The "nullo" subculture is growing in the United States. Two things are required to become a part of it: 1) You have to be a man; and 2) You have to cut off your own junk.
Terry Gates, a 23-year-old from Washington D.C. did just that. He says he chopped off his boys himself, in his apartment, in April 2016. He finished the job nine months later in a North Carolina motel room. He says he performed both "procedures" with a ceramic knife because it's sharper than steel.
Gates says he's never identified with male or female -- just somewhere "in-between." Gates also says his boyfriend is cool with the do-it-yourself surgery, and his sex life has "never been better." In an interview with Metro Online, he explained that he didn't have a problem with the pain "I used a little bit of a numbing agent, a little bit of litocain on it, and i took to five milligrams of oxycodene that they prescribed me when I did my balls to take the edge off,' Gates said.
To help him recover from the procedure, Gates inserted a catheter for several weeks to ensure there was a hole through which he could urinate.
A 'nullo', also known as a 'smoothie', is someone who has undergone extreme body modification by having their genitals, and sometimes nipples, surgically removed.
The subculture does not necessarily relate to the person's sexuality, though many consider themselves eunuchs.