Page 46 of Ink & Desire

She grasps Paul’s penis in her gloved hand and eyes the underside with a critical eye. With the skin marker in her other hand, she makes two small dots on the skin just beneath the head of Paul’s dick.

“Does that look straight to you?” she asks.

When I realize she’s asking me, I focus on the two dots. They look perfectly straight to me, one on either side of the small bit of raised skin on the underside of the penis head.

I nod. “Oh. Um. Looks straight to me.”

Jessie dips her head in agreement. “Good. Let’s get to it, then.” Looking back to Paul, she smiles. “I’m going to use the forceps to hold it perfectly still. It’s important that you don’t move. You’ll feel pressure, but this partshouldn’t be painful. I’ll let you know before the needle. Okay?”

He nods. “Okay.”

For the first time, I can hear a hint of nerves in his voice. Now that it’s about to happen, it’s as if he’s finally realized he should be nervous.

“You’re doing great,” Jessie says in a reassuring voice.

He just nods but doesn’t say anything.

“You want to be careful when you grasp the skin,” Jessie says, talking to me again. “You don’t want to pinch and cause pain. You just want to hold it still so your needle will go through straight and smooth.”

I nod, watching as she lines up the holes on the ends of the forceps with the two dots she made. She’s careful to make sure it’s lined up evenly and that the two dots are centered. I glance over at Paul to see that he’s got his eyes closed now and he looks tense.

“Take a deep breath, Paul,” Jessie says. “Am I hurting you?”

He shakes his head. “No. I’m just nervous.”

She nods. “That’s totally normal. I just need you to keep breathing, slow and steady. And don’t move. Can you do that?”

He nods. “Yeah.”

“Good. And you’re sure you want to keep going? We can stop now if you want.”

He shakes his head. “I’m good. I want to do this.”

“Okay,” she says. “I’m going to give you some breathing instructions now. I’m going to let you know before I pierce you.”

“Okay.”

She smiles. “Good.”

With her free hand, Jessie picks up the hollow piercing needle that’s already loaded with a metal barbell.

“Take a deep breath, Paul.”

I watch as his chest rises.

“Blow it all the way out.”

Paul exhales, long and slow.

“Take another deep breath,” Jessie says.

I find myself breathing along with her instructions. My gaze is locked on the penis in Jessie’s hand.

“Blow it out,” she says. “Here it comes. 1…2…3.”

With one smooth motion, Jessie presses the sharp instrument through the skin of Paul’s penis. It happens so quickly that if I’d blinked, I might have missed it. Paul hisses in a breath and his face tightens in pain, but he doesn’t flinch. His hands are fisted at his sides, and I can see his breathing is faster now. But overall, he’s more composed than I expected someone who just had a piece of metal stabbed through their genitals. I’m slightly impressed. Jessie screws the second ball onto the barbell and dabs at the tiny bit of blood at the entry site.

“You okay?” she asks.

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