You pierced what!?!

January 17, 2007 12:31 AM

Now and again one comes across a word in English and has reason to remark “there really was no good reason to come up with that.” Today, this role will be played by pseudomamma, from the same roots as the ‘pseudo–’ of any number of English words and the ‘mamma’ of ‘mammaries.’ Yes, doctors have a word for ‘third nipple’ to use in contexts where people not understanding what they’re saying makes their lives easier. Also starring, as the context for the use of this word, and as it so often does these days, is the internet. Specifically BMEzine, the acme of body-modification exhibition sites; yes, one person in twenty has a third nipple, and yes a goodly number of them has piercings there. For your edification and distraction, its gallery of third nipple piercings. Not safe for work. That was the Coral Cache mirror, original here. Via the comments at Jamie Zawinski’s Livejournal. Warranty void unless customer resides in the European Union. Stocks and shares may fall as well as rise.
posted by Aidan Kehoe (37 comments total)

Man, if I had a triplenipple I'd pierce it, too.

Unless it was on the bottom of my foot. That would suck.
posted by loquacious at 12:41 AM on January 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Also, before anyone snarks you back into the Cretaceous Period - less text and paragraph breaks on the front page, please.
posted by loquacious at 12:45 AM on January 17, 2007

There is no such thing as too many nipples.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:58 AM on January 17, 2007

… less text and paragraph breaks on the front page, please.

I thought about putting a [More Inside] after the first paragraph, but putting the main link in the MI isn’t really fair on those reading the RSS feed. And if I had had to cut the paragraph on ‘pseudomamma,’ I wouldn’t have posted the link. :-/
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 12:59 AM on January 17, 2007

I think you would have been ok with:

Third Nipples Pierced NSFW.
posted by bigmusic at 1:04 AM on January 17, 2007

There is no such thing as too many nipples.

Especially if you're a baby pig.
posted by pracowity at 1:07 AM on January 17, 2007

Ugh, they look like pimples with jewellery.
posted by Listener at 1:12 AM on January 17, 2007

Bah, the formatting is fine, don't let them get you down. :)

That said, someone here (not sure if it's the OP or not) is sort of claiming that there's no reason for the word pseudomamma, and then gives a clear and explicit reason for its invention. Sheesh.

I am enthusiastically avoiding all links here. It will reduce my monthly mindbleach bill.
posted by Malor at 1:17 AM on January 17, 2007

bigmusic, see, if someone else had posted that link, I wouldn’t have followed it, nor remotely enjoyed reading it. And I think ‘not a link you would like or enjoy knowing about’ is a fundamental reason not to post to Metafilter.

Malor, clear and explicit, sure. A good reason, not so much :-) .
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 1:22 AM on January 17, 2007

Third nipples were once considered a sign of witchcraft.

They are also a sign of Mark Wahlberg.
posted by Violet Hour at 1:32 AM on January 17, 2007 [3 favorites has favorites]

1 in 20?! I had no idea.

Kinda surprised I haven't seen more, that being the case. Guess I just wasn't paying attention.

Having a big bauble dangling off should fix that, I suppose.
posted by dreamsign at 2:01 AM on January 17, 2007

Wikipedia says the incidence is closer to 1/50 (and lower in men), which is still far more frequent than I thought (must be close to 1000 Mefites with 3rd nipples!).

And apparently Masuimi Max has 2 extra nipples! From an interview:
"Yes, I have four nipples. The extra two nipples are smaller and are right here on my chest next to my armpits. They tickle, but they don't arouse me."

Picture of one of them here (NSFW).
posted by kisch mokusch at 2:10 AM on January 17, 2007

kisch mokusch, my figure was from here. And, wow, it really looks very little like a nipple, doesn’t it?
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 2:27 AM on January 17, 2007

I didn't know Vanilla Ice had four nips.
posted by Gankmore at 2:45 AM on January 17, 2007

Zowie, that woman is hot.
She's almost, like, four-nipple hot.
posted by dreamsign at 2:59 AM on January 17, 2007

These things are fascinating. A PubMed search for "supernumerary nipple" gets curious titles such as:

Role of skin lesions in the Salem witchcraft trials.

Male to male transmission of supernumerary nipples. (????)

and

Supernumerary nipples and intelligence. (Article in Undetermined Language, seriously!)

And after seeing this: Supernumerary nipples: prevalence, size, sex and side predilection -- a prospective clinical study, which gives the incidence at 5.6%, I hereby bow down to Aidan Kehoe's superior statistic (stupid, poorly sourced wikipedia article).

Interestingly, according to this, the incidence is 8 times higher in black Americans than white Europeans.
posted by kisch mokusch at 3:12 AM on January 17, 2007

Unless it was on the bottom of my foot. That would suck.
Would never happen. Accessory nipples (almost) always fall on two imaginary lines on your body, running from the middle of your groin, through each nipple and up to your shoulders.
posted by dubious at 3:34 AM on January 17, 2007

dubious, loquacious, in his postmodern way, was making a subtle allusion to JWZ’s previous Livejournal, which pointed to a medical journal article describing exactly a pseudomamma on the bottom of the foot. Full text here.
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 3:42 AM on January 17, 2007

What is a triple nipple? From the Phish.net FAQ.
posted by emelenjr at 3:58 AM on January 17, 2007

Exactly, Aidan Kehoe, spot on.

