The prep isn't really the hard part of IV'ing, it's the actual injection. Find a good vein, one that's close to the surface, that you can see without having to "pump" your hands or anything. You *will not* be able to hit a sub-surface vein with an insulin needle, on your first try. You will notice the tip of the needle is beveled. You want the open end of the bevel facing up, going in at a deep angle. People say all these specific angles, but are you going to have your protractor handy when you are busy IV'ing drugs? Use the smallest needles you can find, the smaller the better. I use 30 gauge 1/2 inch insulin needles. It's a lot more comfortable with the shorter needle as it's quite easy to stick a 1 inch needle straight through the vein. As soon as the "hole" in the needle/all of the bevel is in your skin and sealed, you can pull back on the plunger. When you aim for the vein, keep in mind what a vein looks like on a cut of beef. It's like another layer of skin. Even with a sharp fresh needle, you will still feel a slight "pop" when you break the skin. Once you feel that pop, get the needle close to the vein, and pull a negative pressure on the plunger. You want to keep just an ever so slight pressure on it so that when you push through the vein, you "register". You will be pulling blood out of the vein. When you can freely pull blood from the vein, you know you are safe to inject because the needle is sitting perfectly in the vein. Now for the pain in the ass part. You have a time limit where that blood will start to clot. Because of this, you want to start to plunge as soon as the needle registers, thats why you want to keep negative pressure on it. You will feel a second pop just like the first when you break through the vein, the negative pressure will automatically pull a flash of blood in. You will feel when you start to get to the vein, it will be harder to penetrate than the epidermis. The second "pop" is usually way more feel able than the first because the needle is slightly more dull, and vein tissue is more elastic. My personal method is to start injecting as soon as I feel the vein wall pop and get a flash of blood. Since I use 30 gage needles, it takes me a few seconds to inject even half a cc. I usually get about half of it done, and re-register to make sure nothing is going wrong. It's not hard at all to go through the back of the vein in the middle of the shot, and unfortunately it usually happens from a wiggle and not direct frontal pressure, so there isn't another pop like there is with the epidermis, and the venous wall. It just kinda sneaks through there. As hard as it is, you need to concentrate on the pain other than the needle. You are already poking yourself straight into a vein, that hurts, but you have to be aware of extra pain. Be aware of any other burning sensation because that means you are missing the vein. Two things happen when you miss a vein. The most important, is a non-sterile solution is just sitting there in your skin and muscle. This can easily lead to infection. The other problem is that you don't get as high off it. Depending on where your mind is, these will go back and forth as to which one is more important, but I can tell you the first one is. It's damn hard to inject into veins that aren't there, or worse, an arm that isn't there. As a general rule, no one pokes me but me. There are many people who think they are good at it, but don't know what they are doing. If they can hit you cleanly, then they are likely bad in their prep and will heat pills etc. Rarely does someone do ALL of it right, but this part HAS to be right. If you are extremely nervous about it, you can have someone else do it, but remember they don't have the feel of things that you do. I can feel when I puncture the vein. I am in control, I can re-register if I'm worried, I can terminate the whole damn thing if I don't like the looks or feel of things. It's far harder to convey this info to someone else unless they are very good with needles. There are consequences to missing veins as outlined above. If you have many choices for location, then pick the biggest most bulging vein you can find for your first time. I should also mind you to *not* pay attention to the movies. It's stupid to poke the same vein over and over, and I usually stay away from the bend in my arm where everyone in the movies "shoots up". There is an artery in there, and that's the one place you can get into it with a short needle. It also stays sore for about 24 hours, so a place that doesn't move as much is preferred. If you can, go into your forearm. It's easy to do if you are one of those guys with tons of large surface veins like I have. The fewer of these you have, the better care of them you want to take. Small needles, and spread out injection sites will allow you to play around a lot more than jamming the crook of your arm 3-5 times per day. I've said it before, and I'll say it again if you don't have the veins for it, it isn't worth it. If you can't find anything on your arms, look at the top of your feet and see if you have visible veins there, then *very* carefully hit them. The further down limbs you get, the more dangerous it is because of lack of circulation. On the other hand, when the veins pop up on my feet, I have two hands free to work, and it's usually cleaner than working 1 handed on an arm. If you are in your foot though, DO NOT go into the tendons on the top of your feet, don't even touch them with the needle. Because of the reduced circulation, this is a place you don't want to miss a shot though, that's why it's discouraged on this site.