Body modification is a thing people do, and that’s fine, split tongues et al. When it comes to sticking things in your penis however, I tend to stand on the conservative side. Leave little Johnny be I say! The dudes in Cuba seem to have a different perspective on things however, according to this piece by Vice.
Cuban men, especially those from the military, apparently put a little ball of plastic called a pearl under the skin at the tip of the penis through a small incision. They claim it drives the mamitas loco!
When I first read about this inexplicable procedure, I had a whole wave of questions, so let’s get into the nitty gritty. The trend seems to have various origins, with some claiming it came from merchant seamen in the 1960s to others speculating that the practice arose from imprisoned members of the Yakuza— one pearl for each year they spent in jail.
The fucked up thing is that the procedure is usually carried out without proper medical equipment, and complications such as tetanus, balanitis, gangrene are highly possible.
As for the upside, while general myth and hearsay tends to glamorise the sexually enhancing benefits of this pearly practise, a real doctor named Almudena López, a sex therapist in Cuba, told Vice that “for it to really stimulate the clitoris, the pearl should be placed at the very base of the penis, which never happens. Of course eroticism is for a big part a psychological affair, and given that the famous pearl has some mysteries to it, it might actually tickle the brain more than any other part of the body.”
Just so you know, there have even been cases where the penis has been removed due to gangrene brought on by these clammy little balls. Happy Saturday!