hoy!
Some thirty years ago, I found myself working as a volunteer in a Mayan Indian village high in the mountains of Guatemala in Central America. I worked at the time for a volunteer organization whose role was to teach the people to read and write in their native language (k'anjobal). I spent long years there developing an alphabet and teaching the people to write their own language. The days and the nights were long and wearisome, and I was unable to concentrate solely on the literacy process. I began to ask the folks about their history and their culture. They really didn't know much about either.
So, I was forced to research the libraries to discover more about them. I learned that back in the mists of pre-history, the Maya had a highly developed religious system. They practiced various and sundry types of body modification. Many times, their infant children's heads were deformed using a sloping board hinged at the top. Gradually pressure would be applied, thus elongating the skull and producing a pointed head. (Not beautiful to my way of thinking, but hey, I'm not Mayan! Another form of modification was to suspend a pith ball from a small thread squarely between the new-born infant's eyes, thus causing some of the (at least) to become cross-eyed.
Filing their teeth and also filling their teeth with jade was a sign of beauty. There were genital piercings reserved for the priests and warriors. A sharpened thorn or (more usually) the spine from a sting ray was used to perforate the head of the penis. The hole was made larger by inserting an obsidian taper. A thin string was subsequently threaded through the incision.
Any drops of blood that flowed from the incision were collected on bark paper and subsequently burned - the smoke being a prayer offering to the gods. Another piercing was reserved to the priests alone. Their tongues were pierced - so as to make them more eloquent in offering up ritual prayers.
There were other piercings as well: ear lobes were pierced and jade plugs were inserted. The lower lip was often pierced and a jade or crystal labret was worn there.
I grew fascinated by the piercings that the early Mayans had undergone. About 5 or 6 years ago, while on a trip to San Francisco, I went to "Body Manipulations" on an impulse and had a Prince Albert (10 g) piercing done. (I was 56 years old, at the time and I hadn't made the Mayan connection yet. Over the following years, I upsized the PA until I arrived at a .0g. During the following years, I began to meditate on my Mayan friends. (I had never seen any evidence of piercing among the present day Maya. However all that means is that I never saw it.) During the last 3 years, I have become friendly with Blake from Venus Body Arts in New York City. We hit it off on our mutually shared interest in Mayan body modification. During these days, Blake pierced my scrotum with 6 four gauge bar bells, creating the most impressive scrotum ladder you'll want to see. Then he presented me with a pubic piercing (across the base of my cock where it joins my belly.) In the pubic hair, there is an eight gauge barbell with black opals for balls.
Finally after a lot of discussion and research, Blake and I decided that the Apadravya most closely resembled the Mayan piercing. In December of 1997, when Blake's shop was closed for the evening, we prepared a Mayan ceremony.
Three of my Mayan friends (who now live in NYC) came to the shop. They brought with them incense (pom) and charcoal, and the book of Mayan scriptures (Popol Vuh). I produced a sting ray spine (which I had unearthed in an archeological dig) as well as an Obsidian blade. Blake had his piercing instruments sterilized and ready for the piercing. My friends, Xuncaax, Maxu and Xunic surrounded me as I lay naked on the table. They lit their incense, and began to chant. With the sting ray spine, Xunic drew on my cock the spot to be pierced, and with the obsidian knife, Maxu made a tiny incision in the glans, which was then rinsed with peroxide. I lay there wondering what I had gotten myself into. Incense smoke swirled around me as my friends continued to chant. Xuncaax commenced to read the creation story from the Popul Vuh, while the others chanted in their sing-song way. One of them must have given a sign to Blake, who - in a flash - had done the piercing, inserted the taper, and before I knew it, was inserting the barbell (6g). It was only then that I was aware that my friends were holding me and cradling me in their arms. Xunic had some bark paper with which he was blotting up the blood I was spilling. I saw then that they were placing the blood-stained paper in the smoldering charcoal fire, and smoke was spiraling up to the gods. Did it hurt? Yes, it did. You bet it did. But the pain has long since gone. Now, instead of the discomfort, I am more aware of a sense of connectedness to the ancients, a sense of being one with the Mayan people of old. I have had the Apadravya now for almost 6 months. It has healed and most of the redness is gone, although the tenderness still remains.
I am proud of my Apadravya, but don't have much of an opportunity to show it to many people. The only ones who ever see it are folks who are around when I take off my pants. There aren't many of them - because, you see, I am a clergyman.