January 28, 2009
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When I got my nipples pierced about three years ago, I was fresh out of drug rehab and wanted to make a provocative gesture that said "They can take away the meth but I'm still a sexual being, dammit!" Getting solid gold rings only added to the "investment" in my acting out. And, yeah, piercing unlikely places on your body ... hurts.
No one has seen my bedazzled nips lately, unless a glance in the gym locker room counts. My body jewelry has outlasted my sexual appetite, it appears, because this former card-carrying Sex Pig has left the pen and shaken off the mud. In other words, maturity (and sexual dysfunction from the emotional scars of meth addiction) has won out.
And then I noticed that an otherwise benign article on The Body, "Sex Pigs" Campaign Creates Space for Sexually Adventurous Australian Men to Talk About HIV Risk, became the most widely read article on the site for a time! Is there a thirst for information on high-risk activity? Or do we gravitate to potentially sexually explicit content out of pure habit?
Whatever the case, I'm nothing if not a whore for readership, so I'm going to play in the mud again -- playfully is the key word here. In the process maybe I can exorcise some of my own demons of my slutty past. Self-indulgent may not begin to describe it, but screw 'em if they can't take a joke, especially a dirty one.
And so, behold! Solid gold nipple rings on an aging gay cliché!
Meanwhile, my patient and loving friends, please be well.
Mark
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