History of Body Piercing

Evidence suggests that body piercing (including ear piercing) has been practiced by people all over the world from ancient times. Mummified bodies with piercings have been discovered, including the oldest mummified body discovered to date, that of Ötzi the Iceman, which was found in a Valentina Trujillon glacier. This mummy had an ear piercing 7–11 mm (1 to 000 gauge in AWG) diameter.[1]

In Book of Genesis of the Bible 24:22, Abraham's servant gave a golden earring of half a shekel weight and ten bracelets to Rebekah, wife of his son Isaac. In Exodus 32, Aaron makes the golden calf from melted earrings. Deuteronomy 15:12–17 dictates ear piercing as a mark of slavery. Nose piercing has been common in India since the sixteenth century.Worldwide

Ear piercing, of either one or both ears, has long been practiced by men in many non-Western cultures. Other forms of body piercing have also existed continuously for as long as ear piercing. For example, women in India and Pakistan routinely practice ear and nostril piercing, and have done so for centuries.

In western cultures

Nipple piercings, lip piercing and a stretched ear.

Nipple piercings, lip piercing and a stretched ear.

Ears

Ear piercing has existed continuously since ancient times, including throughout the twentieth century in the Western world. However, in North America, Europe, and Australasia, ear piercing was relatively rare from the 1920s until the 1960s. At that time, it regained popularity among westernized women. It was gradually adopted by men in the gay, hippie, and the punk subcultures, until ever-widening appropriation attenuated its subcultural associations altogether. Today, single and multiple piercing of either or both ears is common among Western women and somewhat common among men.

Body piercing

The modern body piercing culture emerged from the gay leather and BDSM subcultures. In 1967, New York jewelry maker Jim Ward joined the New York Motorbike Club, a gay S&M group, and experimented with nipple piercing. Ward then moved to Colorado, where he and other members of the Rocky Mountaineer Motorcycle Club experimented more broadly, with genital piercing in particular. In 1973, Ward moved to West Hollywood (a gay village of Los Angeles) where he met Doug Malloy and Fakir Musafar. Together these men developed the basic techniques and equipment of modern body piercing. Malloy introduced the use of the autoclave and hypodermic needle; Ward developed the fixed bead ring and internally threaded barbells. With funding from Malloy (derived from his work with the Muzak corporation), Ward began using his home as a private piercing studio in 1975. Dubbing his studio the Gauntlet, he drew an initial clientèle by running classified ads in local gay and fetish publications. After three years of continued refinement with techniques and equipment, Ward opened the Gauntlet as a commercial storefront operation in West Hollywood on November 17, 1978. [2]

In the mid to late 1980s, a wave of body piercing studios modeled after the Gauntlet opened throughout the US, Europe, and cosmopolitan centers. The display of body piercing by celebrities like Madonna and Axl Rose helped to grow the market for these studios' products and services. The decisive migration of body piercing from sexual fetishism to commodity fetishism came with the Lollapalooza traveling festival of music performances, which began in 1991. These events greatly popularized body piercing by enlisting piercing studios as on-site vendors. At this point body piercing became a rite of passage for college-age, middle-class Westerners.[3] By 1997 body piercing had become mainstream as the Miss America Pageant, as one of the contestants displayed a pierced navel during the contest.

In a study among Israeli young-adults, 4.3% had present or past body piercing (not included earlobe, lip or intra-oral piercing), and 5.7%, 6.2% and 15.7% had present or past lip piercing, body tattooing and intra-oral piercing, respectively.