Dispelling Piercing Myths

I found that I'd been quoted in someone's blog post today about the Prince Albert piercing. I helped to settle the case on whether Prince Albert himself actually had a Prince Albert piercing (he didn't):

Another thing: according to The Piercing Bible by Elayne Angel (p. 156), the healing time for a Prince Albert is "4 to 8 weeks or longer". Now, in a time when infection could not be reliably controlled, who is going to pierce themselves anywhere - let alone somewhere that delicate? Are you beginning to smell a hoax? In her book, Angel confirms my suspicions that Prince Albert did not have a Prince Albert, as does Matthew Sweet in Inventing the Victorians. So why do so many people think he did? Where did this "dressing ring" thing get started? According to Angel, these stories were made up by a man who called himself Doug Malloy (real name Richard Simonton). He is considered the father of modern piercing culture in the US.

You can read the rest of the blog post here: http://susannesaville.blogspot.com/2009/10/prince-alberts-prince-albert.html