Postcards From a Penis Museum (Sorta NSFW Depending On Where You W)

If you're ever in Iceland (as I am right now for the Reykjavik International Film Festival) and want an alternative tourist attraction to the endless spas and volcanos and mountains and glaciers and waterfalls and landscapes... Look no further:  The Icelandic Phallological Museum in Reykjavík houses the world's largest collection of penises and penile parts.

The collection of 280 specimens from 93 species of animals includes 55 penises taken from whales (including some a foot longer than me), 36 from seals and 118 from land mammals. In July 2011, the museum obtained its first human penis (one of four promised by would-be donors) though its detachment from the donor's body did not go very well and it is now basically a greyish-brown, shrivelled mass  pickled in a jar of formaldehyde. The museum continues to search for, as they state, "a younger and a bigger and better one."

Though occasionally pretty gross, it's a pretty educational experience. And even if you can't make it, you can get a good idea via "The Final Member," a doc by Canadian documentarians Zach Math and Jonah Bekhor that premiered at Hot Docs this year. It profiles the museum's curator and his quest to obtain a human penis for the museum. Look for it at film festival near you (or if youre in Reykjavik, you can see it at the film fest here), and/or check out these photos from my own trip there: