A man who already made the rare transition from dentist to artist, Kuang-Yi Ku, is now undertaking the unenviable task of trying to make oral sex better (for men—sorry, ladies).
And if you've ever thought medical developments focused way too much on curing the sick and way too little on making sex more awesome, you're going to love him (again, only if you're a man).
Ku's new project, featured at the Design Academy in the Netherlands, is called The Fellatio Modification Project.
The design is simple: it's a retainer. A sex retainer. "During oral sex, the back and forth contacts with the raised surface" to "enhance physical pleasure," according to Ku's project website.
After you're fitted for a retainer, you then have the option of customizing the various ribbing, aka "rubber bumps designed for maximum pleasure."
That seems to be as far as the prototype goes at this point, but Ku's got more steps in his plan. Remember, this guy's an artist, so you might sort of hope this next part is hypothetical.
Stage two includes making the retainer more like human skin, and stage three includes making this sex toy a permanent feature of your mouth.
"In my plan, the development of these three stages is not progressive but optional," assures Ku, "which means users can make the choice how far the transformation goes."
Again, this guy is an artist, and the project's meant to make a point. As Ku told New Scientist, "For many LGBT people there is so much social pressure on shedding or hiding one’s identity."
Ku means for the ultimate, permanent version of the sex retainer to visibly telegraph one's sexual preferences. It's a form of sexual self-expression, absent shame, that would make a loud statement in a single's bar.
Ku's fighting against the notion that you have to hide your sexual proclivities.
“This project was exactly hitting that note – allowing a conversation about this issue, and showing how art and science can provide a platform for this conversation.”