Male Genital Piercings

It is a common story about Prince Albert getting this piercing as a dress ring to hold his penis to his leg to avoid a bulge in the tight pants of the era. Due to its interesting history this piercing is the most commonly referenced and talked about piercing. However, for many years the frenum was the most common male genital piercing. While men knew of the Prince Albert they were more apprehensive about getting it as it looks invasive and deeper than other piercings. This is deceptive as the piercing itself is through a thin layer of soft tissue between the urethra and the underside of the penis. It is less painful than most piercings and heals faster making it an ideal first piercing for the adventurous male. This piercing took off in the 1970’s and 1980’s in the B & D and S & M scene and with the lack of jewellery being available it was not uncommon for men to wear padlocks in this piercing. By the late 1980’s the fixed bead ring took off with gold rings with the ball attached on one side and so this became more of a fashion ring and as more males got this a 1.6mm (14ga) ring was a common PA adornment so as not to scare the girls. With the use of padlocks it was discovered that this piercing stretched easily and by the 1990’s with surgical ball closure rings and circular barbells being easier to purchase in increasingly larger gauges this became the piercing to stretch. By the late 1990’s to roughly 2010 it was often done in larger gauges and it often stretched with up to 10mm circular Barbells. Now in 2019 we have seen a swing away from the Prince Albert again and towards the Frenum possibly because with the increase number of piercers who don’t know how to do the Prince Albert the Frenum is an easier piercing to do so the untrained industry has swayed people into thinking this piercing is more painful because it is a little more difficult to do.

At Body Pleasure Piercing we use a local anaesthetic on the area which absorbs into the soft tissue well and this is a relatively painless piercing, a small sting and that is it. It heals faster than the frenum and is more effective for both partners during sex. A common question is does it help with sex. The answer is yes. Being placed just behind the glans at the ‘V’ just near the frenum at the bottom of the penis this piercing comes out the Urethra and when the penis becomes erect it moves inside the urethra which can be stimulating for the wearer. For the partner it gives a small amount of added length and depending on jewellery extra girth a bit like what would be called a “French tickler” giving the partner more feeling and added stimulation during intercourse. This piercing is one of the fastest healing of the male genital piercings due to the inside being inside the urethra and your urine is antiseptic to yourself and so it sort of self cleans the inside of the piercing.

The Lorem (Lower Frenum) is placed horizontally at the base of the penis or top of the scrotal sack. Often done as one of multiple shaft piercings. This piercing only came about after the Frenum had been revised to the deeper piercing and the name frenum seemed to cover all piercings of the shaft of the penis on the underside behind the head. The Frenum ladder and then the Lower Frenum were the newer variations and then the abbreviation of the Lorem became a common used name for this piercing which is actually nota frenum piercing at all.

This is the Transverse or as it is aptly named reverse Prince Albert so like the Prince Albert it is placed in the urethra and comes out on the top of the penis just in front of where the Apadravia is normally placed.

Roughly in the centre of the top of the glans. This piercing is a little newer than the Prince Albert and became popular in the 1990’s as piercers tried to make an easier to heal Apadravia by doing a Prince Albert and then a reverse Prince Albert and joining the two with one long bar once healed. This was somewhat successful but did not work exactly as intended because the inside holes often did not align up completely. To resolve this problem stretching both piercings to larger gauges sometimes helped. Stretching the reverse Prince Albert is harder than stretching the standard Prince Albert for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the piercing is through a thicker part of the glans and so has a longer fistula once healed. Also, the top of the urethra has a slightly dense membranous fibre which is thicker (quite thick in some men) than the bottom side of the urethra. This tougher tissue is probably to maintain the urethral opening so it does not simply collapse but makes it harder to stretch. It can also make it slightly more painful than the standard Prince Albert and this will depend on how thick this tissue is. I have found that in some cases it is like hitting a brick wall as the needle goes through and other times it is very soft and almost undetectable. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to predict until a needle is put through it.

This piercing is always best to have a ring in it and often once healed a segment ring is a comfortable option.

