Body Piercing Is One of The Oldest Methods of Adornment in History

Human beings seem to have been interested in their appearance and in changing it since time began and, although fashions may have changed over the millennium, the one constant is that there has always been fashion.

Fashion not only applies to clothes, however, it can be applied equally to body art, tattoos and even body piercing.

Many methods of adorning the body have their origins in tribal allegiances or religious practices or to denote status in the particularly community or society.

Men in one particular historic Asian sect used intimate piercing, nowadays known as hood piercing, as a visible sign of a vow of chastity.

Nose and ear piercing can be traced back more than 5000 years and not only in order to adorn women with jewellery to denote their wealth and status or enhance their beauty.

Piercing the nose and inserting fearsome-looking bones or metal rings in some tribes denotes the warrior.

Nose piercing has been practiced by the Bedouin tribes of the Middle East and the Berber and Beja peoples of Africa, as well as Australian Aborigines.

In S Asian culture historically the nose piercing that was carried out just before a bride's marriage is thought to have symbolized the rite of passage from unmarried girl to wife.

Lip and tongue piercing too have an ancient history, principally in African and S American tribal culture and the adornments inserted into the piercings also generally denoted status. Even nipple and navel piercing have a long history, both among men and women. In women it was for adornment but for men nipple piercing was among British and American sailors marking those who had traveled beyond a particular latitude and longitude.

While this cultural aspect of adornment may have largely faded out in the developed world there are still traces of it in the adoption of a specific practice like the custom of piercing various parts of the face and body.

This is because, except for ear or nose piercing the practice is generally chosen by a select group of people and could in that sense be described as being used to note belonging to a modern form of tribe. The modern jewellery fashion includes pieces designed for insertion after septum piercing, helix piercing and tragus piercing

In a sense, therefore, there is nothing new about the practice of piercing different parts of the body and inserting various forms of ring or stud into the piercing.

These days, however, while the number of piercings and their location may be a matter of individual choice, much more care and attention is taken to ensure the sterility of the piercing equipment used and in the choice of materials for the jewellery, generally a pure, non allergenic metal such as gold, titanium, or silver.