Scandalous piercing trends sweep nation
By Brooke Barron, staff writers
October 29, 2007 | 6 a.m.
Body piercing’s rule of thumb today seems to be: “If you can put a needle through it, you can pierce it.” Piercing the ears, nose and navel is typically done to display beauty, but more and more college students have been taking a dip into the exotic piercing world. Piercing the nipples, clitoris, clitoral hood and other sensitive areas is becoming a more popular trend. But the question remains: When a student walks into a piercing parlor and asks for a nipple piercing, what is the motive?
“It depends on the person a lot,” junior Shelly Goff said, who is a retail merchandising major and unofficial piercing aficionado. “For some people it’s a mode of expression, and some people do it for attention.” Goff, aside from having her ears pierced at a young age, began her body piercing infatuation at age 14 with a navel piercing. She soon followed with a tongue, left nipple, nose, five more ear pierings and an ever so intriguing clitoris piercing.
This multiple body piercing phenomenon is sweeping college campuses everywhere, not just Athens. It allows students to express themselves and explore how certain piercings can affect their sex lives. Nose and naval piercings have become as normal as piercing one’s ears in today’s culture, despite the fact that they have not been rumored to increase sexual pleasure. Tongue piercings on girls, however, have been rumored to make fellatio extremely more enjoyable for men, while women have yet to reap the rewards.
“Really [a tongue piercing] provides no pleasure for a girl, though I can’t imagine how a little ball of metal makes it feel that much better,” Goff said. “[With my nipple piercing] there was a little pleasure and stimulation but not a significant amount, and in rare cases if it’s done wrong, there is no sensation at all,” she added.
So what about the ultimate stimulation piercing, the genital piercing?
“My clit piercing was more of an annoyance than anything else,” Goff said. “It took long to heal. It was a pain to clean. It hurts to walk, and I couldn’t wear certain underwear or tight jeans. As far as having sex, it didn’t make enough difference.”
Goff said that she has taken out her ring and no longer has her clitoris piercing. A piercing “down there” may improve stimulation, but the piercing should be thought of more as a toy to add to sex routines, not as a magical instant fix to a dull sex life.
According to Karen Hudson, author of the article “Body Piercings and Sexual Issues,” “[Body piercing affecting stimulation] depends greatly on your technique and ability to stimulate those [sensitive] regions in the first place. A piercing doesn't suddenly turn you into a mad love-making genius. You've got to know what you're doing before you go adding extra hardware to your tool belt.”
Though there is still debate on whether genital and other body piercings intensify a hot and steamy moment, it is agreed that most of the piercing are risky and potentially painful procedures.
“Nipple, tongue, or genital piercings run through many nerves responsible for sexual response and in rare cases can cause an inability to orgasm and can possibly lose all feeling,” Hudson’s article reports. This is why it is incredibly important for any person with interest in getting a genital or body piercing to get the piercing done by a professional.
“Do not let a friend get convinced by some guy at a party to give you a piercing,” Goff stressed.
Thousands of years after body piercings first emerged, students are piercing whatever they can, wherever they can. Though the piercings themselves can be more of a hassle than they may be worth, there is always the possibility that they can aid in making a great time even better.
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