It's Week 1 of the London Olympic Games, and we thought we'd take a look at how ancient Olympic athletes utilized piercings in their sporting endeavors.

Of course, all ancient Greek Olympians were men, and they competed nude. Besides modern rules of decorum, as any guy will tell you, there are distinct advantages for a male athlete to wear clothing, especially something that keeps everything in place…down there.

Those naked, freewheeling Greeks realized this as well, and if they were going to compete in the buff, they had to figure out what to do about their flapping, swinging penises (apologies for that mental image).

The art of body piercing proved to be their solution of choice. At first, athletes would bind their genitals in place with a ribbon or strip of leather called the "Kynodesme." Later in history, a permanent piercing on the foreskin was used to help tie down the family jewels.