A Short History of Piercing

Amy Lee Corset Dresses

The word piercing is derived from the English (to pierce). Piercing history, as mentioned, below, goes back many years and piercings are a very old traditional form of body decoration, where jewellery such as a ring or rod design were worn.

Traditional Piercing History

The piercing story starts very early on. For hundreds of years, piercings have been worn by different cultures and societies. during most of this period, piercings offered a higher social status or rank within a particular culture.

From natives of various continents, you will find several types of piercings documented.  Bones, wood and other locally sourced materials have been used as jewellery.  Mostly, the size of the jewellery and the place of the piercing was a clear indication of the position, status or ranking.  In some African tribes, lip platters are still worn today as piercing jewellery and in some parts of the world, earlobes and ears are usually pierced which may be used in the hope of avoiding, ill health.

In Australia, on the other hand, the aborigines were pierced and tied on ropes to dance around a pole for 4 days and 4 nights. This attempted to create a connection to the supernatural through deep trance like states.

The more modern type of piercings, those for fashion, started around the year 1950.

After this time to the current today, piercings of all types are now worn mainly for antithetical reasons. Today, these are usually surface piercings where only minor scars remain and a quick removal is possible.

You may also want to read more about Body Piercing history here

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