I had this done when I was 18. It was the apadravya style, where the barbell vertically bisects the head of the penis. I am 25 now, and my piercing days are LONG over [grew out of it]. Still, I thought I would share MY experience with this.
Unfortunately, I never had the chance to have sex with it.
Did it hurt? Yes, it hurt.. of course! It was not half as painful as a septum [bull-ring in the nose] piercing, though. It's much more painful than a tongue piercing, but about the same amount of pain as a nipple. I work with many people who are younger than me, and whenever something like that comes up in idle conversation, I like to interject my experience on the whole thing. Often, people really tend to cringe when they think about it, but if they had ever experienced it, they wouldn't cringe.
Actually being pierced is a little awkward if you don't think of it in a medical or artistic way.. because someone's going to be handling your goods. Once you get past that, you're alright.
They mark it, lightly "clamp" it, they tell you that they are going to push the needle on three [but they actually do it as soon as or RIGHT after they say "two", so you don't flinch and REALLY mess yourself up]. Well, I feel the pain and they tell me that the needle is only halfway through.. and I look down just in time to see the needle push the rest of the way through the top of the head of my penis. At that point I sigh in relief.. but I forget that technically I am only halfway through the piercing, as the barbell has to go back through the other way, to take place of the needle. Well, it happens. It just *happens*. They wrap the tip up with a large surgical glove and some medical tape. It's all paid for, I'm out the door, and I'm not walking funny. So far, so good.
The next day when I woke up, my boxers had a bit of blood on them. I was very nervous about urinating for the first time, and I found out that it was with good reason - it burned! It burned badly the first three times, I remember. After that, it was alright. I just cleaned it regularly, inspected it and was generally careful. Cleaning was done with bactine and neosporin. It could ber painful, because I'd insert the little neosporin tube tip into my urethra and squeeze it in there, to get at it better on the inside.
Once in awhile, over time, it would get a LITTLE infected, but nothing that a little bactine wouldn't cure. You have to be VERY attentive to it for a few months. I don't take well to piercings - they need ALOT of attention and healing time, and close VERY quickly if taken out.
Eventually, I stretched, got larger barbells and saw where I ended up. Eventually I worked up to either a 6 or 4 gauge. I don't remember which - just that it was large. I took it out about 3 years ago, so I had it roughly 4 years.
If you want to get one, I wouldn't advise for or against it. Right now, my attitude towards the whole tattoo/piercing crowd is "Do what you want, but be prepared to deal with the consequences". You don't have to worry about visuals with genital piercings, as they stay hidden - but don't scream out "discrimination" because you can't get a decent job when you are full of ink and metal.
