Body piercing has been used to adorn the body with jewellery. In recent times, there is increase in the practice of modifying the body permanently through body piercing.
The practice uses more modern technology and has moved from back-room shops to open-store operations. It spans gender lines and men, like women, who want to make bold fashion statements will have their bodies pierced in several places.
Protesting society's stigma to the genitals.Many young people embark on a body piercing adventure as a reward for completing high school or college. They also do it as protest against the negative stereotypes ascribed to people with body piercings.
Hollow gauge needles are used for what is perceived as the exotic act of body piercing. Jewellery, at times with semi-precious stones, may be installed in one or several body parts such as the tongue, nipples, nostril, lips, navel, eyebrows, ear cartilage, ear lobe, penis, scrotum, lips of the vagina, clitoral hood and the clitoris. Commercial jewellery has been designed for the breasts and genitals and may be ordered from websites.
Nipple rings
Jewellery may be installed permanently or temporarily. For example, women may wear temporary nipple rings like sweater bumpers or tit-ilizers which cause the nipple to stand erect and feel more sensitive. Clips are available for the clitoris to hold it out and cut off the circulation enough to keep the clitoris engorged. Cock rings, one of the oldest sex aids, are used by men to sustain an erection for long period. The rings, usually 1 1/2 to two inches in diameter are placed at the base of the penis below the testicles. Permanent body piercing is done through a process called ringing.
Though less stigmatised today, there are persons who tend to associate body piercing with some kind of deviant behaviour. "Why would I want to put jewellery on my penis? - I don't see how that would thrill my wife - it could damage her instead," says Demton.
Others who are highly homophobic view male body piercing of the ears and other parts of the body as an act of homosexuals. According to Tresha, "any man who wear earrings must have some deep desire to be female.
"I would have no confidence in what sexual orientation he may choose he could be bisexual I am sorry I am not there yet."
Hepatitis
While body adornment through body piercings do not provide an insight in one's sexual orientation, there is caution about the practice of body piercing conveying blood-borne infections. The National Institutes of Health suggests that there is the possibility of the transmission of blood-borne hepatitis in oral piercings. The risk of disease increase because of a needle, clean or dirty, stuck through a vascular part of the body in the way oral piercings are done.
The American Dental Association is also cautioning about other problems associated with piercing to parts of the mouth the tongue is the most common site, followed by the lips and the cheeks. Complications may include scarring, tooth trauma, interference with chewing and speaking, food particle collecting at the site, a change in taste buds, allergic reactions and difficulty breathing out of fear of swallowing the adornment.
The external decoration that people use for sexual expression and social protest may well be through jewellery and body piercings for pride, vanity and sex. It is all a matter of personal choice and individual expression in the age of a sexual revolution.
