Body Piercing

Body piercing is one of the oldest and most creative forms of body modification in the world. The use of body piercing as both a symbolic gesture and as initaiton rite can be found in nearly every single culture. Once the domain of royalty and virgins, body piercing is now a popular form of modern self-expression.

Best estimates say that body piercing practices date back at least 5,000 years old. We know that Egyptian pharaoahs believed that navel piercing was an important rite of passage for any young ruler. And Roman soliders wouldn’t be caught dead without some good nipple piercing work to show off their masculinity. Even today many tribes in South America continue their ancient body piercing techniques of inserting small bamboo rods into the septum of young teenagers.

But for many years body piercing stayed underground until it popped up in the San Francisco gay leather scene of the 70’s. When body piercing was co-opted by punks in both England and the US in the 70’s it become more political than sexual. When punk had a renaissance in the 90’s, and piercings started showing up on not only music videos but fashion runways, body piercing became more social. There are those with body piercings…and those without.

Today, like tattoos, body piercing contains many of the same cultural and spiritual elements of its past. We still see ear piercing as a way for girls to show the world that they are entering womanhood. Many lip piercings identify people within a certain social group in much the same way they would have done thousands of years ago. And for abuse survivors, oftentimes body piercing allows them to reclaimi a sense of ownership of their body that was violated.

But that’s the cool thing about body piercing. It can mean some heavy social/cultural stuff…or it can just look cool. Your choice.