not trying to be a bitch and comment on your habits but if at all possible DO NOT poke the wire, un plug the connector and test at the connector, the insulation is there for a reason!
here you want the easy way, you got a civic, this is fricking simple. #1 DISCONECT BATTERY . have your dimmer switch on the left side of your steering wheel. its a dial that controls your dash lights, you have to get to the back of that switch, i think it should just pop out, or you gotta pop the cluster out. but if you gotta take the cluster out that only takes 3 mins anyways. on the back of that switch there will be 3 wires, one red, one black and one red with a black stripe going through it. since you are a noob im gonna send you the noob way, go to a store near you that sells electrical connectors and such, get a T connection, basically what youll do is cut the red and black wire, put the T connector in and crimp it so now the wire is reconnected with the connector, BUT now you have your T still on the connector to shove another wire in, so throw your red wire from your guages in the T and crimp it.
then for your black wire just find a bolt under the dash that goes to metal, even the nut thatholds the fuse box on works good too. put your ground wire on one of those bolts and you are DONE!
the way this will work is . your lights on your guages will only illuminate when you turn on your headlights.
now you didnt say what kind of guages you have (oil temp. boost. etc) some guages have more wires but i assumed you were talking about the two wires to light it up.
if you read this and have no clue what im talking about, DO NOT DO IT!! if you're this lost on wirring, thsi why we pay ppl to do things! so if they screw it up, they fix it. again thsi isnt a hard task but when it comes to wiring, some ppl are like a virgin boy with a 35 yr old woman. just plain lost! hope this helps, if not i hope someone gets some info off of it