As we said in Part 1 of this interesting and controversial theme a body modification (or body alteration) is the deliberate altering of the human body for non-medical reasons, such as sexual enhancement, a rite of passage, aesthetic reasons, denoting affiliation, trust and loyalty, religious reasons, shock value, and self-expression. It can range from the socially acceptable decoration (e.g., pierced ears in many societies) to the religiously mandated (e.g., circumcision in a number of cultures), and everywhere in between. Body art is the modification of any part of the human body for spiritual, religious, artistic or aesthetic reasons.
Tongue bifurcation: Tongue bifurcation, or tongue splitting, is a type of body modification in which the tongue is cut centrally from its tip part of the way towards its base, forking the end. In addition to being covered under laws prohibiting the unlicensed practice of medicine, tongue splitting is now banned in the U.S. military. Thus, by necessity, it is an underground practice (in the USA). The issue of tongue splitting has also divided bioethicists.
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Subdermal implant: A subdermal implant refers to a kind of body jewelry that is placed underneath the skin, therefore allowing the body to heal over the implant and creating a raised design. These kinds of implants fall under the broad category of body modification. Many people who have these implants use them in conjunction with other types of body modification to create a desired, dramatic effect. This process is also known as a 3-D implant or pocketing.
The kinds of subdermal implants that are being done today are a fairly recent innovation. It is generally agreed upon the fact that they were pioneered as they are today by Steve Haworth. In his shop, HTC Body Piercing in Phoenix, AZ he first began these 
procedures after being asked for a bracelet. He concluded that he could put a row of beads under the woman’s wrist to create the effect she desired. Since then, many different artists have done many different kinds of implants. Some of the well known names in the industry are Steve Haworth, Emilio Gonzales, and Stelarc who recently had a cell-cultivated ear implanted on his arm.
Female genital cutting: Female genital cutting (FGC), also known as female genital mutilation (FGM), female circumcision, or female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), 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-therapeutic reasons.” The term is almost exclusively used to describe traditional or religious procedures on a minor, which requires the parents’ consent because of the age of the girl.
When the procedure is performed on and with the consent of an adult it is generally called clitoridectomy, or it may be part of labiaplasty or vaginoplasty. It also generally does not refer to procedures used in gender reassignment surgery, and the genital modification of intersexuals.
FGC is practiced throughout the world, with the practice concentrated most heavily in Asia and Africa. Opposition is motivated by concerns regarding the consent (or lack thereof, in most cases) of the patient, and subsequently the safety and long-term consequences of the procedures. In the past several decades, there have been many concerted efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) to end the practice of FGC. The United Nations has also declared February 6 as “International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation”. In May 2010, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggested that U.S. law might be changed to permit doctors to perform a “ceremonial pinprick, or small nick” as a compromise intended to “play a role in the eventual eradication of FGC”, but later rescinded this suggestion.
Genital bisection: Genital bisection in males involves the splitting of the penis (and occasionally the scrotum as well). This still 
allows for erection, though often the two halves curve into each other, making insertion more difficult.
Genital bisection is an extension of a subincision, which is an extension of a meatotomy. As the urethra is exposed, some pleasure can be derived, due to the great abundance of nerves. This is why those who undergo previous procedures may choose to take it further, though in some cases the bisection might be done all at once.
Variations include keeping the glans intact so that only the penile shaft is bisected.
Penile subincision: Penile subincision is a form of body modification consisting of a urethrotomy, in which the underside of the penis is incised and the urethra slit open lengthwise, from the urethral opening (meatus) toward the base. The slit can be of varying lengths.
Subincision is traditionally performed around the world, notably in Africa, South America and the Polynesian and Melanesian cultures of the Pacific, often as a coming of age ritual. The practice has been taken up in the western world in recent years for the purpose of sexual pleasure or aesthetics.
Disadvantages include the risk of surgery, which is often self-performed, and increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The ability to impregnate (specifically, getting sperm into the vagina) may also be decreased.
Subincisions can greatly affect urination and often require the subincised male to sit while urinating. The scrotum can be pulled up against the open urethra to quasi-complete the tube and allow “normal” urination, while a few subincised men carry a tube with them to aim with.
Subincision (like circumcision) is widespread in the traditional cultures of Indigenous Australians, and is well documented among the peoples of the central desert such as the Arrernte and Luritja. The Arrernte word for subincision is arilta, and occurs as a rite of passage ritual for adolescent boys. It was gifted to the Arrernte by Mangar-kunjer-kujaIt, a lizard-man spirit being from the Dreamtime. A subincised penis is thought to resemble a vulva, and the bleeding is likened to menstruation.
