All About Genital Piercing

A Short History of Piercing Down There continued...

By the 19th century, some men and women in European society were having their genitals pierced. One common type of penis piercing -- the Prince Albert -- is actually named after Queen Victoria's husband, the prince consort. The story goes that Albert had his penis pierced with a ring -- called a "dressing ring" -- so that he could manipulate his privates to prevent an unseemly bulge when he wore tight trousers. Whether there's any truth to the tale is unknown, although the accounts of 19th century genital piercing do demonstrate that the Victorians weren't quite the prudes that we imagine them to be.

Genital piercing became more common in Europe in America after World War II, but it only became popular -- in a relative sense --since the 1970s. Piercing became fashionable with the punk movement and among some gay and S&M subcultures during this time, and practiced at landmark piercing studios like Gauntlet in Los Angeles, where Angel was manager. From there, the phenomenon moved out into mainstream society.

Types of Piercing

Piercers are an ingenious lot when it comes to devising new methods of and locations for piercing, and there are many, many ways of sprucing up your genitals with holes and jewelry. For the brave of heart, read on.

"For women, the VCH [vertical clitoral hood] is by far the most popular," says Angel, who is widely considered a seminal figure in the piercing phenomenon. "It is easy to get, quick to heal, and fun to have there." The VCH is a piercing through the tissue above the clitoris that can stimulate the clitoris during sex. According to Angel, variations on this type of piercing are also popular, such as the triangle -- also a piercing through the clitoral hood, but deeper and behind the clitoris.

However, women are often restricted in their choice of piercings by their anatomy. For instance, while piercing the clitoris is possible, it is rare that a person actually has a clitoris large enough to accommodate it. Piercings of the inner and outer labia are also dependant on a person having enough loose skin in the area.

Men have a wide selection of piercings to choose from. One of the most popular is the aforementioned Prince Albert, in which a ring is inserted vertically through the urethra and out the bottom of the glans. While it's fairly common type of piercing for men, it can cause some problems; the piercing of the urethra can sometimes make urinating standing up a messy business. Angel says that other places of piercing popular among men are between the base of the scrotum and the anus and the frenum (through the lose skin on the underside of the penis).