Private Matters

Part of the appeal of piercing has typically been in its visibility, the way in which a pierced nose or tongue sets a person off from most of the people around him or her, or perhaps challenges societal norms. Of course, the meaning of piercings has shifted as they became more popular. They are no longer just symbols for countercultural rebels but also fashion accessories for primped celebrities.

But surely, getting your genitals pierced must have a different motivation, since very few people will presumably know you did it. If you're just trying to look cool, getting a Prince Albert isn't the way to go; it's the equivalent of buying a $250 pair of shoes but only wearing them to bed. So who pierces their genitals, and why?

A common motivation for genital piercing is, obviously, sexual. Implants in the penis can increase stimulation for a person's partner during intercourse and implants around the clitoris, like a VCH, can stimulate the piercee. Angel reports that couples will often decide to get pierced together and get "compatible" piercings. In surveys of women with VCH piercings, some women reported having their first orgasm only after getting pierced.

Though Angel says that while some of her clients start with nipple piercings and "move south from there," she reports that it's common for people to only pierce their genitals.

"Many of our genital piercing clients do not have any other piercings," she says. "Lots of them are suburban housewives looking to spice up their love lives. These are very 'normal' looking people with no other body art at all."

Some critics believe that genital piercing is motivated by masochism -- after all, what could seem more masochistic than driving a needle through the most sensitive part of your anatomy? The practice is also sometimes associated with self-destructive behaviors, like cutting.

Believe it or not, it may sound worse than it is, and Angel and Stirn both dispute the idea that masochism plays much of a role in the desire to be pierced. If pain is what you're after, genital piercing isn't really what you want because it doesn't really hurt that much, they say.

"It may pinch or sting a bit, but the word pain is really too strong to apply to what most people experience during a piercing," says Angel. "It is a common if largely unfounded assumption that it must be more painful to pierce the nether regions than other parts of the body. But I have plenty of clients tell me that their ear piercings hurt more."

Angel emphasizes that genital piercing is about increasing pleasure and not causing pain (or preventing sex, a misconception that perhaps stems from confusion between genital piercing and the practice of female circumcision).