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Harm Reduction Shooting Heroin in a Hand Vein

I've used the hand before, it's safe, but tricky to hit because the vein rolls. Easier to hit with a short tip rig though.

Yanno, I just checked out that cephalic vein around my wrist, and that son of a bitch is lookin ripe... now if I only had some dope. :(
 
Cephalic vein is my #1 spot for life. That, and the one that Fentanyl Fried talked about that runs along the inside of your forearm from your hand to your elbow. That vein on my arm is fuckin' huge, like a quarter inch in diameter and bulges up like a motherfucker when I wrap that tourniquet tight.
 
Start Low and Work Your Way Up!!

If you are new to shootin, i learned the hard way that the best thing to do when your first startin out is to start low and work ur way up the arms i.e. like hit urself in ur hands as much as u can then once those are gone move up to ur fore arm then ur bicep etc.

The reason for this that is that if u start up high, u could possibly poke holes through ur upper arm's veins, thus resulting in dope leakage, which is painful just like if u were to miss completely. You will shoot in ur hand and as it travels up u will begin to feel a burning pain in a completly different spot than where u r injecting. For me when this first happened i became very confused, until i asked a buddy of mine what the deal was and he explained to me that i had a hole in my vein, which then reminded me of the first or second time i was shootin and he suggested starting low and working my way up, but at the time i was just worried about hitting the easiest spot i could. Now i wish i would have listened it would have saved me alot of trouble, and veins. Hope this helps.
 
I need ur help people!

What do u do if u shoot up in ur hand and you miss the vein and have a big bump? Is there any way to retrive what you just shot? Can u just stick the needle back in,then pull to suck it back in,then re shoot it?
 
Not such a good idea what with the vein roll and all. there are alot of places to shoot esp on your arm not just the crook. i used to have problems getting a shot mostly due to the eagerness in finding a vein but some warm up(yes!) before shooting up works wonders in getting out those shy bastards.
 
I've been through every single vein in both hands, even the capilleries on the inside of my finger joints. There's nothing left now. I had really usable veins until a few years ago when I started shooting snowballs, the shaking hands made me miss so many times I shot out every vein in my body, including neck and groin within four years. Once in a while I'll be able to catch a little vein but I IM now. The only veins ive ever not managed to use are on my palms: those fuckers HURT!
 
The inner arms are the easiest veins to shoot for most people - if you can't do that, I personally would NOT try hand veins as they are much trickier. So easy to blow and end up w/ a VERY visible bruise. The wrist vein ("Cephalic vein" in the diagram) is thicker & easier, though on some people it can be tough to find...
 
it shore does work, just be careful not to get track marks. also when you miss a shot a large lump can appear and your hand can swell. much more noticeable as well.

when i was into shooting coke i had to use my hands because my other sites were poor. one time i missed a large coke shot and my hand swelled up like a balloon.
 
In the getting off right manual and several other Publications from trusted medical sources say that jacking blood back into the needle is absolutely horrible for you it only causes unnecessary damage to the vein. Thee is no gain to the user, unless you are trying to get that last drop of dope out of the rig.

If you leave the needle in for second after the shot, and immediately apply firm pressure with your finger from your other arm while you are withdrawing the needle, this should aid in preventing blood to leak out under the skin, which is what caused that bruising.


But who knows, I've only been IVing for one month.

Ive been Doing heroin for 10 years . Ive only been banging herion (Slamming) for about 5 1/2 years . I know everything there is to know about mainlining any drug ... So when i tell you that you can use ANY vein that draws blood in your body Its because ive used every vein in my body and i know its safe . The problem with useing your hand ISNT that the vein rolls or that its small . The problem is only if you miss . When banging heroin especially is only if you miss . So make sure when your mainlining (Useing a vein and not a muscle) heroin You re-register about 3 times befor you put it all the way in . For instance . If your outfit (Needle) Is a 1CC 30 gauge needle That means that your needle width is a 30 gauge and the amount of liquid you can hold in the needle is 1CC Alot of people think that the numbers on the side of a needle represent 1cc per number . Thats ABSOLUTELY wrong . Anyways back to topic. If you have 50 units of Heroin/Water in your rig (needle) first register (Pull the needle back to check if your in the vein) Push in about 15-20 units , Check again for blood , Push in about 15-20 more , Check again then Push the rest in . NOW its not over yet . To prevent heroin from gettin out of the vein you need to "Jack off the rig" Which means after all the dope is in your arm Just Pull a little blood out and push it back in . This helps keep your vein and skin in good condition .
Also you need to make sure to tie off befor Pokin yourself (EVen if you dont have to) . This will keep your vein alive and usable . You only loosen your belt when you start to push your dope into your vein . DOnt loosen it too fast because your needle might 1) COme out of your vein or 2) Poke threw the other side . Also if your useing your hand its a good idea to hold your hand up afterwords and shake it a little to get the blood pumping (This isnt mandatory but i recomend it)
Have fun!
 
Wish I could still hit my hands...Fingers constantly cold, turn blue when it's windy out. Used left and right hands for a few months straight. Now I've found a couple hidden ones below the top of my wrist and elbow area...If I want to find a vein anywhere on my hand I'm aiming between knuckles and fingers.

