PiercingBio.com is dedicated to providing body piercing enthusiasts with information on the body piercing professionals of the world. All types of body piercing.
Facial Piercing
The cultural change of the body piercing industry is attempting to make it into the mainstream pop culture. It is succeeding. Much like the tattoo culture that started heavily in the 1990’s – 2000’s and has been booming every since. The same could be said for the body piercing industry. There are similar parallel’s. In fact, it could be said that once helped the other grow the culture individually and yet they are intertwined.
The reasons why people have body piercings are ambiguous. Why would anyone want to purposely stick a needle through various parts of the body and then stick jewelry into it? The fact is that body piercing began thousands of years ago and has a rich cultural meaning.
Different areas of the body have different cultural meanings.
Ear Lobe Piercing
One of the most popular and widely accepted piercings is the common ear lobe piercing. The ear lobe is the part of the ear that has no cartilage and is virtually painless. Ancient tribes believed demons and spirits could travel through the ear, so they put metal in their ears which repelled them away. Some societies pierce girls and boys who have finished going through puberty as a coming-of-age ritual. Julius Ceasar is said to have come back from a voyage bearing gold in the ears, making them more common for men to have them as a social status symbol. Nowadays, almost everyone has at least one ear lobe piercing and there is no gender which is more apt to have one.
However, in western societies men hold a social stigma against having both ear lobes pierced; this usually is an underground sign that the person is homosexual. Many people usually have more than one ear lobe piercing in each ear which has more variety with wearing different types of earrings. There is an endless way to adorn ear lobe piercings. Hoops, studs, chandelier earrings, feathers, any color, and any size earring can be found. As with any piercing, one can even stretch the lobes with thicker instruments called tapers, which gradually increase the opening of the hole and is usually identified by a gauge number; the higher the number, the smaller the hole or thickness, and the lower the number, the larger the hole. After size 00 the increments start going into inches.
Nose Piercing
The nose piercing enhances the beauty of the nose. Some people believe nose piercing started in the Hebrew bible because the word Shanf is used during a passage that means giving a gift of gold, and the word shanf translates to nose-ring. During the 16th century Indians would wear a stud or ring in their left nostril, sometimes with a chain linking to their earring. The piercing of the left nostril is believed to lessen the pain of childbirth in India. It wasn’t popular in the west until the 1960s, where hippies started piercing their nose.
The punk movement in the 1970s adopted this idea as a rebellion to conservative rules. This rebellion is still a popular reason for getting a piercing. The shock value of nose piercings is still high, but studs are less noticeable than large hoops and are considered to be less shocking. Some simple diamond studs are even elegant on the right person.
Septum Piercing
Another type of nose piercing is the septum. A septum is actually the part of the nose that separates the two nostril openings. In primitive warrior cultures stemming from the Washington state Indian Nez Perc tribe, long bones, sticks, or animal husks were used to pierce through this ridge of cartilage and skin. Different sizes were used to increase the opening; the result is a fearsome warrior face used to intimidate their enemies. In fact, their tribe name Nez Perc is French for “nose pierced,” a name given to them by French fur traders. Today people get this uncommon piercing for its unique look.
Tongue Piercing
The tongue piercing first appeared during rituals in ancient tribes such as the Aztecs. They believed that piercing the tongue would increase communication to God because the loss of blood induced would cause the pierced person to be in an altered state of consciousness. Today, tongue piercing is synonymous with the words sexy, rebellious, and provocative. It is a versatile piercing because one can easily keep its barbell hidden and out of view because the tongue is usually kept in the mouth, unless it is stuck out to show off the pierced tongue.
Navel Piercing
A more contemporary piercing is the navel piercing or the “belly button” piercing. Unlike most piercings, this does not evolve from ancient tribal history.
Body Piercing
This piercing, usually a ring donning a small pearl or diamond accent or a cute charm hanging by a chain, stems from the notion that the navel area is an erogenous zone. This makes sense because women are more likely to have this piercing.
The invention of the bikini in 1953 also enhanced this idea of the provocative womanly figure. It is fitting that the liberation of women also coincided with more freedom to wear more revealing clothes.
Thus the navel piercing is synonymous with the freedom for women to be just that – young, sexual women who also want to be equal with men. The navel piercing became mainstream due to a model named Christy Turlington who sported one during a fashion show in London.
Quickly other stars got one, and the piercing spread everywhere, including the young female fans who wanted to emulate their favorite celebrities.
Body Piercing for Pleasure
There are many different piercings that can be pierced mainly for personal pleasure. Nipple piercings, for example, are small barbells or rings pierced just behind one or both nipples. They are said to cause the nipple to be in a constant erection and increase experiences of pleasure. Not only are they unique to see nude and fun for play in bed, but nipple piercings can be used to increase sexual sensitivity in the nipples, make them appear larger, and sometimes even help pull out inverted nipples. These piercing names are obviously gender specific and include piercing various parts of a woman’s vagina and clitoral hood, or various areas of a man’s penis or scrotum. These sexual piercings provide direct stimulation to the areas pierced and can be advantageous to both partners. People get these kinds of piercings because they mostly want the added sexual stimulation, and some want them because they are considered kinky and erotic. These areas are certainly not very common and since they are kept under clothes they are like a big sexy secret.
Out of the most common types of piercings – nose, septum, ear lobe, tongue, and navel – most of these have long, ancient histories dating back to tribal beliefs and ritual functions. Some of the piercings are developed more recently and in western countries for aesthetic reasons. The sexual piercings have a clear purpose as well as providing aesthetic excitement. They are as much functional as well as they are eye candy. Everyone has different reasons for getting piercings, and they can depend as much as the area getting pierced as the person getting the piercing; they are each unique and have a story to share.
Tattoos, Piercings and Religion
Some argue that our flesh will perish anyway and it’s what is inside that God sees and matters. But the Bible goes into great detail to discuss how your appearance should be in various scriptures. The truth is our outward appearance is so often a manifestation of what’s inside of us. So let yet another debate begin