In 2019 not only is the Reverse Prince Albert well known but I have even seen side versions done to each side like having two rings in the Ampalang and the other is diagonal Reverse Prince Alberts as a pair both in the same hole in the urethra but placed on either side at the top of the glans.

Only and experienced piercer should attempt these placements as once you start to go to the sides you need to know how to identity and not pierce through the corpus cavernosa.

These are piercings in the rim of the glans and are generally placed as but some people do just get one. These piercings are said to have been started by Jewish medical students who felt that they had lost sensation through circumcision and wanted to replace that. Which is not such a random idea as often the area around a genital piercing will be more sensitive.

The soft tissue of the glans makes this piercing more likely to reject if it is not placed correctly or cared for properly during healing.
Although this was designed for the wearer more than the partner these can also create stimulation for the partner during intercourse.

Dydoe piercings have not been hugely popular through the years but are not a rare piercing by any means. In the late 1980’s when jewellery was hard to get rings were often placed in these for the healing period but barbells became the preferred jewellery and less likely to catch.

These piercings are said to have been done by the Arab tribes as a sign of wealth where gold jewellery was inserted into pairs of hafada piercings down each side of the scrotum and the more gold jewellery the more attractive and affluent you were seen to be.

Of all the male genital piercings these are probably the only piercing that is primarily there for Asthetics.

In the 1970’s and early 1980’s it was popular among the B&D and S&M scene and bead rings were popular so as chains and padlocks could be used.

By the 1990’s these became popular as people experimented with various placements and combinations. The central Hafada became an extension of the frenum ladder and rings could go right around to the Giuche (pronounced – geesh).

This is another piercing done by many tribes and throughout history. This piercing is the transverse of the Apadravia. Unlike the Apadravia it does not have to go through the urethra and needs to be placed back far enough to sit in front of the rim but not so far back to hit the ‘Erectile tissue’ in the penis, the corpus cavernosa run up each side of the penis shaft and fill with blood when the penis becomes erect. If you hit this during piercing then the client will have a lot of bleeding which may eventually stop but will persist for a long time and in worst cases will need medical treatment.

I guess we can safely say that the benefits of this piercing for both partners is why it remains popular. when healed the length of the bar should be sized down to 1mm shorter than the measured erect length of the piercing and so when erect the balls put just a little pressure unto the glans this can be stimulating for the wearer also the erection causes the tissue around the bar to contract and become tight on it so any movement of the bar stimulates from within. As for the partner it gives extra girth an stimulation from the balls on each side. There is one tribe where it was reported that a woman could leave/divorce her husband if he refused to get an Ampalang piercing.

This is the male version of the Christina piercing and is placed generally horizontally at the base of the pubic area just above the fold at the base of the penis. This piercing is generally done with a barbell but can have a ring inserted it is a more modern piercing and was done by men who wanted to give their Lady extra stimulation with the theory that it will hit the clitoris during intercourse.

I am not convinced that this is the best piercing to give her pleasure but with a large gauge jewellery it may be effective in the right position.

This piercing is not as popular as the female counterpart the Christina however, is probably less likely to reject than the Christina.
In the 1980’s these were primarily done with bead rings and had a high rate of rejection or were taken out due to being slightly uncomfortable when bumped.

When PTFE came about in the late 1990’s some experimenting with using PTFE as a healing bar and this had some success and then in the early 2000’s when we had changed to Titanium we found that there was not a great deal of difference between the PTFE bar and the Titanium bar for healing.

This piercing is not for the novice it goes from top to bottom through the glans. It is ideally placed so that the top ball sits centrally on the top of the glans just in front of the rim. And the bottom sits about where the Prince Albert comes out. The bottom half of the piercing is easy as it is just like the Prince Albert but the top between the urethra and the top is a bit more major. Often the top of the urethra is tougher and then the distance between the top of the glans is further and thicker so takes longer to heal. It is really important that this piercing is done straight and passes through the middle of the urethra as if it clips the side of it then it will cause healing complications.

