On May 20, 1996, I was in a tragic car accident that left me paralyzed and a wonderful girlfriend of mine dead. What does this have to do with body modification, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. At the time, there was nothing further from my mind that the jewelry dangling from my genitals. I was watching a beautiful girl bleed to death and starting to realize that I was never going to walk again. All I wanted was a cigarette, but no one would give me one.
At A Glance Author Trevor Contact [email protected] When Five years ago Location Maine After being removed from the car by the Jaws of Life, I was immediately put into an ambulance, where the paramedics proceeded to slice the leg of my blood-soaked white Armani pants off. There was an immediate gasp from the paramedics, who were confronted with something they had never expected to see, especially not on a well-dressed gentleman such as myself. The paramedic working on my paused momentarily, as if in shock by what was revealed.
At the time, I had a PA and a scrotum piercing, and upon my arrival at the hospital, the doctors and nurses soon found this out, but not before they had given me an IV and filled me up with morphine. Being that I was in Maine and not in a place like New York City (my common stomping ground at the time), none of the doctors or nurses in the ER were familiar with genital piercings, nor do I think they had ever even heard of them. As I went into the drug-induced haze, I could see them fiddling with the horseshoe PA and CBR in my scrotum. I wished that I was in New York, I wished I was home. In fact, I wished that I had never gotten out of bed that morning. Millions of thoughts raced through my mind, and none of them included anything about what happens to metal body modifications when they go through MRI machines.
They were quickly able to remove the CBR from my scrotum, but had more trouble with the concept of the horseshoe that was dangling from my urethra. I was not in the proper state of mind to explain how to remove it.
"UNSCREW THE BALLS!" I exclaimed impatiently when I heard them discussing getting maintenance to come down with a bolt cutter to remove it. Once again, they started to fiddle with the PA, still having trouble with the concept of body jewelry. Finally, a young nurse approached an said that she thought that she knew how it worked. She tried to untwist one of the beads, but, alas, it was stuck. She then tried the other, and after grabbing hold of one side with a pair of pliers to stabilize the jewelry, was successfully able to unscrew the opposite bead.
The following weeks were very trying for me. I had to deal with the fact that I was going to be a C5 C6 quadriplegic for the rest of my life (This means that I have no movement or feeling from my nipples down and only partial movement of my arms, with none in my hands and fingers), as well as the fact that I had lost my girlfriend. This was not made easier by the doctors, nurses, CNA's and other hospital employees walking by my room, pointing and whispering ("Hey, that's the kid with his penis pierced" or "I heard he had a ring in his scrotum when he came in here").
I am happy to say that today I live a happy life in Rockland, NY, where I've become a productive member of society (almost), but I've had to get rid of my piercings due to frequent medical problems, not caused by the piercings. But I do find that in hospitals and such places, I do not want to risk getting poor treatment due to people's attitudes and misconceptions about body piercing. I do , however, still enjoy the fond memories of all the fun my PA gave me and I wonder what they would have thought in the hospital if I had been able to complete my Jacob's ladder. To this day, I still have a large hole to remember my PA by.
I hope that everybody in the body modification community knows that they never know when tragedy will strike, and remembers that dangers of MRI's and any type of metal jewelry. I worry about my girlfriend, who has metal flares in her ears that cannot be removed without two hours of stretching. What will happen if for some unforeseen reason, she needs to get an MRI in an emergency situation without any notice? I guess we'll just have to hope it doesn't happen, but as I have learned, there are no guarantees in life and we cannot tell the future, or what it may bring.