I suggest keep trying other places. It's a slower rush when you start going after the smaller veins, but a rush nonetheless...

edit: re: "jacking off the plunger" is NOT good for your skin nor your veins, don't spread false information. That does more harm than good, it is actually hard on your veins. When you pull your plunger back it creates suction in the vein pulling the vein walls together. Every time you puncture your vein wall your body creates blood clots in that area...I don't know about you, but injecting a blood clot or even injecting downstream of a bloodclot isn't good. If you're worried about any leakage just pull back the plunger as you slowly pull out & it will suck up anything that leaks. Don't attempt to re-shoot this, any extra high you get is placebo. If yer that concerned about the extra heroin, squirt the rest into your mouth.
 
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i use my hands quite frequently when i have overused my arms. its a little trickier because as mention they are smaller and roll. but if you can hit them they work like any other vein. just go slow like someone else mentioned cause its possible to blow them with them being so tiny.
 
Make sure you use the finest gauge possible for hand veins. I only used 31 or 32 gauge for my hands. With these thinner neeedles I didn't get much bruising or highly noticeable track marks and I was injecting into my hands for a good month and a half straight. This was just my experience, it may not be the same for you.

You can't cover up track marks on your hand, so that should be some added incentive to be careful :)
 
i personally prefer the spot on the top of your hand between the pinky and ring finger where veins intersect (see the hand diagram). if you are missing a shot stop shooting
 
Make sure you use the finest gauge possible for hand veins. I only used 31 or 32 gauge for my hands. With these thinner neeedles I didn't get much bruising or highly noticeable track marks and I was injecting into my hands for a good month and a half straight. This was just my experience, it may not be the same for you.

You can't cover up track marks on your hand, so that should be some added incentive to be careful :)

This is exactly what I try to tell people who ask about IVing in hand veins.

I never had to rely solely on my hand veins, so I don't have the same experience as you. Plus, I have never tried a 32G before, though I know where to buy 32 and 33 gauge 1/2" luer lock tips.
 
I know people that shoot there. even tho they are easy to see they can still be hard to hit. try and shoot as small a volume of solution as possible and push in slow so u don't burst a vein.
 
I always shot in my hand, i could never get another vein to come up. i did it for about 2 years. i do have a scar now but it doesnt look like anything involving a needle caused it and its going away 2 years later. so the hand is def a safe bet if youre like me and cannot find any other veins. i did in my hand also to avoid having those "heroin" marks on the inside of my elbows that make it obvious what a person is doing. no one here has a clue about how i got my scar on my hand. I tell them i was petting a dog and it tried to bite me and i yanked my hand out and its tooth snaged my hand
 
im 34 and im on and off smack since 1996.i shoot 1/3 of all times i use.i have shot a hundred times in the upper side of my hand.it definetely works and these particular veins look tough!i have used my cephalic veins in my thumbs for nymerous shootings and even they look and are smaller if you shoot with caution and parience you ll have them for many shootings.one thing i prefer about upper hand shootings is that the marks dont look as bad as the ones in your inner arms which shout "junkie!".
from my 14 year experience i know that junkies ruin their veins from numerous unsucccesfull tries.they are anxious to shoot and nervous so we see people poking their skin 10-15 times untill they find a stream.
i also use the a tiny vein in my index finger and upper side of my feet.they work too but i use smaller needles.
 
The first time I ever shot up I did it on my hand for precisely the same reason and I hit it first try. Just make sure you go in basically parallel to your hand and with the hole facing up because they are very close to the surface and you don't want to poke thru it.
 
Although I am on methadone currently, I still take a couple days off here and there to shoot a little dope. today is one of those days. =D %)

Haha sorry. Anyways, in my experience the hand veins are quite easy to hit. My arm veins are pretty shot, with the exception of 1 or 2 that I can still hit with a little effort. My hands are still good though, with 4 or so spots on each hand I can hit every time without even tying off. My favorite one is on my right hand; the one that kinda runs from in between your pinky and ring fingers down to the outside of your wrist.

I do find though that shooting in my hands kinda delays the rush by a little bit. It isn't a huge deal though, but it really seems like when I do shoot in the crook of my arm it does hit me a bit faster. I'm talking seconds here, not a huge margin but definitely noticeable.

If you are inexperienced I would try and avoid your hands, though, since if you miss it is not good at all. It will swell up big and moving your fingers will hurt. Also you'll have a huge funky looking bump on your hand that you can't hide. When you miss in your hands, especially with something non sterile like heroin, or worse, pills, it is harder to fight off an infection. This could lead to abscesses or infections which would require medical attention.
 
If you are inexperienced I would try and avoid your hands, though, since if you miss it is not good at all. It will swell up big and moving your fingers will hurt. Also you'll have a huge funky looking bump on your hand that you can't hide. When you miss in your hands, especially with something non sterile like heroin, or worse, pills, it is harder to fight off an infection. This could lead to abscesses or infections which would require medical attention.

i remember missing a couple of times and my hand literally transformed completely!a huge bright-white bump formed and the rest of the hand turned as red as Danny Bonaduce's head.it also brought me a burning feeling.

everytime the bump and the discomfort dissapearred after 45 minutes or so.

p.s. from the inside of your hands,right where the wrist meets the palm and to the thumbs side there are some veins also.I once spiked one of them and when i drew some blood my syringe filled with it.so i went on and pressed a good amount inside.my hand swallowed like a ballon and the pain was the worst i have ever experienced in my life.for about 3 to 5 minutes i was screaming like a bitch.I dont know what the case was but some old timers told me that i hit a "negative" vein.anyone knows anything about this situation?it was worse than hell
 
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