My GF got a tongue stud about 3 years ago. Man, it makes oral sex even better (Not that there was anything remotely wrong with it before–it’s like “sprinkles on the ice cream”, for lack of a better analogy.)
Personally, I REALLY like it when girls have their tracchus (sp?) pierced–the little nub right next to your ear canal. VERY sexy.
I got my navel done. I like it, and most people seem to have a positive reaction.
I should say that my septum is pierced not the side of the nose (anymore anyway).
Piercings are beautiful but all beauty is subjective. It is a simple concept. It is how I find large, hairy men attractive when most of you guys (and girls) probably do not. Calling all of someone or something ugly is an opinion and usually opinions are not universal. (I can’t think of any opinions that are universally held in any region of thought.)
Personally, I don’t care how anyone views my outer self. It truly is my innerself that matters. I don’t believe that I am an ugly person in any of the following: mentally, physically, or spiritually. How I choose to modify my body is really my business. I know someone out there will find it attractive at some point in time. I equate piercings and tattoos to a women’s (and some men’s) desire to wear makeup. Personally, I think most uses of makeup make a person look like a clown. Sometimes it enhances features like covering up bad skin but like the op here, I don’t like it. Does this really matter? No, so I let it drop. If someone thinks what they are doing makes them look nice and it doesn’t actively hurt anybody else, then who cares. The only addition to this is as follows: if the person thinks it looks nice it will probably boost their self-esteem and make them happier as a person. What is the point of trying to take that away from the people with body modifications?
Anyway, piercings are just really another place to put jewelry. The older generations tend to think that jewelry only belongs on women except for the two (possibly three) cases men can wear rings: wedding rings and graduation rings (possibly a necklace). Women can wear all types of jewelry easily in their minds but only one set of earings is permissable. Over the last several years this has been changing. It may not be the way our older people envisioned our collective future to be, but the fact is that we still are good people we just look different.
HUGS!
Sqrl
PS. You know you are getting old when the styles of the modern youth bother you. That LL Cool J one pant leg up just looks retarded to me.
I’m not argumentative, just right. -Me 
How do all of you feel about navel piercings?
All right, brain, I don’t like you and you don’t like me - so let’s just do this and I’ll get back to killing you with beer.
–Homer Simpson
All for 'em, I is I is.
I sold my soul to Satan for a dollar. I got it in the mail.
It’s spelled “tragus” (sorry, I had to do that), and I can’t imagine anybody getting a hole put through that little nub. It just seems like it would be a really painful place to put one. Of course, I don’t understand why people get their tongues, navels, nipples, etc pierced in the first place. Of course, it is their body and they can do whatever they want with it, but it’s just not for me.
I also have two earring holes in my left ear and one hole in the right ear, but that is only because I already had one hole in each ear lobe and I decided to get another set of holes put in, but it hurt so much just getting the left ear lobe hole put in that I never did get the right ear done too. It’s been several years since I’ve actually worn an earring in that second hole in the left ear lobe, but the hole has never closed up.
Shadowfox
Flee at once, all is discovered!
I love tattoos, personally… and peircings can look good or bad depending on the person and the jewelry and the placement, etc. I’ve seen people peirced all over who look great, and I’ve seen people who just can’t pull off the look. My favorite is naval piercing probably… if I didn’t have so damn much trouble with my ears getting infected (even when I don’t wear earrings for over a year) I’d consider it myself. I think hood piercing can be pretty, but only if you’re shaved… something about a small piece of jewelry surrounded by pubic hair just doesn’t do it for me personally. Labia piercings just look like they’d snag on … things.
–
“it’s all real”
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O p a l C a t
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Well, I’m tattooed, and only “normal” piercings – if you consider 7 holes in my ears normal. I just don’t have the stomach for a naval piercing, my nipples are way too sensitive already (Want to see me shudder and totally freak out? Show me pierced nipples. I freak. The concept is just TOO heinous for my bod to handle) and while I’ve wanted a nose piercing for a long time, I know my poor allergies couldn’t handle it. Projectile sneezing an earring … nah, don’t think so.
My ink started way back before it was trendy, but then again, I’ve also been using henna on my hands and feet for 12 years or so as well. I was one of those kids that fingerpainted herself in class, or used glue and glitter for raised “tattoos,” painted nails and toenails in wild colours, etc. It was just something that “felt” right to me.
I love my earrings. 5 in one ear, two in the other. I don’t usually wear anything other than small diamond studs, so it’s very subtle, just a twinkling of brightness through red hair. Every now and then, I have the urge to add a few more, but it’s taken the cartilege holes a year and a half to finally get to the comfy, totally healed point. Nah, I think I’ll stick with what I have.
I just haven’t been the same since that house fell on my sister.
IMHO: Eyebrow and lip piercings look wrong to me… same with nasal piercings, though I could probably overlook one. Nipple, ear, and belly buttons are great, in moderation. Nether regions are on a case by case basis. I’ve seen a couple that looked cool, but for the most part, no thanks. I’ve got a single ear pierced, and sometimes I pierce my fingernails if they get long enough to do it. (Just to be odd. They look kinda cool with black nailpolish)
http://www.madpoet.com
Clerks - Just because they serve you doesn’t mean they like you.
Really? I had my cartilage pierced about 5 years ago and some days it still doesn’t feel all that good!
I have a hobby. I have the world’s largest collection of seashells. I keep it scattered on beaches all over the world. Maybe you’ve seen some of it.
Just as a side, the guy that did my belly-button for me was talking about his and his gf’s piercings (they owned the shop). Anyhoo, he said that his nipple piercings were way, way more painful than the various ones he has throughout his genitals, including the one straight through the head (prince albert?) that took about 20 secs to put through. the girl had her labia but not her clitoris done (ewww IMHO).
