The Blowfish Blog

Couple’s Couch: Private Cuts

“Subincision?” I rolled the word around in my head the way a sommelier would with a particularly unusual vintage, probing at the word, attempting to derive some sort of meaning out of it.

Did she mean circumcision? After all, one of my friends had been speaking about her lover’s cock when the word fell out of her mouth. She had assumed that I knew what the word meant and I, frustratingly, was stumped.

“Alright,” I conceded. “What the heck is a subincision?”

She was surprised that I hadn’t heard about this, apparently fairly common, form of male genital modification. For my part, I was surprised that I’d never learned any names for any type of male genital modification and was not a little perturbed that I was so out of the loop on an activity that was obviously something I would find captivating.

For those who are blinking along in a similar haze of confusion, a “Subincision” is performed when the bottom of the penis is slowly and systematically split open lengthwise from the tip of the urethral hole down into the head or shaft of the penis. The urethra, running like a pipeline through the center, is opened to the outside world via the rent in underside of the shaft. Some men choose to extend their subincisions only a few millimeters, but many (if not most) continue their incisions past the head of the penis to allow access to the urethra below the spongy tissue of the cock head.

Oh MY!

I’ll be honest with you; my mouth fell open when she told me about this procedure. I had never considered such a thing! My first reaction was one of disbelief, followed by profound and utter befuddlement over why one would do such a thing to their lovely sex organ. I thought the whole thing sounded barbaric, inhumane, self-hating, and perhaps more than anything, utterly fascinating.

Over the new few days, I went hunting for more information. Moving beyond the “How” (slowly over many months, with great care, sharp instruments, a lot of gauze, and a soldering pin) to the “Why,” I was entreated to a list of reasons people engage in subincising their penises.

First and foremost, the emotional rush of cutting seems paramount in the experience. I’m told that the sensation is so powerful that the person often experiences a sort of euphoria while under the blade. Alrighty, I can get that. I like being spanked/bitten/flogged for the same reason. I can relate: Check.

Second, many guys (and their respective partners, I gather) like the way it looks. To each their own, friends. I admit that I am pleased to hear that for as many guys like to subincise, superincise, bisect, and invert their dicks, there are just as many folks who find it a turn on. We live in a good world with a multitude of sexual preferences, so: Check.

In terms of “why,” there are also practical goals involved. Subinsicing the penis opens the urethra to the open air. Once healed, the owner of a subincised member can actually fondle their sensitive urethra as easily as one might stroke their Johnson. I’m told this feels very, very nice. And if you happen to use sounds (sterile metal rods that are inserted into the urethra for sexual stimulation/gratification), a subincision made down past the head of the penis will allow for thicker sounds than penetrating through the tip of the head. Feels good: Check.

Then there is the tertiary result that a split penis is a wider penis, which is, in fact, how my friend who was riding in the car with me brought the whole issue up in the first place. She happens to adore the way it feels to be fucked with a half-subincised penis, like it is more filling somehow, that it rubs in specifically wonderful places inside her vagina. Feels good for partner and makes cock look bigger: Check.

I think I’m starting to get it.

Now I’m not saying that I would do it myself, nor that I would recommend picking up sterile blades from the pharmacy and going at it all on your lonesome, but I’m moving beyond my initial fear-based reactions to a place with actual positivity. I’ve looked into some of the research on tribal cutting in various cultures around the world (Indigenous Australians, peoples of the Amazon Basin in Kenya, Samoans, Hawaiians, etc.) and learned that subincision rituals have existed for centuries and in many places symbolize rites of passage or coming of age. I’ve talked to a few guys who engage in genital modification who assure me that their cutting is not a act of mutilation, self-hate, or stemming from a desire to destroy their maleness (all previous hypotheses that I was busy formulating while speaking with them.)

I think of genitals as sensitive, private extensions of one’s sexuality. When I hear that people intentionally hurt their genitals, it is difficult not to wince primarily because I can’t imagine hurting my own. Thinking about body modification however, I am reminded how generally uptight we are about our bodies. My poor parents still haven’t wholly recovered from the tattoo I got in my adolescence, let alone the various body-piercings that have come and gone from my skin through the seasons of my life.

We are afraid when we hear that people do things to their bodies that intentionally hurt. The general population is scared of BDSM because of the fact that it wounds and somehow the actors in an intricate scene enjoy their pain. Perhaps this has to do with survival of the species and instincts about avoiding discomfort kick in. Or perhaps we are wound so morally tight that deviations from vanilla unnerve even those of us that consider ourselves open-minded.

What is fringe for me is clearly a way of life for my buddy’s lover. What is normal for me is most certainly fringe for my mother and likely for many people who read this column with disbelief. The point in all of this, for me at least, it the opportunity to learn from one another and hopefully, should we be willing, to derive real pleasure and meaning from our experiences as humans. So cut away, friends, cut away.

— Rebekah Skoor, MA

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This entry was posted on Friday, 4 January 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.