body modification
Does love really has to hurt? According to artist David Cata it obviously does. He is a multidisciplinary artist from Spain who recently created a series of works where he sewed portraits of people who have left a mark on his life into the palm of his hand. David Cata’s portrait project is both interesting and slightly disturbing, so viewer discretion is advised. He describes his ongoing series, “A Flor De Piel” as an autobiographical diary of which his skin is the canvas. Instead of putting paint to canvas, Cata creates portraits of the people in his life using a needle, thread, and the palms of his hands.
It seems like David chose this bizarre form of art to symbolize union and separation; pain and love in the act of sewing beautiful portraits of people into his palms and then ripping them out. Cata documents this action with photography and videography, imprinting his life story into various surfaces. Each portrait takes about four hours to complete. After completing each picture David picks the needlework out of his hand before starting on the next one.
It is impossible to say who the first people were with stretched ears, or why they did it. Today, many cultures (including our own!) practice the art of ear stretching for many different reasons. Religion, coming of age ceremonies, warding off evil, sexual enhancement and physical beauty are common motivations. However, that just barely scratches the surface as there are many other reasons, as well. People all over the world still practice ear stretching. From the Masai tribes in Kenya to the Huaorani tribe in the Amazon Basin, stretched ears are still a common sight. It is a fascinating testament of human culture that a Western youth can walk into a piercing shop to select stretched ear jewelry while a Hmong youth in Thailand selects from an array of silver tubes.
Ring in the nose, chain from ear to nose, ring in the eyebrow, pierced belly button, nipples and tongue piercing, and even clitoris piercing. These are a number of different ways BDSM people choose to decorate themselves.
Though some of these may look interesting and can be seen as a statement of personality, there are many risk factors involved. One of these risks is infection. If the area that was pierced is not cleaned properly, bacteria may get under the skin and an infection could result. If an infection isn’t taken care of immediately, you could get gangrene.
Protect yourself and use common sense and for those travelling the less used routes of Body Modification we hope you are doing it for all the right reasons. The tip besides the obvious don’t go ramming bits of metal through your flesh just anywhere or allowing some idiot that has read four web sites do it either. Because body modification involves breaching one of the body’s main protective barriers, the skin, it brings with it a high risk of infection if done improperly. Risks include hepatitis, tetanus, and HIV, which can lead to AIDS. Less serious local infections can cause illness, deformity and scarring. The risk of infection increases when people perform the body modification on themselves and each other.
Needle play and piercing have only one single difference in actual activity, in that a piercing is intended to then have an item of jewellery placed in and remain, whereas needles are removed and discarded. On a more personal level however, the differences are vast. Being an invasive activity safety protocols are of course, paramount. (But hey, some of the jewellery is really pretty! It even comes in glow in the dark stuff so you can find your lost subbie in a dark room).
Needle play is sensation play. Depending on the placement of the needles it can range from medium levels, such as on the skin of a forearm, to incredibly intense when used on genitals or breasts. Needles can be placed singly, in pairs, in rows, in patterns. Generally when placing more than a single needle the process is quite quick with many being done in rapid succession. An adrenaline high usually soon follows and the needles are removed as it dips. If only left in for a short amount of time, there is in fact usually very little blood. (Course for those on blood sports and fetishes this can be changed!)
Needle play, play piercing or recreational acupuncture is an activity involving placing needles through the top layer of skin, or using needles for temporary piercings for the purpose of enjoying the experience rather than producing a permanent body decoration. Needles are removed from the body when the episode is complete, allowing the wounds to heal. Those who engage in play piercing may do so for self-expression, as a part of a ritual imitating mock tribal cultures, for the purpose of spiritual self-discovery, for sexual pleasure, for simple entertainment, raising awareness or relieving boredom. Needle play is considered edge play – the practice which involves significant risk of injury or physical harm.
Needle play or play piercing is different from regular piercing as it’s temporary and doesn’t involve jewellery. During a scene thin needles are stuck through the skin (close to the surface), possibly manipulated during play, and then taken out afterwards, usually with no lasting marks. It can involve one needle or whole rows or a pattern of them, sometimes laced together with threads. The pain received from a needle is a different kind of pain though. It’s more of a flash and then depending on the part of the body it fades to a dull throb and then nothing. But that initial flash is what draws to it.
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Female circumcision, also known as female genital mutilation or female genital cutting is any procedure involving the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural, religious or other non-medical reasons. The procedure has no health benefits for girls and women. It involves removing and damaging healthy and normal female genital tissue, and interferes with the natural functions of girls’ and women’s bodies. Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later, potential childbirth complications and newborn deaths. Immediate complications can include severe pain, shock, haemorrhage (bleeding), tetanus or sepsis (bacterial infection), urine retention, open sores in the genital region and injury to nearby genital tissue. It is one of the most shocking and painful pussy torture procedure.
Despite all above between 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are living with the consequences of female circumcision. In Africa, about 92 million girls are estimated to have undergone female circumcision. About three million girls are at risk for female genital mutilation annually.
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A clitoris piercing is a piercing through the clitoris itself. The great majority of women who want them actually want more common clitoral hood piercing, which pierces only the hood of the clitoris. Clitoris piercing is a rare piercing because many women’s anatomies are not ideally suited to clit piercing. And also the act of piercing the clit is often too intense for many women. The piercing that has a primary purpose of sexual arousal would most definitely make sex feel more intense. A few women have written that they have experienced spontaneous orgasms immediately after piercing. This piercing can be extremely sexually stimulating. But hyper-sensitivity usually decreases once the piercing heals and the clitoris grows accustomed to the presence of the jewelry.
There is also an opinion, that clit piercing may reduce the physical sensations during sex. Or even there’s a risk of a chance for permanent nerve damage and losing all sensation of the clitoris. Nerve damage can result from piercing a clitoris that is too small or from piercing through the shaft of the clitoris and through the dorsal nerve. Piercing through the shaft of the clitoris can also result in excessive bleeding and blood loss to the clitoris. But women may remove the jewelry and allow the piercing to heal in order to bring sensitivity back to its original state. Some research suggests that a supposed loss of sensitivity is more likely due to the fact that a woman may become accustomed to the level of stimulation felt with the piercing and does not actually signify a decrease in feeling.
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