Most of us are familiar with the recent history of body jewelry from the 1970’s, which caught on in the fringes of western society with sadomasochists and other counter culture groups, and were fueled by the punk rock and new wave movements. This resurgence in the body piercing arts evolved into an acceptable fashion trend in the 1990’s as super models and pop stars donned navel rings and facial piercings. It is seen primarily in western culture as an act of youthful rebellion, but it’s ancient roots are much more mainstream.

Since the beginning of civilization, body decoration has been an important part of society. From henna and tattoos to branding and even circumcision, human beings have modified their bodies for both spiritual and aesthetic reasons. Body piercing is just one form of this, and it has been practiced throughout time in cultures all over the world.

The Written Word

Body Jewelry’s most famous ancient reference is in the Bible (Genesis 24:22). Abraham asks one of his servants to find a wife for his son Isaac and the servant is said to have gone to the land of Abraham’s youth and found Rebekah, to whom he gave several gifts, including a nose ring. In some versions of the Bible this has been translated as a golden earring, but being only one, and considering the customs of the region, a nose ring is logical, and a direct translation of the Hebrew word Shanf = nose ring.

Genesis 24
When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels.

The Kama Sutra, written around 700 AD, describes ways to adorn the penis including an ancient way to do an Apadravya piercing and descriptions of suitable adornments (Section 7, Chapter 2).

Other Historical References and Current Cultural Practices

THE AMERICAS
As early as 700 AD archaeological finds show evidence of the Mayans of ancient Mexico having permanent facial piercings in their ears, lips, cheeks, and septum. Although there is no evidence that they kept body jewelry in their tongues, they did pierce them to draw blood as an appeasement to the Gods.
Certain Alaskan and Canadian Native tribes wore labrets. It appears to have been a more common ritual in females, adorning the women in tribes like the Tinglit as a sign of womanhood.
The Nez Perc Indians of Washington state even got their Anglo tribe name from the French words for “nose pierced” (FR: nez perçant). Several other North American Native Tribes sported both septum and/or nipple piercings.

EUROPE
Quite possibly the oldest physical proof of a pierced person was found in Austria. A mummified man was found in a melting glacier and was determined to have lived over 5000 years ago. There were holes in his ears for some kind of plug or taper that were between 7 and 11 millimeters in diameter. That’s almost ½”!
There are various ancient Roman references indicating the use of genital piercings as a method of chastity. There are references including both men and women, and are sometimes in reference to slaves. There is also a theory that soldiers may have pierced their nipples and wore rings to help keep cloaks attached over their breastplates, but this is often discounted as myth with the actual rings being part of the metal breastplate itself.
During Julius Caesar’s time, at the height of the Roman Republic, a sort of ear piercing revival took place. Rulers and their courts were the trend setters of their time, and Julius fancied wearing earrings, so it became the fashion of the day (even more so in men than women).
Explorers, sailors and fishermen (Including explorer Francis Drake) wore a single gold earring. If one of these men were to fall overboard, drown and wash up on the shore, this earring would be enough to cover a proper Christian burial.
There are other references to body piercing throughout Europe, from the middle ages to Shakespeare’s time and beyond. There is mention of women piercing their nipples and decorating them with golden chains during the fashion trend of plunging necklines in the 14th century, and again in the 1890’s.
In the early 19th century, a fashion trend created a surge of PA piercings or “the Prince Albert” piercings. The fashionable pants of the day were very tight and it was considered unsightly for men to have their privates dangling around. Hooks were sewn into the trousers and on these pant hooks hung the pierced penises of many high society men of the era. Prince Albert was said to have gotten the piercing prior to his marriage to the Queen of England. Imagine what Victoria would have thought of a penis piercing being named after her husband!

AFRICA
Several African societies practiced the art of body piercing. The Berber and Beja tribes of North Africa are accredited with having both nose and nipple piercings.
The people of Nubia and Ethiopia wore rings in labret type lip piercings. Several tribes still continue to wear them.
The women of tribe called the Makololo wore lip plates as a sign of beauty. It was thought that it added to their beauty to have a plug of some kind to accentuate the upper lip on women, mimicking a sort of moustache. During the time of western slavery, it is possible that the plugs may have evolved and became larger and flatter to alter the women’s faces so they would not be as desirable to western slave traders.

THE MIDDLE EAST
Body piercing seems to have been around in the Middle East for 4000 years or more.
Bedouins wore nose rings of gold, as in Genesis 24:22, and had both a fashionable and pragmatic use.

Several Middle Eastern and Indian societies still follow these traditions today. A ring was given to the wife at marriage. It was her financial security should her husband die or decide to divorce her. The size and intricacy of the ring was proportional to the wealth of the family.

