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From the moment she met him at age 16, Queen Victoria had the hots her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. After Albert's father King Leopold of Belgium introduced the two teenagers, Victoria thanked him for the matchmaking effort, writing "[Albert] possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy."
I'll bet he did.
At that time, Beau Brummel started the craze for ultra tight mens trousers. Because these crotch-huggers were snug enough to offend the the ladies, the penis needed to be discretely held to one side or the other so as not to create an unsightly, faint-inducing bulge. To accomplish this, many a male fashion slave had his penis pierced to enable it to be buttoned or hooked to the inside of the trousers. This piercing was called a "Dressing Ring" because tailors would ask if a gentleman dressed to the left or the right, and then he'd tailor the trousers accordingly. Even today a tailor will ask his customer to which side he "dresses."
Prince Albert was reputed to be quite well-endowed which necessitated him getting his trouser snake modified, hence the new name of the piercing. As Victorian ways slowly died out, the P.A was largely forgotten and was probably seen as passe by many Edwardians. But it's back and now is one of the most popular male piercings there is. Most of the time it's performed by inserting a needle and receiving tube (a device called a cannula) into the urethra and out the underside of the penis. Then the jewelry is pulled into the penis from the outside via feeding it through the tube. Usually a barbell or captive bead ring, about a 10 gauge.
Have fun, boys.