This type of modification of the penis was also traditionally performed by the Lardil people of Mornington Island, Queensland. The young men who chose to endure this custom were the only ones to learn a complex ceremonial language, Damin. In later ceremonies, repeated throughout adult life, the subincised penis would be used as a site for ritual bloodletting. According to Ken Hale, who studied Damin, no ritual initiations have been carried out in the Gulf of Carpentaria for half a century, and hence the language has also died out.
Indigenous cultures of the Amazon Basin also practise subincision, as do Samburu herdboys of Kenya, who are said to perform subinicisions on themselves (or sometimes their peers) at age seven to ten. In Samoa, subincision of the foreskin (not the penis proper) was ritually performed upon young men, as in Hawaii, where subincision of the foreskin is reported to have been performed at age six or seven.
Foot binding: Foot binding (simplified Chinese: 缠足; traditional Chinese: 纏足; pinyin: chánzú, literally “bound feet”) was a custom practiced on young girls and women for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the early 20th century.
Foot-binding resulted in lifelong disabilities for most of its victims. As the practice waned in the early 20th century, “some girls’ feet were released after initial binding, leaving less severe deformities,” according to a study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco. However, some effects of foot-binding were permanent, especially if a girl’s arches or toes had been broken or other drastic measures taken in order to achieve the desired smallness. In the 1990s and early 2000s, some elderly Chinese women still suffered from disabilities related to bound feet.
Multiple theories attempt to explain the origin of foot binding: from the desire to emulate the naturally tiny feet of a favored concubine of a prince, to a story of an empress who had club-like feet, which became viewed as a desirable fashion. However, there is little strong textual evidence for the custom prior to the court of the Southern Tang dynasty in Nanjing, which celebrated the fame of its dancing girls, renowned for their tiny feet and beautiful bow shoes. What is clear is that foot binding was first practised among the elite and only in the wealthiest parts of China, which suggests that binding the feet of well-born girls represented their freedom from manual labor and, at the same time, the ability of their husbands to afford wives who did not need to work, who existed solely to serve their men and direct household servants while performing no labor themselves. The economic and social attractions of such women may well have translated into sexual desirability among elite men.
However, by the 17th century, Han Chinese girls, from the wealthiest to the poorest people, had their feet bound. It was less prevalent among poorer women or those that had to work for a living, especially in the fields. Some estimate that as many as 2 billion Chinese women were subjected to this practice, from the late 10th century until 1949, when foot binding was outlawed by the Communists. (Foot binding had already been banned by the Nationalists decades before.) According to the author of The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe, 40-50% of Chinese women had bound feet in the 19th century. For the upper classes, the figure was almost 100%. Generally speaking, footbinding was not as widespread in southern China as in the north. In contrast to the majority of other Han Chinese, the Hakka of southern China did not practice foot binding and had natural feet. Manchu women were forbidden to bind their feet by an edict from the Emperor after the Manchu started their rule of China in 1644. Many other non-Han ethnic groups continued to observe the custom, some of them practiced loose binding which did not break the bones of the arch and toes but simply narrowed the foot.
Binding the feet involved breaking the arch of the foot, which ultimately left a crevice approximately 5 cm (2 in) deep, which was considered most desirable. It took approximately two years for this process to achieve the desired effect; preferably a foot that measured 7–9 cm (3–31⁄2 in) from toe to heel. While foot binding could lead to serious infections, possibly gangrene, and was generally painful for life, contrary to popular belief, many women with bound feet were able to walk, work in the fields, and climb to mountain homes from valleys below. As late as 2005, women with bound feet in one village in Yunnan Province formed an internationally known dancing troupe to perform for foreign tourists. In other areas, women in their 70s and 80s could be found working in the rice fields well into the 21st century. In the 19th and early 20th century, dancers with bound feet were very popular, as were circus performers who stood on prancing or running horses.
When foot-binding was popular and customary, women and their families and husbands took great pride in tiny feet that had achieved the desired lotus shape. This pride was reflected in the elegantly embroidered silk slippers and wrappings girls and women wore to cover their feet. Walking on bound feet necessitated bending the knees slightly and swaying to maintain the proper movement. This swaying walk became known as the Lotus Gait and was considered sexually exciting by men. Later, the Manchu women who were forbidden to bind their feet, and who were supposedly envious of the Lotus Gait, invented their own type of shoe that caused them to walk in a swaying manner. They wore ‘flower bowl’ shoes, on a high platform generally made of wood or with a small central pedestal. In fact, bound feet became an important differentiating marker between Manchu and Han women.