"All six of my nipples are tingling with delight!" - Cat.
posted by loquacious at 4:03 AM on January 17, 2007

Accessory nipples (almost) always fall on two imaginary lines on your body, running from the middle of your groin, through each nipple and up to your shoulders.

sometimes (very rarely) there are lots and lots and lots of extra nipples along these lines...i saw a picture once, back in grade school. i still have nightmares.
posted by sexyrobot at 4:09 AM on January 17, 2007

How about Supernumerary Breasts? Pic here of one on the posterior thigh of 74-year-old man.

(Camisa C: Accessory breast on the posterior thigh of a man. J Am Acad Dermatol 1980; 3:467-469).

Somehow doubt he ever thought of getting it pierced though.
posted by kisch mokusch at 5:24 AM on January 17, 2007

Bah, the formatting is fine, don't let them get you down. :)

No, it's not. Don't encourage people to make badly formatted posts. I don't understand why the last two paragraphs could not have been put in the first comment.
posted by languagehat at 5:48 AM on January 17, 2007

Titty knees!? I'd never have to leave the house.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 6:07 AM on January 17, 2007

languagehat, hmm? You think a FPP on the word ‘pseudomamma’ would be appropriate?
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 6:16 AM on January 17, 2007

The "FPP" is not just what's on the front page, it's the whole thing. The first comment (assuming you've done it right and prepared the extra material for instant posting, thus avoiding the snarks from people waiting for your "more inside") is part of the post. What's visible on the front page simply needs to be interesting/intriguing enough to get people to click on the link.
posted by languagehat at 6:20 AM on January 17, 2007

With respect, I don’t believe that that group of people interested in seeing a NSFW gallery of pierced third nipples, necessarily has a huge overlap with that group of people, the interest of which is piqued by the existence of an item of medical jargon. And I was posting for the first group.
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 6:30 AM on January 17, 2007

So are third nipples on women considered, by law, obscene? I mean, if a woman walks down Main St. USA with her third exposed, can she be cited for public indecency? Is there legal precedence for this? Where does the FCC stand on this pseudomammarial issue?

Suddenly, I need to know.
posted by LordSludge at 6:43 AM on January 17, 2007

Don't forget the lovely Ass Ponys' song, X-Tra Nipple.
posted by dobbs at 7:06 AM on January 17, 2007

With respect, I don’t believe that that group of people interested in seeing a NSFW gallery of pierced third nipples, necessarily has a huge overlap with that group of people, the interest of which is piqued by the existence of an item of medical jargon. And I was posting for the first group.

With respect, you should never, never ever assume anything about either the intelligence nor weirdness of the userbase of MetaFilter. It's insulting - in both directions. People can be weird and smart and perverted.

I am the impossible overlap in your Venn diagram.

The topology of topicality folds around me like so much space-time, as if I was singularity.

Anyway, yes. LESS on the front page is MORE. Be succinct. If you must have more than one paragraph and the post has lots of stuff, please put it inside. If it's good and interesting it will be viewed. Some of us, myself not excluded, scour this site like ravenous vultures. Not a single character or keystroke is missed, so we tend to get surly when our data-gorging is bloated by the superfluous.

Don't be defensive, just learn, ok? It's an otherwise nice post, but languagehat and I are telling you these things for a reason.
posted by loquacious at 7:23 AM on January 17, 2007

Nubbin.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:18 AM on January 17, 2007

Another link to glider's site BME.

Anyone else here also a member of the BME iam community?

Third nipple piercings dont really do much for me, seen them before. Whats really pushed my limits of what I think "normal" people will do recently has been Trepanation.
(infact reading that last Friday evening made me feel really ill
posted by 13twelve at 9:22 AM on January 17, 2007

13twelve, I had no idea that existed, although I should have guessed. Thanks for the link.
posted by hellphish at 10:28 AM on January 17, 2007

I hate BME.

These people are all disgusting to me.
posted by smackwich at 10:34 AM on January 17, 2007

Yeah, I recall a picture series of a woman gleefully trepaning herself ("autotrepanation"?) with a cordless drill. Neat.

A friend of mine was fixated on this practice for a while; she was going through this whole body-modification phase...
posted by LordSludge at 10:36 AM on January 17, 2007

While I love the word pseudomamma, I don't find it particularly redolent. For T3 (the extra breasticle), I propose mamqué.
posted by rob511 at 12:02 PM on January 17, 2007

James Bond: How will I recognize him?
Andrea Anders: Tall, slim, and dark.
James Bond: So is my aunt. Anything distinctive about him?
Andrea Anders: Yes, but how can I tell you? He's not like other men.
[motions toward her chest]
Andrea Anders: He has three...
James Bond: Fascinating anatomical tidbit. But probably the most useless piece of information I've ever heard. Unless of course the Bottoms Up is a strip club, and Scaramanga is performing.
posted by paperpete at 1:52 PM on January 17, 2007