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You don't have to be a Florida-based freshman gone wild to witness or enjoy a body shot. It turns out, the act of consuming a shot of alcohol off the surface someone's skin is alive and well here in Brew City. People like Milwaukee's Cara Johnston can attest.
"I admit it: I did one at The Mad Planet for my bachelorette party," says Johnston, who was married in summer 2007. "It was fun. And kinda messy. I got salt in my underwear. I'm not sure how that happened exactly."
For the record, a body shot is a shot of alcohol that's consumed by one person off the chest or the stomach of another person. Other body parts are sometimes involved, as well.
There are two basic ways to do a body shot. In one version, the person taking the shot drinks it from the shot glass, then licks the pre-salted body part of another person and then takes a lime wedge with his or her mouth from the person's mouth who is giving the shot.
The second type of body shot involves a person lying on the floor, a table or a bar, and gets a shot poured over his or her body. Then, another person laps it up. Sometimes, it's a three-person affair, with one person lying down, one person pouring the booze into the belly button and a third person drinking it from the naval.
Of course there are many more variations and virtually no rules when it comes to body shots. For obvious reasons, body shots performed in non-public places like house parties, dorm rooms or fraternity / sorority houses tend to be racier.
"I saw some really crazy body shots at college parties in Madison, but never quite got the nerve to do one myself," says Jack Dawson, now living in Pittsburgh.
Enrique Isiboro has tended bar at La Perla for 10 years and has seen many body shots. He says they are usually -- but not always -- girl-on-girl style.
"People come here a lot for parties. Like birthday parties or bachelorette parties and so they sometimes do a body shot," says Isiboro.
Isiboro says that because La Perla specializes in tequila and has 20-25 different kinds, the body shot always includes tequila, but the positioning varies.
"Usually I see a girl lick salt from another girl's stomach, but not always," he says.
Milwaukee's Johnny Kasey observed body shot action at La Perla more than a decade ago.
"When I used to go to La Perla like 12 years ago I saw many a body shot done by soon-to-be-brides off the buff chests of the male wait staff. And then there was the riding of the pepper," says Kasey.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
