
CLAIMING YOUR DESIRES
There are lots of reasons why people want to have fierce, power-imbued, consensual sex. Say you lead a complicated life that requires you to make endless decisions and keep control of your home, work, or school. The opportunity for someone who respects you, likes you, or loves you to come in and “relieve you” of your power by running the show for a few hours is liberating. Maybe you’ve always been a scrappy kid—wrestling with your sisters and brothers and the kids at school. To feel the force from someone aching to be pounded into by you, or they into you, feels like being put back into your flesh in a most exquisite way. Perhaps, for you, gentle is only part of your story. Expressing physically the power, passion, and heat you carry is what links you to your lover and connects you both in a spiritual, emotional way that tenderness doesn’t always reach. Maybe it’s more primaclass="underline" you like to slap people while fucking them with all your strength. You get rock hard and slippery wet fantasizing about being tied spread-eagled to the kitchen table, gagged and blindfolded. Like other kinds of BDSM, rough sex releases endorphins—chemicals from the brain which block pain and create feelings of euphoria; many people thrill at the rush and high they feel from intense physical sensations.