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September 21, 2008

At the beginning of the meeting, mention was made of a new addition to our library, a book of photography by Sherwin Carlquist, titled Men in Nature. Carlquist is known for what he calls "natural man photos." These consist of artistic nudes; the author states on his website that they are natural "by being naked in natural settings, but they are also natural in that all of them are uncircumcised." Although not exactly related to our topic of restoration, some of our visitors may be curious as to what foreskins really look like, or how they might appear when fully restored. The photos also portray the natural appearance in a positive light, in our culture where you don't see that too often.

The discussion turned to matters of circumcision, including our group members' concerns about what was done to them, what was being done to others, and how its popularity in our culture had its roots in 19th century medicine. For those regulars that hadn't been here last month, our coordinator showed the group the circumcision clamp that was added to our library last month, though there were considerably fewer people who cared to examine the device this time around.

Next we discussed various restoration methods and answered questions for yet another newcomer to the group [and we always welcome new restorers; - if you're in the LA area, consider coming to a meeting!]. A few guys mentioned their experience using an o-ring to keep the skin forward while not tugging. There are methods of using multiple o-rings to add tension, but it seems the preferred use by restorers at our meetings is simply to retain coverage.