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This is more of a public service announcement than a question, but be aware that you can bruise your penis if you're not careful with the TLC-X. You may even cause grievous injury to your genitals if you're not careful.
To be clear, I'm quite satisfied with my TLC-X. It's been a great purchase and has many of the features I'd hoped for in the vanilla TLC I bought five years ago. I'll sing its praises in another post, however.
When I first used it, I depressed the inner plunger almost to its maximum amount. This is mostly thanks to my own stupidity and not heeding the manual. What resulted was the sort of pleasant discomfort I've grown used to with manual methods and the original TLC. Tension did not seem to be excessive and I mostly experienced discomfort at the point where my foreskin met the tugger body, which was a bigger issue with the original TLC. Further encouraging me, this put a lot of tension on my inner skin, which I didn't think had been adequately stretched recently. The only drawback was that the device offered incomplete tension on my outer skin. To combat this, I gently pressed the YourSkin Cone down while pulling down the skin at the base of my penis. This is very similar to my manual tugging method (method 2) and it kind of felt like manual tugging on overdrive.
All was not well, however. The combination of inner tension, outer tension, and the gentle pressure I exerted caused some discoloration of my foreskin. It was obviously restricting circulation, but I wasn't aware of how badly it was doing so. I kept the tugger attached for one hour-- consistent with my manual tugging regimen-- and removed it as I'd spent enough time and it was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. My penis had some discoloration and impressions, but I'd had a "no pain, no gain" philosophy up to that point.
Things worsened over the following days. I believe time, masturbation, and sex all contributed to overtaxing my already-injured blood vessels. My penis formed a deep black-and-blue ring around the foreskin, beneath my circumcision scar. It was, in my estimation, a pretty bad contusion, and had it gotten much worse, I'd have been forced to see the doctor. It's rather macabre, but I find it somewhat ironic that I may well have been circumcised by a Gomco or Mogen clamp-- I nearly subjected myself to a second circumcision by crushing! I spent about two weeks trying to take it easy and letting it heal up.
I wish my story ended there, but my stupidity knows no bounds. Once I decided I'd healed sufficiently, I gave the TLC-X another go. This time, I extended the plunger to only about half its depth. I eased up on the tension on my outer foreskin but still pulled the shaft skin down a little. I also left the device on for closer to two hours. Predictably, this has caused further bruising and I'm right back where I was two weeks ago. I'll probably take about a month's break before picking up the TLC-X again, having used the device just twice. I don't think I'm the type of person who develops chronic bruising, but I'm mildly concerned I'll be battling black and blue discoloration for the long term. I'd post pictures, but my phone's camera is really bad and it isn't cooperating at this time.
So here is my advice to anyone who picks up a TLC-X without knowing what the hell they're doing, as I did:
I believe that some day I may be ready to set the plunger to its maximum depth, but that should be years down the line. Save yourself the inconvenience, trauma, and potential disfigurement and be cautious!
And happy tugging!
To be clear, I'm quite satisfied with my TLC-X. It's been a great purchase and has many of the features I'd hoped for in the vanilla TLC I bought five years ago. I'll sing its praises in another post, however.
When I first used it, I depressed the inner plunger almost to its maximum amount. This is mostly thanks to my own stupidity and not heeding the manual. What resulted was the sort of pleasant discomfort I've grown used to with manual methods and the original TLC. Tension did not seem to be excessive and I mostly experienced discomfort at the point where my foreskin met the tugger body, which was a bigger issue with the original TLC. Further encouraging me, this put a lot of tension on my inner skin, which I didn't think had been adequately stretched recently. The only drawback was that the device offered incomplete tension on my outer skin. To combat this, I gently pressed the YourSkin Cone down while pulling down the skin at the base of my penis. This is very similar to my manual tugging method (method 2) and it kind of felt like manual tugging on overdrive.
All was not well, however. The combination of inner tension, outer tension, and the gentle pressure I exerted caused some discoloration of my foreskin. It was obviously restricting circulation, but I wasn't aware of how badly it was doing so. I kept the tugger attached for one hour-- consistent with my manual tugging regimen-- and removed it as I'd spent enough time and it was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. My penis had some discoloration and impressions, but I'd had a "no pain, no gain" philosophy up to that point.
Things worsened over the following days. I believe time, masturbation, and sex all contributed to overtaxing my already-injured blood vessels. My penis formed a deep black-and-blue ring around the foreskin, beneath my circumcision scar. It was, in my estimation, a pretty bad contusion, and had it gotten much worse, I'd have been forced to see the doctor. It's rather macabre, but I find it somewhat ironic that I may well have been circumcised by a Gomco or Mogen clamp-- I nearly subjected myself to a second circumcision by crushing! I spent about two weeks trying to take it easy and letting it heal up.
I wish my story ended there, but my stupidity knows no bounds. Once I decided I'd healed sufficiently, I gave the TLC-X another go. This time, I extended the plunger to only about half its depth. I eased up on the tension on my outer foreskin but still pulled the shaft skin down a little. I also left the device on for closer to two hours. Predictably, this has caused further bruising and I'm right back where I was two weeks ago. I'll probably take about a month's break before picking up the TLC-X again, having used the device just twice. I don't think I'm the type of person who develops chronic bruising, but I'm mildly concerned I'll be battling black and blue discoloration for the long term. I'd post pictures, but my phone's camera is really bad and it isn't cooperating at this time.
So here is my advice to anyone who picks up a TLC-X without knowing what the hell they're doing, as I did:
- Set the depth of the plunger to zero at first. There's really no rush.
- Don't pull down your shaft skin to increase outer tension.
- Don't press down on the YourSkin Cone.
- Don't wear the device for longer than an hour.
- You may increase the plunger depth, pull on your shaft skin, press down on the YourSkinCone, and/or wear the device longer if and only if you have confirmed that you aren't experiencing any bruising and you do so only incrementally.
I believe that some day I may be ready to set the plunger to its maximum depth, but that should be years down the line. Save yourself the inconvenience, trauma, and potential disfigurement and be cautious!
And happy tugging!
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