The practice of foot-binding continued into the 20th century, when both Chinese and Western missionaries called for reform; at this point, a true anti-foot-binding movement emerged. Educated Chinese began to realise that this aspect of their culture did not reflect well upon them in the eyes of foreigners; social Darwinists argued that it weakened the nation, since enfeebled women supposedly produced weak sons; and feminists attacked the practice because it caused women to suffer. At the turn of the 20th century, well-born women such as Kwan Siew-Wah, a pioneer feminist, advocated for the end of foot-binding. Kwan herself refused the foot-binding imposed on her in childhood, so that she could grow normal feet.
There had been earlier but unsuccessful attempts to stop the practice of foot-binding, various emperors issuing unsuccessful edicts against it. The Empress Dowager Cixi (a Manchu) issued such an edict following the Boxer Rebellion in order to appease foreigners, but it was rescinded a short time later. In 1911, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the new Republic of China government banned foot binding. Women were told to unwrap their feet lest they be killed. Some women’s feet grew a 1–3 cm (1⁄2–1 in) after the unwrapping, though some found the new growth process extremely painful as well as emotionally and culturally devastating. Still, societies were founded to support the abolition of foot-binding, with contractual agreements made between families who would promise an infant son in marriage to an infant daughter who did not have bound feet. When the Communists took power in 1949, they were able to maintain the strict prohibition on foot-binding, which is still in effect today.
In Taiwan, foot-binding was banned by the Japanese administration in 1915.
Anal Stretching: The process of anal stretching is a lot like earlobe stretching, with the jewelry exception around the anus. Like stretching a piercing, it involves slow and increasingly larger play over an extended period of time.
Done carefully, anal stretching can result in rectal circumferences of 15″ (38cm) = diameter of 4.77″ (12cm) and more. For some people done slowly, the process could be pleasurable and a little painful as well.
After stretching, it takes three to six hours for the anus to return to normal. Other than the ability to engage in heavier anal play, anal stretching will cause no functional change to digestion or defecation.
Lip plate: A lip plate, also known as a lip plug or lip disc, is a form of body modification. Increasingly larger discs (usually circular, and made from clay or wood) are inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both, thereby stretching it. The 
term labret (pronounced LAY-bret) denotes all kinds of pierced-lip ornaments, including plates and plugs.
Archeological evidence indicates that labrets have been independently invented no more than six times, in Kamchatka (8700 BC), Iran (6400 BC), the Balkans (5000 BC), Sudan (3700 BC), Mesoamerica (1500 BC), and Coastal Ecuador (500 BC). Today, the custom is maintained by a few groups in Africa and Amazonia.
In Africa, a lower lip plate is usually combined with the excision of the two lower front teeth, sometimes all four. Among the Sara people and Lobi a plate is also inserted into the upper lip. Other tribes, such as the Makonde, used to wear a plate in the upper lip only. In many older sources it is reported that the plate’s size is a sign of social or economical importance in some tribes. However, because of natural mechanical attributes of human skin, it seems that the plate’s size often just depends on the stage of stretching of the lip and the wishes of the wearer.
In South America, lip plates are nearly always made from light wood.
Among the Surma (own name Suri) and Mursi people of the lower Omo River valley in Ethiopia, about 6 to 12 months before marriage the woman’s lip is pierced by her mother or one of her kinswomen, usually at around the age of 15 to 18. The initial piercing is done as an incision of the lower lip of 1 to 2 cm length, and a simple wooden peg is inserted. After the wound has healed, which usually takes 2 or 3 weeks, the peg is replaced with a slightly bigger one. At a diameter of about 4 cm the first lip plate made of clay is inserted. Every woman crafts her plate by herself and takes pride in including some ornamentation. The final diameter ranges from about 8 cm to over 20 cm. (The young woman pictured on p 89 of is wearing a 21-22 cm plate.)
Many recent sources (Beckwith and Carter for example) claim that, for Mursi and Surma women, the size of their lip plate indicates the number of cattle paid as the bride price. However anthropologist Turton, who has studied the Mursi for 30 years, denies this.
These days, it appears that Mursi girls of age 13 to 18 decide for themselves whether to wear a lip plate or not. The lip plates worn by Mursi and Surma women have been instrumental in making them a popular tourist attraction in recent years, with mixed consequences for these tribes.
