Piercing body parts has a long history. For example, Caesar ’s bodyguards were said to have worn nipple rings as a sign of their virility. In ancient America, the Maya and other cultures practiced ritual piercing. Sculptures show cords studded with thorns being passed through the tongue or penis. This was a religious rite related both to fertility and penitence. Seventeenth-century buccaneers often pierced their ears and wore a gold piece, sometimes a coin taken from the treasure hold of some hapless galleon that had fallen captive. Each earring commemorated a ship the pirates had helped capture. German U-boat sailors during World War I also marked their “kills” in this fashion. Piercing is but one form (albeit the most common) of body decoration, a practice that also includes tattooing, scarification, and more lately, branding. Devotees of piercing explain that it is like tattooing, whose practitioners treat the human body as a canvas upon which colorful art is etched. In piercing, the human body serves as an armature to which metal sculpture is attached.
Earrings have traditionally been considered a “sign” of homosexuality in our society, where any adornment on men was suspect. Then rap singers and people in the punk movement began wearing them, but on either ear. If a straight man wore an ear- ring, he put it on his left ear. An earring on the right ear was reserved for gay men. During the eighties, earrings joined tattoos and wildly carved and dyed hair as signs that set one apart from the common herd. Of all the punk body-fashions, piercings, rings, and tattoos have been assimilated by the larger society. In gay urban centers, men wear a single ring or stud in one ear. Two, three, or more rings are common, either thin gold rings an eighth of an inch apart near the center of the lobe, or a series of rings around the entire curved edge of the ear. In these examples, piercing is a fashion statement. Earrings, nose rings, lip rings, eyebrow rings, and in some cases even tit rings have no sexual meaning. As in all fashion, wearing earrings waxes and wanes. They’re not quite as popular today as they were a decade ago.
Sexual piercing, on the other hand, is generally a component of S/M sex (see Sadomasochism). Most S/M piercing is done on and around the cock. In the popular Prince Albert, the head of the cock is pierced through the urethra, and a ring is inserted. The guiche (pronounced “geesh”) is a piercing through the perineum, the space between the balls and the asshole. Locking a Prince Albert to a guiche can make a neat chastity device. The frenum is a piercing through the frenum of the cock (the loose piece of flesh beneath the cock head). Tit piercing is also extremely common. There are other variations of cock piercing and ball piercing, and a sophisticated terminology is associated with them. A variety of jewelrylike devices can be placed through these pierced holes. Rings and barbell studs are probably the most common. D rings, clamps, and locks are other forms of adornment. Most of this jewelry is made of surgical steel, although some men prefer the luxury of gold. Some gay couples symbolize their relationship by means of a ritual piercing. They wear their rings on their cocks or belly buttons instead of on their fingers.
The act of piercing or the use of rings or studs may be the whole of the sexual experience between the partners. Sucking and fucking, so common in most other forms of sex, may not be part of the piercing scene. Some men will jerk off; others may not come at all. Piercing may also be temporary, in contrast to the placement of rings and studs. For instance, one expert places needles in the body of his partner, then connects them with kite string to form a frame above the body. Combining piercing with bondage, he then “plays the instrument,” plucking the strings to create pain in different parts of the body. The object of this, according to S/M experts, is to reach what they call the pleasure/pain threshold. This is the point at which the body changes the perception of pain to a perception of pleasure. There is not yet scientific evidence to confirm or refute this claim. There are obvious dangers to be avoided. Never pierce yourself, and never allow a stranger to pierce you. Piercing should only be done by professionals who have the proper sterile equipment and who can advise you about aftercare, which can last from two to six months. Tattooing is almost always done for aesthetic reasons. A small (but obvious) tattoo on one’s ass cheek or just above the bathing-suit line is certain to be an icebreaker on the beach, or in bed. More serious tattoos cover more than half the skin of the body. Some of the newest tattoo art has elaborate science fiction themes consisting of fantastical figures. Tattoo artists who design them have become quite famous, particularly at tattoo conventions. For a small minority of men, piercing and extensive tattooing are not enough. Usually aficionados of heavy S/M sex, they move on to scarring their bodies in particular patterns. An even smaller subset will get branded.