Foreskin retraction

The skin that covers the penis is not fixed to the underlying erectile tissue, but can move freely. A perhaps unsatisfactory analogy, for those of you without a penis, may be how the skin on the elbow of an extended arm is quite loose, as can be felt if you rub it with the hand of the other arm. This skin (not the elbow's) covers the entire penis, from the base, all the way to the tip of the glans, where it folds, so to speak, and follows the glans back down to where it meets the shaft. This double-layered structure that covers the glans is commonly called the foreskin, or prepuse.

It is hardly meaningful to make a distinction between the skin on the shaft and the outer layer of the foreskin, since they have exactly the same texture; the inside of the foreskin, on the other hand, is different, being a mucous membrane. In a way, this is similar to how there is no distinct border between the skin of the face and of the outer part of a lip, while the inside of the lip is mucous. The difference is that, just as the penile skin moves freely over the shaft, the two layers of the foreskin move freely in respect to each other, which is not the case with a lip.

Due to this ability to slide, the foreskin can be pulled back, revealing the inside that otherwise lies against the glans, as demonstrated by the following picture sequence.

In this first picture, I am simply holding up the flacid penis, without pulling or pushing in either direction.


I then start to pull back. The foreskin begins to stretch, but has not yet started to retract from the glans.



As I continue to pull the skin back, the highly elastic opening of the foreskin, i. e. where it folds back under itself, begins to stretch, and the glans begins to peek out. Note how the skin on the shaft, behind my grip, is getting very wrinkly.


The glans is now halfway exposed. Depending on how moist it is, the foreskin will either roll or slide off it. I am here fairly lubricated, and so it slides easily. When it has reached this far, it doesn't take much of a pull before it slips into place behind the glans:


In a fraction of a second, all of the foreskin will be resting below the glans, in a wriggly little ring. If I let go of the penis at this stage, it would stay in thas location, even if the penis is not erect. (See below for a picture.) There are certainly individual differences in this regard; for some, it would immediately slip back to cover the glans.


Because I don't have an erection here, I can easily pull further back, stretching out the foreskin. The glans now starts to dip, since it is pulled from below by the frenulum.


We now see a larger part of the inner structure of the foreskin. It is still somewhat wrinkly, which means it can be stretched further.


Finally, we see the full, smooth inner surface of the foreskin. This is now slightly uncomfortable, due to the strain of the frenulum. I have not changed my grip: the thumb, which originally was placed on the glans, is now actually pressed against my pubic bone. In effect, the whole shaft of the penis is now covered solely by the skin of the prepuse.


As mentioned, the foreskin stays pulled back behind the glans, especially when I have an erection, as I start to get in this picture.