The angle that an erect penis makes varies from one man to another. If it is imagined that a man is standing upright and there is a horizontal line stretching out from the base of his penis, most men's erect penises point upwards from the line at a certain angle (as shown in the photograph on the left). However, it is common and normal for an erect penis to point nearly vertically upwards, nearly vertically downwards, or even horizontally forward. The angle depends on how long a man's suspensory ligament is. The suspensory ligament is a band of tough, stringy tissue that joins a man's penis to the front of his pelvis.