Nipple Piercing

Nipple piercings usually done in 14 gauge or larger in men, and 12ga or larger for women. If a ring is used it should be of a large enough diameter — a small ring can induce rejection or migration. Nipples can be pierced with barbells, rings, or practically any jewelry on the market. Placement may be vertical, horizontal, or at any other desired angle.

For men (or women), it doesn't matter which side you get pierced — there is no meaning to getting either the left or right done.

There is no evidence that nipple piercings lead to cancer or any other serious problems — however, in very rare cases, a nipple piercing may block a milk duct, trapping an infection inside the breast (mastitis). Should this happen (you should be able to feel a lump), immediate medical attention is essential. (Note that this is very rare).

As to the history of the male nipple piercing, Paul King writes,

First of all, Roman Centurions did not have their nipples pierced. Over the years it has been my great pleasure to have many long discussions with Jim Ward, founder of Gauntlet, PFIQ, and long-time friend of Richard Simonton (aka Doug Malloy). Jim has told me the genesis behind this urban legend. It appears that Doug's only evidence of the Romans having pierced nipples was a photograph of a baroque statue from Versailles. In the photo the statue is wearing a breastplate with rings for attaching a cape. When Jim conveyed his doubts about Doug's rather stretched conclusions, Doug replied, "Well, it makes a good story..."

That said, I've also seen pierced Roman breastplates, and we do know that the Romans were aware of body piercings such as foreskin piercing. I believe that it is safe to assume that at least a small number of Roman fetishists applied these piercings to real nipples, not just metal ones. Paul continues,

In appears that the Karankawa Native Americans, an extinct nomadic people previously inhabiting the Gulf Coast of Texas "pierced the nipples of each breast and the lower lip with small pieces of cane." That they could heal these piercings is particularly interesting since "they smeared their bodies with a mixture of dirt and alligator or shark grease" to thward mosquitoes.
Both American and British sailors have passed legends of getting pierced as an initiation for having crossed an important latitude or longitude. There is enough folklore and photos to substantiate tales of "sailors with pierced nipples adding links for each time the sailor crossed the equator." However, the adding of links seems to be a lesser known practice. Since the turn of the century, sailors such as Le Captain Ringman or The Great Omi, heavily tattooed and pierced, would sometimes reenter mainland society as human oddities.

The 1950s and 1960s were a time for self-exploration and sowed the seeds of the modern day Body Modification and SM communities. Men such as Fakir Musafar (Roland Loomis) and Jim Ward felt compelled to pierce their own nipples, and bravely figured out their piercings in an information vacuum.

Older piercing icons such as The Incredible Til reliably date their nipple piercings as far back as the 1930s.

Female nipple piercing has a broader Western history. Paul King writes,

Quoting Fuch's writing as the source, Hans Peter Duerr's book, Dreamtime, traces the earliest know practice of female nipple piercing to perhaps the Court of Queen Isabella of Bavaria. Her rule (1385 to 1417) was short lived but extravagant.

"Queen Isabella... introduced the 'garments of the grand neckline', where the dress was open to the navel. This fashion eventually lead to the application of rouge to freely display nipples, those 'little apples of paradise' to placing diamond-studded rings or small caps on them, even piercing and passing gold chains through them decorated with diamonds, possibly to demonstrate the youthful resiliance of the bosom."

Eduard Fuch is again quoted by the author Stephen Kern in Anatomy and Destiny. This time the reference is much later and from a different source. "In the late 1890s, the 'bosom ring' came into fashion briefly and sold in expensive Parisian jewelry shops. These 'anneaux de sein' were inserted through the nipple, and some women wore one on either side linked with a delicate chain. The rings enlarged the breasts and kept them in a state of constant excitation. This provocative combination was rare."
The mid 20th century brought a flurry of sensational books on sex. The following passage is from a book called The Golden Age of Erotica:

"No more perfect example of Victorian extremism can be found than the unbelievable breast piercing craze that swept London in the 1890s. This barbaric practice achieved fantastic popularity among seemingly sane, civilized Englishwomen, who submitted to the excrutiating pain of having their nipples pierced in order to insert gold and jewelled rings.
In an attempt to explain what had driven so many females to embrace such a crackpot fad, a fashionable London modest wrote a letter to a popular magazine, which said in part, 'Fore a long time I could not understand why I should consent to such a painful operation without sufficient reason. I soon however came to the conclusion that many ladies are ready to bare the passing fashion for the sake of love. I found the breasts of the ladies who wore rings were incomparably rounder and fuller developed than those who did not. My doubts were now at an end... So I have my nipples pierced, and when the wounds healed, I had rings inserted... With regard to the experience of wearing these rings, I can only say that they are not in the least uncomfortable or painful. On the contrary, the slight rubbing and slipping of the rings causes in me a titillating feeling, and all my colleagues to whom I have spoken on this subject have confirmed my opinion.'

Fuch's French joined with Jones' and Hurwood's English references of the same period seem to support the notion of a brief but extraordinary fashion trend.
After the 1890s the female nipple piercing seems to go completely underground. I have been unable to trace any references or photos until the quite remarkable piercing legend, Ethel Granger. For those readers unfamiliar with Ms. Granger, she appeared in the first edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. She was entered as the smallest waist in the world. With strong encouragement from her husband, Ethel started modifying her body when she got married in the 1920s. By World War II, she had both her nipples pierced and over ten ear piercings in each ear, many of them stretched or punched, including her conch. She had one piercing in each nostril and one in her septum. She could connect them by running a knitting needle from one nostril, through the septum, and out the other nostril. Certainly there were more women with secretly adorned nipples, but printed marterial remains elusive.

From the 1890s onward both men and women of European and American societies were having their nipples pierced. However, it appears very early on that female nipple piercing was performed within the fashion-conscious affluent classes while male nipple piercing was practiced by the working class fringe (mostly sailors and carnies). While the stylish quickly dropped the practice, those finding significant in the ritual or ornamentation in their lifestyle carried on the tradition. In the latter half of the 20th century, it appears not much has changed.

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