Features
Sex and the Campus: Piercing Truths
By Kate Cieplicki ’16
November 13, 2015
I got my belly button pierced a couple of years ago. I thought that it would look cute and be good motivation to keep a flat tummy. I religiously bathed my piercing by suctioning a warm cup of salt water to the piercing and sliding it up and down to make sure that it healed well. I looked at my piercing in the mirror a few weeks later and realized, for the first time, that my belly button piercing was a bit sexual. First of all, it drew attention to my bare stomach when I wore crop tops. Second of all, the metal bar that I was pierced with pointed down towards my vagina. I liked how daring the piercing made me feel.
While the belly button piercing still makes me feel sexy, it does not enhance my ability to give and receive sexual pleasure in the way that other piercings do. Tongue piercings enhance the pierced individual’s ability to give pleasure while nipple piercings, penis piercings and clitoral piercings mostly enhance pierced individuals’ ability to receive pleasure. I don’t know much about these piercings so I did some research on how these body modifications impact sex.
Of all the sexually charged piercings listed above, tongue piercings require the least maintenance. Tongue piercings take about three to four weeks to heal and are relatively painless (less painful than biting your tongue). This piercing will, however, put a temporary halt on your sex life as engaging in oral sex and French kissing before the piercing has healed can put you at risk for infection. Other risks associated with tongue piercings can be pretty much avoided by ensuring that the piercing salon is up to code and that the wound is rinsed with saline and diluted mouthwash several times a day.
Once healed, the metal ball of the piercing can increase sensation during a blowjob or eating out. This is due mostly to the coolness of the metal ball contrasting with the warmth of the giver’s mouth. Some more high-tech tongue piercings incorporate vibrations that may also improve oral sex (though I have never experienced this contraption and frankly did not know that it existed until I wrote this article). While tongue piercings can be fun to incorporate into your sex life, it seems to me that a tongue piercing will never make up for a lack of form and enthusiasm when it comes to oral sex. Practice makes perfect, so perfect your form before you further complicate things with a metal ball on your tongue. The tongue piercing can increase sensation but only for people whose tongues know their way around genitalia.
If you want to add similar sensations to your sex life but not get pierced, experimenting with ice or minty gum is a good option. For ice, put some crushed in your mouth and proceed to give a blowjob as usual. The cool sensation is pleasurable for most people. Mints can also add some fun to both eating out and blowjobs. Simply let a strong mint such as an Altoid dissolve in your mouth and then perform oral sex as per usual. Your partner should feel a slight, pleasant tingling sensation.
While tongue piercings help increase the pierced individual’s ability to give pleasure, nipple piercings, penis piercings and clitoral piercings are intended to increase sexual sensation for the pierced individual.
Nipple piercings are fairly straightforward. I have met both men and women with one or both nipples pierced. Most of the people pierced their nipples at least partially to increase the sensation of nipple play. While healing, nipples should be soaked in saline a couple of times a day and then rinsed (Are you seeing a pattern? Because I am). They take six to eight weeks to heal but can be played with after about two weeks. Once healed, nipple piercings increase nipple sensation for most individuals, (hopefully) making foreplay more fun than it already is. Just because nipple piercings make nipple play more fun does not mean that the piercing will force you to stay aroused all the time. This piercing is easy to hide under a bra. For people not wearing a bra, their piercings will show through thinner fabric.
There are several different ways to pierce a clitoris and a penis but I will focus on clitoral hood piercings for women and frenum (underside of the penis) piercings for men. I recommend these piercings for people who are new to genital piercing and want to try it out. Conveniently, both piercings reportedly enhance female pleasure more than male pleasure (sorry men!).
A frenum piercing goes on the underside of a man’s shaft. Often times, men get a couple of these piercings at any one piercing session. Men with this piercing should abstain from sex for four to five weeks. During sex, the rubbing of the piercings inside a woman’s vagina feels good for the woman. Maybe men also think women see men with a pierced penis as “tougher” (for the record, I do not).
A clitoral hood piercing is a good introduction to genital piercings for women because, in getting it pierced, they do not risk losing clitoral sensation. Before getting the piercing, women should make sure that they know and trust their piercer and know that the piercing salon is clean. Though the piercing does, of course, hurt in the moment, it only stays sore for about a week. While healing, women should abstain from sex for three weeks and regularly rinse the wound in salt water to ensure fast healing. Once healed, this piercing can make receiving oral sex more pleasurable and add more clitoral stimulation to otherwise less satisfying sex positions such as missionary.
Getting piercings can be exhilarating, fun and sexy. Certain piercings increase your ability to give and receive pleasure. Though piercings can enhance your sex life when done correctly and safely, they should not be used as a crutch for a lack of enthusiasm in bed or as a way to help your sex life go from bad to good. On another note, a lack of nipple or genital sensation could reflect mental or physical health problems and should be unpacked with your doctor before you pierce to address the problem. Happy piercing!