Body Modification - Body Piercing

Body piercing has come to be a considerable trend in Western culture. Ear piercing came into practice in the early 1980's when modern piercing methods had been invented and became hygienic. Western culture has no recognized background or tradition of body piercing but is seen by a large number of as teenage rebellion and by the teens as considerable, ritualistic body modification with a cult following, contributing to a sense of belonging. The physique art scene started out on the West Coast and now countless children and adults can be observed all more than the globe with nose rings, eyebrow and lip piercings and stretched ear loops. One other facet of body piercing referred to as play piercing is performed purely for the sensation of becoming pierced, the holes produced in the body are not permanent and executed purely for adornment and aesthetics.

Piercing has its origins four,000 years ago in the Middle East and mentions of 'Shanf' (nose ring) are recorded in the physique. Traditionally, this practice is seen in the nomadic African Beja and Berber tribes and amongst the Middle Eastern Bedouins, denoting wealth and status upon a lady at the time of marriage. In 16th century India, nose piercing became fashionable as a trend from the Middle East and the Moghul emperors. The woman's nose is most generally pierced in the left nostril in association with Ayurvedic medicinal principles relating to the female's reproductive organs, enabling an simpler childbirth and easing menstrual pain. Western nose piercing came from hippies traveling to India all through the 1960's fascination with Indian culture and saw a additional reputation in the late 1970's Punk movement as a counter-culture, anti-conservative statement.

The ancient Aztecs, Mayans and American Northwest Native tribes put to use tongue piercing to provide blood and mollify the gods, commonly creating an altered state in the pierced priest or shaman to additional properly communicate with the gods. Pierced ears and earlobes are the earliest recorded examples of body piercing. Pierced ears in a body of a mummified man observed in an Austrian Glacier in 1991 was located to be dated more than 5,000 years old. Ear piercing has protective symbology in primitive cultures for averting evil spirits from entering the body via the ears. Ear piercing was not restricted to women's adornment, "As the Roman Republic grew extra effeminate with wealth and luxury, earrings were a great deal more well-known among males than women no much less a he-man than Julius Caesar brought back to repute and fashion the use of rings in the ears of guys." "Jewels & Ladies The Romance, Magic and Art of Feminine Adornment" Marianne Ostier, Horizon Press, New York, 1958

The Dogon tribe of Mali and the Nuba of Ethiopia pierce their lips for religious implications. In Central Africa and South American native tribes, lip or Labret piercing is carried out with wooden or clay plates, stretching the reduce and upper lips to substantial proportions. Aztec and Mayan ancients utilized labret piercings to signify weath and increased caste with gold serpent-shaped discs generally decorated with brilliant stones, jade or obsidion. Walrus ivy, bone, wood or abalone shell had been utilised for labrets in Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest as well as the Inuit of northern Canada and Alaska. Some of the most extreme examples of ritual lip piercing and stretching can be noticed in the Djinja girls in the Chari river location of the Central African Republic and Chad. Tribesmen stretch the lips of their prospective wives as aspect of a marriage ritual whereby the young woman's lip is stretched up to 24cm by adulthood.

Warrior cultures of the Iranian Jaya, New Gunea and the Solomon Islands pierce the septum with pig tusks, feathers, wood and bone.

The Asmat tribe of the Jaya pierce the septum up to 25mm working with leg bones from a pig or a tibia bone from a slain enemy for ornamentation and prestige. Aztecs, Mayas and Incas pierced the septum with gold and jade and this custom can be observed in the Panamanian tribe of Cuna Indians utilizing thick gold rings. India and Nepal native tribes also practice septum piercing. The nose and septum piercings in Northern Indian nomadic tribespeople of Himichal Pradesh and Rajasthan named 'bulak' are the largest known nose-rings. The bulak are in some cases decorated with stones and large adequate to cover most of the mouth and cheek and need to be lifted while eating. Pendants are extra to the septum piercing in Tibet.

In even more civilized and traditionally sophisticated cultures, nipple piercing was produced to accentuate the breasts. In the mid 14th century, Queen Isabella of Bavaria wore dresses with a neckline extending to the navel, exposing the breasts. This style of dress led to nipple adornment with diamond studded rings and piercing each nipples, extending a chain by way of each. This style of piercing appeared again in the 1890's in Paris where 'bosom rings' had been sold and became fashionable in upper class social circles.