SPEAKING OF TEMPORARY PIERCING

Sure, the process of putting jewellery through flesh delivers its fair share of sensation, but when it comes to play piercing, the sensation is what it's really all about. Think of it as acupuncture for the libido. We want to find out a great deal more.

Play piercing scenes often focus on the expanses of the chest, but just about anywhere there's skin will work - one piercer I know does lovely sunburst patterns around the navel. More sensitive spots are also fair game for piercing's pleasant jab; a needle through a nipple will get someone's attention, and then there's the good ol' dick and ballsac. One fairly extreme scene uses a disposable board with a hole in the middle. Once the genitals are stuck through the opening, the piercer proceeds to pin the tender flesh to the board like some rare, exotic butterfly. For the incorrigibly kinky, play piercing can even be combined with a kind of bondage in which the piercer loops dental floss around a pattern of needles, constructing a web that responds to each movement of the body with a jolt of sensation.

And what's the point? Well, temporary piercing explores the border between pain and pleasure, a place more than a few guys want to play around in. Upper chest piercings are particularly buzz-producing; pain in the pecs seems to stimulate the production of endorphins, the body's natural opiates. Says one enthusiastic piercee, "It's amazing, but once a few needles go in my chest, I get this nice, floaty feeling - a gentle, natural high. On the other hand, I've never had my nipples or genitals pierced, which I imagine produces a lot more pain at first." And the piercing process itself? "Hell, I'm afraid of needles. I look away when I get shots. So it's fun to battle my squeamishness."

Obviously, play piercing is no activity for an inexperienced top to mess with. Safety measures are vital. The piercer wears latex gloves. The bottom's skin is scrubbed with an antibacterial. Only sterile, new needles should be used, and they should be safely disposed of as soon as the scene's done. Since the holes are so small, they close up quickly, but infection must be guarded against, and it's, of course, a no-no for someone else's bodily fluids to make contact with holes in the skin. Properly done, careful piercing is unlikely to inflict damage and there's usually no visible bleeding, but piercing the blood-vessel-rich dick and ballsac requires extra expertise. (There's also legal safety to consider, as a number of jurisdictions look askance at the possession of hypodermic points for non-prescribed purposes.)

These days, body piercings are everywhere you look, and it seems like every suburban shopping centre has its Piercing Shack. But temporary piercings for erotic purposes are still pretty much an underground phenomenon, and play piercing does, undeniably, gross some people out. But the sight of some guy wandering around at an SM play party, chest bristling with needles, cock hard, and a big old smile on his face, might sharpen more people's appetites for the pointed joys of play piercing.

Simon Sheppard

Now here's your chance to meet the man behind this column. OutUK has an interview with Simon Sheppard or you can take a look at some of his books that are currently available:

       

Looking for something very sexy and just as smart? Man on Man collects the best and hottest gay sex writing by Simon, who is also co-editor of Rough Stuff: Tales of Gay Men, Sex, and Power as well as a collection of gay erotica called Hotter Than Hell.

In KINKORAMA : Dispatches from the Front Lines of Perversion he takes readers behind the unmarked doors and black vinyl curtains that lead to the sometimes shocking, often hilarious, relentlessly arousing scenarios of extreme sex. There are also stories of bears in Tales from the Bear Cult: Beat Bear Stories from the Best Magazines.