The Art of Booty

I want to start doing some more artistic stuff, but I’m not sure where to begin. I get random ideas a lot but I never really know if they are possible. I guess I should actually try… So, starting next month I’m going to see if I can make custom wooden coasters. This partly comes from a need of mine, I don’t have coasters and there is a lot of random wood around my house. My plan is to reclaim it and turn them into coasters.

Now, these won’t be just normal coasters, I want to put pictures on them. I realize that isn’t a particularly original idea itself but my hope is to put pictures of my friends… in particular, my friend’s butts. Clearly, this will require some audience participation.

My idea is to set up a website or use some service to anonymously collect submitted pictures of my friend’s butts (or maybe chests and genitals… but butts are kind of funnier to me). The system would prevent even me from knowing who submitted the picture, then I could print it off and attach it to the reclaimed wood that I’ve shaped into a coaster.

So, why would I do this? Well, I think it would be kind of funny to have black and white pictures of butts on the coasters in my house. Also, I like the idea of using my friend’s who have a variety of body types as the models. I could also pay anyone who submits a high-quality image in bitcoin as well, so they could make some cash.

I also think this could become a business. It may not be the next Google but it might bring in a little extra cash for everyone involved. I’m still brainstorming but here are my basic ideas:

• Basically, sell packs of butt coasters (or chests and genitals) to people, they can either choose from the photos available, submit their own or have random ones sent to them
  • If they choose from the photos available it will cost a little more
  • If they submit their own it can be a one-time thing (with the images destroyed after the coasters are delivered), they can be stored in our database privately for future ordering, or they can be made public so that others can order the prints
  • If they choose random ones it will be cheaper and I would work to send a diverse group of prints from our most popular (or maybe they can filter by gender or other characteristics if that is important).
• If you want to submit an image you can earn a little extra cash, maybe 10% of any sales from people picking your image (that amount is totally random)
• There could be seasonal contests and deals like Christmas themed images, etc.
• Maybe making coasters is thinking too small. If I had the capabilities I could put user submitted butt/chest/genital pics on just about anything (posters, mugs, artistic prints, etc), but maybe that is thinking too big.

So, potential problems that could arise

1. Too many pictures are submitted, so we will need a filtering process. Maybe limit submissions to only a few from an email address or pictures expire every 30 days
2. Early entry could be key to popularity instead of actual quality when people who order the images don’t want to surf through thousands of submissions. It is easier just to look at the most popular. I think resetting every 30 days will help with this, but maybe we can also have staff pick some of the “top” choices, or maybe break them into categories such as Black and White, Comical, etc.
3. We could also have too few images if people are uncomfortable submitting a picture, even if anonymity is guaranteed. Hopefully, this will resolve itself if there is a market for the product. More demand for the product means higher wages for those in the market, which will encourage other people to submit images to get in on that cash.
4. I’m not really sure how to guarantee anonymity, particularly if I am paying people. Bitcoin is the easiest way for me but very few people use bitcoin, and I’m not sure what the legal issues are with paying people bitcoin. Though, I don’t think there is a high likelihood of someone hacking a small business to expose random people whose email addresses are connected to butt pictures (though it would destroy the business if there is a security leak, anonymity is necessary to gain trust for many people… but maybe some people won’t care about being anonymous, it could be good for some people’s brand)

I guess the key isn’t really what the image is, it is creating an organizational structure that incentivizes submissions from people and provides a product that is desired.

So, that’s what’s on my mind. Next month I’ll probably figure out the anonymous submission details and see if I can gather some images from my network. Hopefully, I’ll be able to figure out the logistical issues involved and see what the price point would be to turn this into a business.

Foreskin and Circumcision

While I was in Los Angeles a few weeks ago I lost one of the balls to my apadravya piercing. The hole healed much more quickly than I expected, which means I no longer have a genital piercing but my penis looks like it has a belly button on the top of the head. I don’t want to go through the pain, expense, and recovery of getting it re-pierced right now so I am going to leave it out. It is a little disappointing but this does provide me with the opportunity to try and restore my foreskin via Tugger. A friend of mine has been using Tugger and has been really happy with the results, particularly in restoring some of the pleasure sensations. I’m not quite sure if I’m going to do it but I am considering it.

I’m not upset with my parents for getting me circumcised, though I wish they wouldn’t have done it. I understand they were doing the best they could and following medical guidance at the time, though I don’t think there is a good reason for circumcision anymore. In fact, I think that it violates the rights of the child.

Infant circumcision permanently and unnecessarily removes a part of the child’s body that is responsible for pleasure. Parents are caretakers of their children, they do not own them. They are not free to do whatever they wish with their children. Any medical procedure, particularly one that permanently removes part of their body, should only be undertaken if medically necessary.

In my experience the two main reasons people support circumcision is cultural and preventative medicine, neither of which justify the act in my mind. Just because something is a cultural norm doesn’t mean it is ethical. Circumcision your infant so that they look like their father or for religious reasons is not a good reason. If a religion demanded that a hot iron be used to brand an infant because all the men in the community had that scar or because it symbolizes a covenant with god we would rightfully see that as barbaric, just like circumcision. An infant cannot choose a religion, if an adult wants to get circumcised for religious beliefs that is their decision but it is beyond a parent’s authority to do that to a child.

There does seem to be some medicinal benefit to circumcision, particularly around STI prevention and cleanliness. Still, this doesn’t justify a permanent medical procedure in my mind. Both STI prevention and cleanliness can be accomplished through educating about condoms and hygiene. The vast majority of the world is uncircumcised, including Europe, and they seem to find a way to survive without this unnecessary procedure. It might be easier for the parents to just cut off the foreskin instead of having genital-related conversations with their children, but convenience does not justify violating the child’s right to bodily autonomy.

Sexual pleasure is an important part of the human experience for most people. That opportunity should not be minimized by parents. The choice to get circumcised belongs to the child alone to make when they are adults. I’m glad we live in a time of medical advancements and some of this damage can be repaired, but it would be much better if the damage wasn’t done in the first place.