She grinned and winked at me when she said sex with him was “phenomenal” b/c of his piercings, the barbells “rock back and forth” during intercourse. Next she said I would never date anyone with out a piercing if I “tried” a pierced guy out. Eww!
The one through the urethra is a prince albert and it doesn’t really hurt at all. The one that he is probably talking about is either an ampalang (usually through the shaft) or a dido (sp? which is through the glans). Genital piercings don’t hurt really. It is pretty surprising. In order from most pain to least: the septum is the most painful (by far, everyone crys on this one involuntarily), the nipples (still pretty painful…I have made grown men cry and even had one pass out when I gave him a nipple piercing), and the belly button, hand webbing, and nostrils (about the same), various facial piercings and madisons (all about the same), ears, then genitals.
I have done them all to myself and/or others and that seems to be the order. There is considerably more stress with piercing the genitals than the ears but the pain is miniscule in comparison (I originally thought it would have been the other way around). I won’t tell you some of the barbaric ways I have pierced myself…(well maybe.)
Someone mentioned genital infections from a piercing. They happen. Every piercing gets some type of minor, pussy infection during the healing stages regardless of how well they are taken care of. The genital ones typically heal the fastest. My guiche healed in about 3 weeks. My frenum was completely healed in a week. And I never really left any of the scrotal piercings in for more than a few weeks (they would mostly heal but later close up).
Don’t read below if you are easily offended or sickened.
HUGS!
Sqrl
Beware the following is not for the faint of heart.
I gave myself a frenum with a flathead screwdriver (no pictures) and a row of scrotal piercings with a meat skewer (got some pictures of that, but I won’t share those here). I used to use safety pins with transient piercings but they usually were not big enough around. When I went amateur, I invested in real equipment. It is a lot easier and faster to pierce with that type of equipment. The slotted piercing tongues were a wonderful invention.
I can handle a pierced earlobe or two and without regard for gender, however, I personally do not find a tattoo or an extraneous piercing attractive at all.
…just the personal opinion of a regular 39 year old guy…
Krispy Original – The original SDMB bad boy
I have an eyebrow piercing, and an earring in the top of my ear. If other people don’t like them (my boyfriend does) then that is fine with me.
I didn’t do it to look attractive or to follow a trend or anything else. I did it because it was my war wound. I went through hell for about six years, and when I was done, and felt I was getting better, I decided that I wanted something that would always remind me of what I had gone through and that I was a survivor.
I agree that some people take piercing too far, but people tend to do that with things. I think that if it is done well, and in moderation, that it is attractive. I also hope to decide on what my tattoo will be, and get that done someday too (SO doesn’t like that idea, but oh well, it is my body after all).
I guess what I am saying, is that some people have reasons for piercings, and tattoos. And those reasons don’t necessarily pertain to beauty.
BTW: sqrl, I think you are psychotic to be piercing people or yourself with whatever shit you find lying around. There are nerves in the body that I doubt you have studied, and all it takes is for you to hit one of those nerves and you have just paralyzed some part of yourself or god forbid another person. I am not trying to lecture or insult, but your methods sound pretty careless. I am sorry if you take offense to this.
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” --Whitman
No offense taken. I actually did several months of anatomical study involving major nerve centers (it was an independant study of accupuncture) and veins. I know how to sterilize things (which I did) and pretty much everything else. It was a clean, quick and sterile procedure. That first set that I mentioned was before I got off my butt to buy all the nice, nifty piercing equipment.
HUGS!
Sqrl
PS. Many people consider body mods as a right of passage like you do, SinsApple
Not a rite of passage, so much as my personal reminder of survival. More like a red badge of courage sort of thing.
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” --Whitman
I find piercings to be attractive, in moderation. One partner of mine had a nipple piercing through which she wore a niobium ring with a bead. It was a small hole and it dangled nicely. It was fun to play with, and didn’t get in the way.
But, excessive facial piercings… Not my thing, and I sometimes even find it unattractive. A small tongue piercing is one thing, but a lip, nose, or eyebrow piercing… nope. Some people do look good with piercings, and some look so good anyways that a little detraction from the overall is still not a problem.
I haven’t tried any of the ‘benefits’ from genital or oral piercings, and I have trouble believing that a little bit of metal does what a skilled partner can’t, but if the opportunity presents itself, I’ll give it a try.
Suzanne’s ideas on henna and body painting sound like they could be a lot of fun.
A friend of mine has a great looking tattoo around her upper arm, a vine wrapped around in a celtic pattern. It suits her so well, and looks great on her, just the right size. It’s one of the best examples I’ve seen of a tattoo improving someone’s looks.
As for painful piercings… I was reading an article written by the editor of 2600 or phrack, one of those types of e-mags. Anyways, he described his piercings, and he’s got a ton. His tongue was split, his eyebrows pierced, his ears, all around, and his privates.
He said that the face, tongue, and earlobe piercings and other stuff (splitting) was fairly mild. The cartilidge piercing in his ears was ‘bad’, and the bar that goes from one to the other, horizontally, was the worst, because it didn’t line up properly and anytime he moved his jaw it’d irritate both holes. Said it took a year or so to heal properly.
But, then he described his penis piercing… Through the head I guess, because he says they stopped after the first little bit and gave him the option of stopping at a prince albert, if he wanted to. He said that was very painful, moreso than the other initial piercings. When they went through the head he said it wasn’t quite as bad as he expected, but still the most painful thing he’d experienced. The worst part though was later, at home, when the blood was clotting, he couldn’t hold his bladder anymore, so he went to the bathroom to pee. In his words “… later, when I came too, on the floor …” Sheesh, bad enough that he passed out.
Didn’t really make me want to get any piercings.