The Pasty

In short, the pasty is a small, round, sticky object used to obscure the nipple. It has been employed, often but not always as part of a pair, for both practical and ornamental purposes.

The first known use of the pasties occurred during the Spanish Inquisition, where they were known as Los Pinques Pincas de Diablo, which roughly translates as The Pinching Fingers of Satan. Inquisitors would apply tar to the bare nipples of Jews and yank at them as a form of torture. As a result, Jews in Spain became know as Nipplos Negro, or Black Nipples. The stereotype spread, as evidenced by Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses, which not only sports horns but dark nipples as well. Over the years, many Jews and non-Jews made use of nipple-lightening cream, often made from whale blubber, to seem less Semitic. Soon, expensive white pasties became popular among non-Jews as an outward and gaudy rejection of dark nipples, or rather, Jews.

In the early 20th century, and influx of Jewish immigration fanned a rise in antisemitism in America. Caricatures of Jews become popular vaudeville attractions. Much as minstrel shows had their performers donning black-face, those mocking Jews donned black-nipples. At first, the pasties developed for these performers were uniformly black and unadorned. Over time, however, other performers began adopting them for increasingly ornamental purposes. With the stigma of their antisemitic origins quickly forgotten, pasties began standard fare in "girlie shows" of the day. Females performers wore them for legal reasons as well. In New York State, for example, open display of the female nipple was prohibited by law and punishable by a $3 fine per nipple, a week's wages in those days.

By the 1970's pasties became almost exclusively worn by nude performers. By this point, they came in all colors and sported tassels, springs, LEDs, and other attention-getting implements. Instead of simply covering the nipples, pasties became part of the act.

The latest incarnation of pasties has entered the mainstream as a runner's device to prevent nipple-chaffing. Companies such as Nike, Reebok, and Adidas have developed friction-resistant, lightweight, aerodynamic pasties, marketing them to the running enthusiasts who don't want their nipples to bleed. As of this posting, the International Olympic Committee has not approved the use of pasties for athletes in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.