Column: Sex in CINcity

Have you got metal in your pants? If zippers don't count, chances are you don't. Yet a very small but growing number of your peers just might.

"Depending on the week, I'll have 10 to 20 women and one guy come in for genital piercings," said Ned Dixon, Shop Manager and body piercer at Beelistic Tattoo and Piercing in Clifton.

For many different reasons, more and more people are making the same decision as those coming through the doors of Beelistic.

A national dataset collected in 2004 found a third of people born after 1975 have had a body piercing. Of those with body piercings, around seven percent had genital ones.

Studies done with college students find a third to nearly half of college students have body piercings.

One to three percent of college students report having genital piercings.

Research supports Dixon's experience that more women than men get piercings, both overall and genitally speaking. Jon Willwerth, a local piercer for nearly a decade and fellow body piercer at Beelistic, has found the same. "Women seem more willing to do something different," he said. "Men, generally speaking, seem to be more conservative."

Dixon thinks women seem more accustomed to undressing around professionals.

The predominance of men in the piercing profession may also affect male comfort getting genital piercings. Men may worry about letting a male piercer touch their penis due to Homophobia and worry that a female piercer would be judging his "manhood."

 As for why people get genital piercings, the reasons vary. Dixon said some female clients seem to be getting their genital piercings out of pressure from a boyfriend. Interestingly, a common time for female clients to come in for a genital piercing is at the end of a relationship.

There are many positives to genital piercings. The genitals are highly vascular (fancy talk for "have a great blood supply"), meaning that while genital piercings may bleed a bit more than other piercings they typically heal more quickly than other piercings.

Given their sexy placement, it's no surprise they affect sex lives. "Most genital piercings have some type of sexual enhancement effect," Willwerth said.

Dixon said female genital piercings are more likely to increase sexual stimulation than male ones.

There are still benefits for men even if they don't get increased stimulation from the piercing. "Many men find their sex life improved because people are simply interested in their piercings," said Dixon. "They go to the bar, word gets out about their piercing, and people get interested."

Some women find the same experience, though some find a stigma that women with genital piercings are "slutty" (yay for double standards!).

One important thing people should think about if they're considering genital piercings is the long-term commitment to healing a piercing. "You must be committed to cleaning it," said Dixon, "and, especially, to abstaining from sexual activity while it's healing." He reminds people that while the healing time is shorter than for most other body piercings, it's still important to refrain from sexual activity for the whole healing period.

"When considering any body piercing, genital ones included, it's important to carefully check out the [piercing] shop," said Willwerth. "It's important to see how knowledgeable the piercers are, how comfortable you are with them, and whether you're confident in their work." The Association of Professional Piercers offers tips on checking out piercing shops for safety at www.safepiercing.org/choosePiercer.html.

Willwerth recommends

www.bmezine.com as an excellent on-line resource on body piercing. He also recommends the booklet Starting Point: A Primer of Modern Body Piercing, available from Infinite Body Piercing in Philadelphia (http://www.infinitebody.com/pub.html) or on display at Beelistic.

Beelistic Tattoo and Piercing is located just off campus at 2510 West Clifton Ave. and conveniently accepts the Bearcat Campus Card and MocaPay. You can check them out online at www.beelistic.com.

Need a piercing buddy? E-mail Rebecca at lehmanrl@email.uc.edu.