Epispasm: Difference between revisions
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}}</ref> Epispasm was popular in the First Century among [[circumcised]] Jewish men who wished to | }}</ref> Epispasm was popular in the First Century among [[circumcised]] Jewish men who wished to pass as [[intact]] Greek.<ref>}} | ||
* {{REFjournal | |||
|last=Kennedy | |||
|first= | |||
|init=A | |||
|author-link=Amanda Kennedy | |||
|etal=no | |||
|title=Masculinity and Embodiment in the Practice of Foreskin Restoration | |||
|language= | |||
|journal=International Journal of Men's Health | |||
|date=2015 | |||
|season=Spring | |||
|volume=14 | |||
|issue=1 | |||
|pages=38-54 | |||
|url=https://www.arclaw.org/wp-content/uploads/Kennedy-Embodiment-and-Restoration-IJMH-2015.pdf | |||
|DOI=10.3149/jmh.1401.38 | |||
|format=PDF | |||
|accessdate=2026-03-13 | |||
}}</ref> The practice of epispasm seems to have persisted from the Second Century B. C. to the Sixth Century A. D.<ref name="hall1991">{{REFjournal | |||
|last=Hall | |last=Hall | ||
|first=Robert | |first=Robert | ||
Latest revision as of 13:51, 13 March 2026
Epispasm is a word derived from ancient Greek, (επισπασμοσ), that means circumcision reversal or foreskin restoration.[1] Epispasm was popular in the First Century among circumcised Jewish men who wished to pass as intact Greek.[2] The practice of epispasm seems to have persisted from the Second Century B. C. to the Sixth Century A. D.[3] Foreskin restoration is mentioned in the Apocryphal text of 1 Maccabees 14-15.[4]
Lipodermos
Hodges (2001) reported, Lipodermos is the name given by the Greeks to the condition of having a deficient foreskin. According to Hodges:
Through the development of the concept of lipodermos, Greek medicine gave to Greek civilization a scientific reinforcement of its disapproval of the violations of genital integrity occurring in the Near East. This ethos posited not only that a circumcised penis is a deviation from the natural — although that is of real importance — but that a circumcised penis is a defective and disfigured penis, one that can be repaired by medical treatment. Medicine and law thereby entered into a mutually supportive relationship: circumcision was against the law because it mutilated its victims, but, taken to the next logical level in this medico-ethical argument, it was also against the law because it necessarily inflicted a state of lipodermos on its victims.[5]
Ancient surgical epispasm
Hall reported that surgery was necessary for epispasm,[3] however that is not correct.
Ancient tissue expansion for epispasm
Schultheiss et al. (1998) report that, in an alternative to the surgical procedures, a weight made of bronze, copper, or leather, called the Pondus Judaeus, was attached to the residual foreskin that pulled the skin downward and stretched it which resulted in tissue expansion.[6]
In Greek terminology, a person who had undergone the procedure of stretching the prepuce was known as epispastikós, the stretched one (epispasmós = pull-over). Similarly, the Romans addressed him as recutitio, the reskinned (cutis = skin), not differentiating by this term whether it was done surgically or nonsurgically.[6]
Epispasm in the present day
The technique was lost but it was rediscovered in the late Twentieth Century by a group of American men who called themselves Brothers United for Future Foreskins (BUFF). Epispasm, now known as non-surgical foreskin restoration, seems to be of ever-increasing popularity in the Twenty-first Century among circumcised men and even circumcised teenagers as young as 13 years of age.[7]
See also
- Aulus Cornelius Celsus
- Foreskin restoration
- Foreskin restoration information for circumcised teens
- Long foreskins
References
- ↑
Epispasm
. Retrieved 17 July 2020. - ↑ }}
Kennedy A. Masculinity and Embodiment in the Practice of Foreskin Restoration 
. International Journal of Men's Health. 2015 (Spring); 14(1): 38-54. DOI. Retrieved 13 March 2026.
- ↑ a b Hall R. Epispasm: circumcision in reverse. Bible Review. August 1992; : 52-7. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
- ↑
1 Maccabees 1-14-15
, Bible Gateway. Retrieved 29 August 2022. - ↑ Hodges FM. The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome: Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme. Bull. Hist. Med.. September 2001; 75(3): 375-405. PMID. DOI. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
- ↑ a b Schultheiss D, Truss MC, Stief CG, Jonas U. Uncircumcision: a historical review of preputial restoration. Plast Reconstr Surg. June 1998; 101(7): 1990-8. PMID. DOI. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
- ↑ The popular REDDIT website has a sub-reddit for restoring teens that was started by a thirteen-year-old teen-age restorer. At least one other participant gives his age as thirteen.
