I'm not really in the market for one of these, give me a couple of years and I would be, but I think things like this are very important for advancing what's available for people. The companies that are out there are charging a fortune for less than perfect products and getting away with it because they're the best we've got. If they see this and realise that there are people out there who are making better prosthetics off their own back without a company behind them they might step their game up a bit and better options will be available to the masses. So although I'm not going to be buying one now I'd quite like to contribute because this might end up changing what's available for all of us in the future.
In an ideal world I think I'd like to do away with harnesses and glue and have a magnetic system like what Maxillofacial Surgery sometimes uses, but obviously this isn't something that's going to be possible until we can get real medical prosthesis makers and surgeons on our side and realising the importance of this to us, which may never happen seeing as in some places getting them to understand that some people are satisfied with metoidioplasty and won't want phalloplasty one day. With that mentality it's hard to consider getting them to believe that I'd rather have a very life like and functional prosthetic than something which is less realistic but made of my own skin. Anyway that's kind of a digression, but the thought of it's interested me since I saw an episode of 'Making Faces', a documentary about facial prosthesis. A guy can dream I suppose.
More realistically my ideal prosthetic would have:
-Realistic, retractable foreskin.
-Free moving skin.
-Good colour and detail.
-Realistic feel, and heat, both to the touch and when squeezed.
-Free moving testicals in 3D scrotum.
-Ability to get erect - is an erection rod style thing the only way that can do this or are there better alternatives? Could something like the pump inserts that are put into phalloplasties be used? I'm just sort of wondering aloud here after getting it drummed into me for the last few weeks at college that what's already used isn't always the best way.
-STP that's comfortable to keep in your pants the whole time.
-Something that's big enough for sex but isn't enormous. I would just want to forget about it like the rest of my body until I came to use it, not worry about whether it looked too big.
-Pubic hair only if it's necessary to hide the tab. I think it's a matter of preference though, but hand punched hair is added after the initial mould right? So the people who do order can pick and choose whether or not they want the hair.
As for what you mentioned about the tab having to be fairly thick before it would rip, on the 'Making Faces' documentary I saw the prosthetic nose he had had a thin edge around the outside, I don't know what it's made of and unfortunately I don't think links to the program will work outside of the UK. I've taken a few screenshots off the program to see if you can identify what they're made of/whether it would be something that could be replicated for a penis.
http://i48.tinypic.com/2q3n90x.jpghttp://i48.tinypic.com/2dim4om.jpghttp://i49.tinypic.com/wmexf.jpg Because these prosthetics were designed to be worn everyday for a long period of time it makes me wonder if there's another material or technique they use to stop them ripping. Would it work to have the main body of the tab thicker and just the extremities of it being thinner maybe? I don't really know anything about silicone or it's properties, just bouncing ideas around because on the nose I showed photos of it was held mostly on by magnets, but the thinner edges were glued down. Maybe it would still tear in time, I really don't know, just wondering how they did it and whether it could be incorporated. If it's completely not feasible then just ignore all of this.
And I just wanted to add that even though I'm not in the market for one of these right now -- there are plenty of other things that I need to sort out before this -- I think it's great what you're doing and if there's any way that we can be of help in sorting out how things are going to work with our anatomy I'm more than willing to try and explain. As I said before, I think things like this are pretty important to improving options for all of us.
