Original Plumbing

Original Plumbing #1, September 2009

***Original Plumbing***, also known as *OP*, was a quarterly print magazine by Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiatos. It was the first magazine created for trans male culture.

Inspired by teen magazines and physique pictorials, *OP* was conceived as a publication to "carve out a small space in the media for trans guys, since I wasn’t seeing any representation on TV, in mainstream film, or in other 'LGB'-focused magazines," according to Amos. Rather than coming out and transition or "Trans 101" pieces, content included was advice, essays, interviews, and erotic or pornographic stories and photographs, with much of the photography done by Amos, later being expanded upon to include trans-themed events and merchandise.

The title was inspired by trans community terminology indicating one had not received gender reassignment surgery. According to Amos, "The magazine was named after a Craigslist post I saw in 2008 written by a trans man who was looking for casual sex. He stated that he had 'original plumbing below'. The statement stuck with me – it was memorable and cheeky, and the perfect title for our publication because of the world’s constant obsession with the genitalia of transgender people. We're often defined by whether or not we have specific body parts, and the title is a response to that."

In 2018, it was announced that its last publication would be its twentieth issue, *The Issues Issue*. "We always promised, we worked together on how many issues we were going to create and I think we decided that 20 would be a nice number, you know? Like the number for a box set. It’s a good number in general and it just took so long to create these last few issues, because we both have careers and things like that that takes a lot of our time," Amos said on ending publication.

## Publications

* No. 01: *The Bedroom Issue*
* No. 02: *The Hair Issue*
* No. 03: *The Health and Safer Sex Issue*
* No. 04: *The Workin' Stiff Issue*
* No. 05: *The Fashion Issue*
* No. 06: *The Schooled Issue*
* No. 07: *The Green Issue*
* No. 08: *The Family Issue*
* No. 09: *The Entertainment Issue*
* No. 10: *The Jock Issue*
* No. 11: *The Hero Issue*
* No. 12: *The Party Issue*
* No. 13: *The Atlanta Issue*
* No. 14: *The Board Stiff Issue*
* No. 15: *The Selfie Issue*
* No. 16: *The Lit Issue*
* No. 17: *The Tattoo Issue*
* No. 18: *The Bathroom Issue*
* No. 19: *The Art Issue*
* *No. 20: The Issues Issue*

An anthology, *Original Plumbing - The Best of Ten Years of Trans Male Culture,* will be published by Feminist Press in 2019.

## Sources

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.amosmac.com/publishing/
2. ↑ https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/amos-mac-original-plumbing-interview\_us\_570fe103e4b088aea430d631
3. ↑ https://originalplumbing.bigcartel.com/original-plumbing-magazine
4. ↑ https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/21030/1/the-original-plumbing-manifesto
5. ↑ https://originalplumbing.bigcartel.com/product/original-plumbing-20-the-issues-issue
6. ↑ https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LrzgB3GtVR4J:https://www.intomore.com/fall-issue/original-plumbing-ceases-publishing-after-10-years-of-trans-masculine-art-and-journalism+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
7. ↑ https://originalplumbing.bigcartel.com/the-book