An exploration of circumcision, tattoos, and other permanent, deliberate modifications of the male form.

Body modification has been practiced around the world throughout human history, and continues today with new and old rituals and methods of deliberately and permanently altering our living, breathing human bodies. From traditional tattoos and scarification to modern plastic surgery, lightning-fast piercings to years’ long stretchings, body modification stretches possible human experience to the limits of human imagination, technology, and biology. What are the ethical, emotional, and health concerns for men and boys of any of these practices?

Do we have innate rights to modify the bodies of our sons before the age of consent? Do we have the right to refuse to be deliberately cut or altered, at any age? How has widespread neonatal circumcision changed your ideas of what a penis looks like? Is your body “as Nature made it,” or has it been permanently changed? How have the modifications to your body made you more or less “you”?

For this theme, we welcome:

First-person essays on men’s body modification

Articles on body modification methods practiced on and by men, and their cultural context

Articles on medical procedures and health, related to one or several methods of male body modification

Essays on free will and consent to male body modification

Submissions on the theme of male body modification, and related pitches and inquiries, may be made to Justin Cascio, Senior Editor, The Good Men Project, at justin@goodmenproject.com. Completed submissions should be received by Saturday, September 29 for consideration.

Read more Calls For Submissions.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons