Welcome to 69th Street. We've taken a little hiatus, but we're back with a sexy new columnist, Olivia Bridges. Expect answers to your most sensual questions every 2 weeks.
Hey, I like your drip. Curved barbell. Captive bead ring. Horseshoe ring. Piercings are in, piercings are fun, piercings are hot, and genital piercings especially are extra, extra hot.
Whatever image that comes to mind when you think of a clit piercing is probably not a clit piercing but a vertical clitoral hood piercing, which kind of sucks because the phrase clit piercing is short, punchy, and has some sweet shock value. A clit piercing, or a piercing that goes through the glorious sex organ that is the clitoris, is actually pretty rare. Vertical clitoral hood and clit piercings are examples of different vulva piercings, and surprisingly there are quite a lot to choose from. You can get rings and barbells horizontally on your clitoral hood in addition to the vertical clitoral hood piercing, or behind the clitoris, on either side of the clitoris, on the inner labia, outer labia, and much more.
I have always been incredibly intrigued by vulva piercings—I've heard they can make the area around your clit more sensitive and orgasms much stronger. I remembered that an acquaintance of mine mentioned being the owner of a pierced vulva, so I decided to see if I could get in contact with them to talk to a real, live person with a genital piercing.
Jordan*, who chose to remain anonymous for professional reasons, didn't have enough time to give me a full interview, but did have to answer one question: how has your vulva piercing influenced your sex life and/or masturbating practices?
Jordan's answer left me considerably giddy: “After I got pierced, I feel like I opened some kind of symbolic Pandora’s jewelry box and it’s only filled with good things and better and better orgasms each time.”
If vulva piercings are really as game changing as Jordan says, I want one! But more importantly, I want people to be able to express their interest and have the opportunity to ask questions. Clit piercings and other genital piercings like the Prince Albert (a piercing at the tip of the penis, usually a metal ring) are generally viewed as pretty extreme.
This is a concept that I'd like to push back on. Granted, I have some of my own stereotypes around genital piercings which I know to be untrue. For example, I associate vulva piercings with adult film stars or punk rock types, which bothers me because I don’t really believe that association is all there is.
So why this cognitive dissonance? I think that genital piercings carry with them a certain degree of stigma given their location and purpose, which is typically a sexual one.
In an effort to normalize discourse on these piercings, I would encourage you to abandon any stereotypes you might have about genital piercings in the name of all things orgasm. Maybe a little thought experiment would help.
Let’s imagine something. That fifty–something mom who lives in a McMansion in the suburbs of Philly? Maybe she's got a fourchette piercing, which is a vulva piercing positioned at the base of the vaginal opening, near but not on the taint. Anyone you pass on the street could easily have one—I sometimes envision a vertical clitoral hood piercing with two little rubies encrusted in stainless steel. I don't see how these body modifications can possibly correlate to any claims of diminished capacity, ability, legitimacy, and proficiency in these people's fields, professional or private. Do you?
Creating space for open conversation on genital piercings could help us talk about better sex and how to have it, and it could also lead us to some other thought–provoking topics of conversation. What if someone wants to get a genital piercing because they think it looks amazing, and the sexual benefits are a welcome but secondary purpose?
Genitalia is typically highly sexualized, but how would our relationship with genitalia change if we focused on beautification with piercings? A pierced vulva might never become as common of a rite of passage as pierced earlobes, but I think that it is a relatively unexplored option that many people should check out.
If you're interested in learning more about clit piercings, other ways to bejewel your vulva, or genital piercings in general, I recommend checking out Infinite Body Piercing, Inc. online or in–person at 626 South 4th Street to talk shop with some real professional body modification artists.
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