NinjaCat said:
Stand Alone Complex said:
Piercings in unorthodox places.
I'm going to go with this. Actually, I never got the reason for stabbing a needle through your flesh in the first place. It just seems odd. I say that we live in a more civilized time, and then people start paying people to stab them. Plus infection is possible. There are some things I will never understand.
I can explain this - well, it applies to myself and to a lot of other people with body piercings. 2 reasons:
(1) It sort of creates a new erogeneous zone on your body - for a guy, post-nipple piercing, it creates a very different kind of sensation, especially if you have a partner that's into sucking/licking the piercing/nipple during sex.
(2) You get a real high from the act of piercing, and it is really difficult to stop yourself wanting another one straight away (I've stuck to one in at a time, but it takes effort). Basically, you're in the most pain you can think of (again, depends on area, but the male nipple is considered THE most painful one to get, had several folks who have their genitals pierced say that the nipple hurt more - female nipples apparently don't hurt as much, but any piercing other than the nose, ear or eyebrow will give the relevant effect), but it only lasts a fraction of a second. By the time you could say 'OOUCCHH!!!' the pain has gone. As a consequence, your brain has produced a massive dose of dopamine in response to the pain, but suddenly there's no pain for it to mitigate, and you have a whole lot of excess dopamine = same effect as MDMA and other popular recreational drugs. You get a similar effect from running a marathon (scientifically well documented), though that comes with bodily micro-injuries that take around 6 months to heal properly - a bit more serious than a piercing.
I wouldn't say that (2) is a good enough reason for doing it, but it certainly counters any worry about the pain, for me anyway.
Then there's (3). I like a small number of piercings in a partner. In guys I love eyebrow rings and nipple rings, with a female partner I'm not as much into them, but I can dig a belly-button ring or an eyebrow-ring (if they've got the right face for it, which many people don't, even a nose-button can look cute).
Regarding infection, well you have to take care of them. I've always gone on a course of antibiotics as a precaution immediately upon any piercing, and that's always served me fine. By the time you've finished a course of anti-biotics the piercing will be settled, so at that point you're only going to run into trouble if you don't shower, or you don't clean it when you do - and frankly, if you fall into that category then you should probably get that groin-rash looked at
Turnoffs, for me? Well if someone isn't university educated they wouldn't get a look in, but that's not particularly uncommon - most people are attracted to folks of similar educational background. Probably the most notable one is that I certainly could never date a woman who isn't a feminist - a degree of political awareness and the self-respect to not be treated like a doormat is a minimum requirement of me being interested. My wife, by comparison, is proudly feminist, a successful engineer, and awesome