ASIA & AUSTRALIA
Dating to about 400 AD, an ancient bronze statue of a dog depicts the penis pierced with a pin.
There are several references to an old legend from the Kelabit tribe of Borneo. In short, a visiting man from another tribe, the Kayan, had a Pallang (ampalang) piercing. The Kelabit women said how they would not have sex with this man because of his pierced penis, but the man managed to convince one of them to try it. When she died of ecstasy three days later, it prompted the tribe’s women to insist all their men be pierced, starting a new tradition. This type of piercing is now prevalent in several regions of South East Asia.
Nose piercing was brought to India by the 16th century by a Moghul emperor from the Middle East.
New Guinea and the Soloman Islands septum piercings are adorned with tusks and bone. Some tribes performed these piercing rites as early as age nine, but more commonly they were done in relationship to coming of age around age 18. It was not unheard of in Irian Jaya for a man to adorn himself with a septum plug made from the tibia of a slain enemy.
Septum piercing is not uncommon in regions of India, Nepal, and Tibet. A pendant is sometimes inserted that can be so large it must be lifted for the person to be able to eat.
Aboriginals pierced their septums and put long sticks through to flatten their noses for aesthetic value.

Modern History of Piercing in the West

Piercing never entirely went away in Western Culture after the end of the 19th century, and was adopted by the sadomasochists and practiced in part of the gay sub-culture throughout the 20th. Some ‘beatniks’ from the 1950’s wore a single earring. The hippies of the 60’s are given credit to introducing a facial piercing to the west. Their search for peace led them to India where they became smitten with the nose ring and brought it back to the west. There are different theories as to whether this new culture of body piercing started in the United States or the United Kingdom.

It wasn’t really until the 70’s, and the beginnings of ‘Punk’, that body piercing came to the forefront as a mark of youth rebellion and set in motion an underground explosion. Most people did their own piercings back then, mostly through their cheeks, lips and multiple places on the ear. That’s how my friends and I did it! As punk became more popular, and as the more accessible ‘new wave’ of music gained popularity, people got pierced and ripped up their clothes and it got so trendy that eventually you could buy them that way with the safety pins already attached! John Lydon (Sexpistols, Public Image LTD) talks in an interview about how safety pins and ripped clothes weren’t a fashion statement for him at all. In fact, he was rather appalled at the fashion trend that grew out of the beginnings of punk. He says that the safety pins he used were to hold his old thrashed pants together.

The mid 1980’s saw a surge of pop, but with an increasing interest in world music and alternative sub-cultures. Tattooing enjoyed a resurgence with rockabilly, and the ‘Tribal’ style of tattooing fueled the fire of the modern primitive movement, as more varied piercing practices gained momentum in these and other fringe groups. The 90’s brought us death rockers. Goth hit big, even heavy metal joined in, and punk was on about its 6th or 7th wave…

All this created a need in the beginning of the 1990’s. Some newer retail establishments, like Hot Topic, started to look for manufacturers of body jewelry. At that time, it was all pretty basic and pretty crude, and hardly anyone was doing it.

This is where we come in. The owner of Tears of the Moon, Jim Coffman, was approached about making this ‘body jewelry’ at his small fine jewelry business in California. He agreed to try it, and we have been making body jewelry for Hot Topic and others ever since. It started out as a side job, but as demand grew, so did that side of TOTM. All our body jewelry was, and is still designed from the ground up with the end-user in mind. It was an exciting time. Everyone was trying to figure out how to make the stuff, and since Tears of the Moon came from a fine jewelry background in silver and gold, our body jewelry was always beautiful and finely crafted. Every barbell was threaded by hand back then. Jim eventually dropped the fine jewelry side of business because we were so inundated with work, which enabled us to design trend-setting pieces and perfect our technologies.

We are now one of a few actual manufacturers of body jewelry still surviving in the United States. We use 316L certified Stainless Steel, only body safe exotic metals like Titanium and Niobium, and FDA approved acrylics. Over the years we have developed techniques and set style trends, using state of the art technology along with specially trained artisans and designers.

With the mainstreaming of body jewelry, a huge market was created and quite a few retailers and distributors looked to new Asian manufactures as a way to pump out cheaper products, so they could make more and more profit, but often without concern for the safety and comfort of the wearer. Most reputable professional piercers have refused to use these overseas manufacturers and only purchase high quality products like ours, because their business reputation depends on having a successful outcome. They can’t afford to play Russian roulette with the body jewelry they implant in the skin of their clients. The average body jewelry wearer today doesn’t really know about all this. And unless you are really into the scene, you may not even be aware that certain materials, when introduced under the skin, can cause toxic allergies and infection.

To this day, almost all the innovation and creativity in body jewelry is still coming out of companies like ours, in the US and England. Hot Topic and others continue to purchase our products, because of our innovative and creative edge, and our quality.

Look for our logo or sticker on the back of the package.

We do make our Body Jewelry with a Conscience…
Innovation, Creation, Purity and Style

There is so much more information available on modern practices, and there are a lot of other really good sources for information. Below I have listed the web sites I used for reference and a list of books worth reading. Some of the sources contradict each other at times, so I have just touched on the subject and added in my own recollections on this modern era of body piercing

.-Sandra Christman
Tears of the Moon Creative Director

REFERENCE BOOKS

Modern Primitives by Rufus C. Camphausen
Eye of the Needle by Pauline Clarke
The Customized Body by Housk Randall & Ted Polhemus

REFERENCE SITES

http://www.biblegateway.org

http://www.thekamasutra.com/book/pt7-ch2.html

http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~jennatar/425/homework/proto/history.htm

http://www.schoolnurse.com/med_info/body_piercing.html

http://www.bmezine.com/pierce/articles/p&mp/history.html