In some Amazonian tribes, young men traditionally have their lips pierced when they enter the men’s house and leave the world of women. Lip plates there have important associations with oratory and singing, and the largest plates are worn by the greatest orators and war-chiefs, like the well-known environmental campaigner Raoni of the Kayapo tribe.
In the Pacific Northwest of North America, among the Haida, Tsimshian, and Tlingit, lip plates used to symbolise social maturity by indicating a girl’s eligibility to be a wife. The installation of a girl’s first plate was celebrated with a sumptuous feast.
Silicone injections: Silicone injections are exactly what they sound like — injections of silicone into the body, and in this context generally (but not exclusively) to the male genital.
As far as male genital injections, circumference increases of as much as three hundred percent are definitely not unheard of. Done slowly, the level of sculpting that can be achieved is almost limitless.
In general, this procedure is not reversible, at least without extensive invasive and damaging surgery.
It is essential that the practitioner be well trained and experienced. Sometimes patients have gone overboard and went so far as making sexual penetration next to impossible.
The famous “Cat Woman” (Jocelyn Wildenstein) has received several silicone injections in the lips, cheek, and chin, in addition of several plastic surgeries to look like a cat.
Silicone injection is illegal in the US, but is legal in some countries in Central and South America and many people travel to have the work done there. Underground doctors servicing those communities also exist in Canada and the US and can often be found through esthetics salons in ethnic communities (often immigrant doctors find it difficult due to prejudicial local laws to get their licenses and are forced to work in the underground plastic surgery market). Male genital enhancement groups and better drag queens often have domestic contacts for these procedures as well, both from doctors and non-medical practitioners — “silicone parties” where men gather to have work done are not unheard of in New York City for example.
Nipple removal: Nipple removal is the amputation of all or part of the nipple. It is primarily a male activity since nipple removal in women could easily lead to mastitis.
Procedurally most people use a clamp and cut type procedure where the nipple is clamped off (or simply tourniquetted off) below where it is to be excised. Once the clamp is in place, the nipple is cut off, and the incision may be sutured. Other people skip the clamp entirely, and still others use different methods including cautery (ie. burning off the nipple).
Even with local anesthetics the procedure can be quite painful, although some people find they are able to totally numb it even with just EMLA cream and a tourniquet. Bleeding may continue for several days afterwards depending on the procedure used, and healing usually takes about a month. The resultant healed removal can look like anything from a small healed cut to a large scar-tissue nipple.
Breast ironing: Breast ironing is the pounding and massaging of a pubescent girl’s breasts using heated objects, in an attempt to make them stop developing or disappear. It is typically carried out by the girl’s mother in an attempt to protect the girl from sexual harassment and rape, to prevent early pregnancy that would tarnish the family name, or to allow the girl to pursue education rather than be forced into early marriage. It is mostly practiced in parts of Cameroon, where boys and men may think girls whose breasts have begun to grow are ripe for sex. The most widely used implement for breast ironing is a wooden pestle normally used for pounding tubers; other tools used include bananas, coconut shells, grinding stones, ladles, spatulas, and hammers heated over coals.
Breast ironing is common in all ten regions of Cameroon. A survey by the German development agency GTZ from June, 2006 of more than 5,000 Cameroonian girls and women between the ages of 10 and 82, estimated that nearly one in four had undergone breast ironing, corresponding to four million girls in Cameroon alone. Incidence is as high as 53% in the Cameroon’s southeastern region of Littoral. Compared with Cameroon’s Christian and animist south, breast ironing is less common in the Muslim north, where only 10 percent of women are affected.
Breast ironing is incredibly painful and causes tissue damage. As of June, 2006, there has been no research on its medical effects. However, medical experts warn it might contribute toward breast cancer, cysts and depression. Other possible side-effects include breast infections, the formation of abscesses, malformed breasts and the complete eradication of one or both breasts. Breast ironing can also inhibit or prevent breastfeeding.
As well as being dangerous, breast ironing is criticised as being ineffective for stopping early sex and pregnancy. GTZ and the Network of Aunties, a Cameroonian non-governmental organization that supports young mothers, are campaigning against breast ironing, and are supported by the Ministry for the Promotion of Women and the Family. In Cameroon, if a medical doctor determines that damage has been caused to the breasts, the perpetrator can be punished by up to three years in prison, provided the matter is reported within a few months.
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