Withal this piercing is mentioned in the karma Sutra and has been done throughout history for many years it did not take off in western society until the late 1980’s to early 1990’s when surgical steel barbells became more readily available.

This piercing will most likely never be in the top 10 piercings for popularity due to the difficulty in correct placement so only experienced piercers should attempt this piercing and the length of time for healing.

`time now for an amusing story..

This would have been in late 1996.

I had a client come in with a larger gauge barbell that he wanted put into his existing Apadravia piercing. I was alone in the shop and had a stream of clients come in. I had put his bar into the steriliser and he was waiting for it to sterilise. I then sorted out all the other clients, an eyebrow piercing, a tongue, a couple of nose piercing and some sales. I was flat out and this guy waited. Finally, I had cleared the shop and it was his turn. I set up a taper and being the end of the day I closed the shop so as not to be interrupted and I invited him into the piercing room.

Hands washed and gloves on he had sat on the chair and dropped his pants. So I leaned over and I began by starting to remove his existing barbell. I was focussed and concentrating on holding his penis and unscrewing the ball when he sort of cleared his throat and as I looked up he said, “By the way my name is …and you are?” I smiled and said as I held his penis in one hand, “ Oh Hi, I’m Rhonda.” I guess once I had his penis in my hand he figured first name basis was appropriate. Note to Self – Good idea to introduce yourself before grabbing hold of a guys penis.

This piercing is placed in the area between the scrotum and the anus. I used to say that it was best placed about where the seams on a good fitting pair of jeans meet right in the crutch. Making this an uncomfortable piercing to heal.

This piercing was firstly done among the homosexual males in the 1980’s and 1990’s but as the benefit of this is purely for the wearer and more information came out about it more men were attracted to getting this piercing. It was often sized up to larger gauges which could be quite uncomfortable to heal.

The benefit of this piercing is that it is placed so as when pulled on at the time of orgasm it slows the orgasm slightly and then when let go it releases allowing the wearer to have an extended orgasm or heightened orgasm.

Throughout history people have pierced the penis in different areas and for different reasons. Religious reasons, and various beliefs, rites of passage and of course for sexual reasons. During the 70’s and early 80’s this piercing became popular in the B & D and S & M scene where it was often used to attach chastity devices to and/or rings through that went around the penis behind the glans. As it was thought to be less painful than the well known Prince Albert piercing. This piercing was initially done in the very thin frenulum at the base of the glans of the penis which healed quickly and was quite pain free. However, being very thin and as the scene was more inclined to rough play this would stretch and even tear out. Therefore, by the 1990’s we started to do this slightly deeper into the shaft which made it a tougher piercing but also made it hurt more and slightly slower to heal.

This piercing is not as much for the wearer and while it may generate some stimulation if placed correctly or a ring correctly fitted around the penis. With a well placed barbell the balls can sit just under the glans and rub on it during intercourse. Some women enjoy this piercing however it is not uncommon for the this piercing to twist and catch especially if a barbell or curved barbell is worn and partners can complain about it.

By The mid 1990’s the Prince Albert had become popular and the frenum was a less common piercing due to it being more uncomfortable during intercourse when it twisted. Unless the client had decided to get a frenum ladder (sometimes referred to as Jacobs Ladder) where it starts with a frenum and then is pierced at intervals the same way along the shaft, these can go all the way down to the base of the shaft where it became known as the Lorem (a play on Lower Frenum) Although once the piercings moved away from the frenulum they are essentially just shaft piercings.

In the early 2000’s this piercing started to become more popular and with the industry growing rapidly and piercers starting up in franchise studios with very basic training and no real standards the Prince Albert is a little more complicated to get right yet the frenum was seen by the novice piercer as easy to do and so the myth of the frenum hurting less resurfaced and men were convinced that the Frenum was a better option . Doing an injustice to the piercee as frenums take longer to heal and have the added complication of twisting and annoying both the wearer and their partner.

2019 still a popular piercing among men who are misinformed and afraid that the Prince Albert will hurt more and take longer to heal.