In contemporary America, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a woman without her ears pierced. The last five years in the body modification industry, however, have seen what many refer to as a piercing renaissance.
Of course she has her ear lobes pierced - but what about her rook? Her antihelix? The ever sensitive tragus? At what gauge? Are they plugs? The question now isn’t whether or not you’re pierced - but where?
RMT member Lena 66 shared this photo of her multiple ear piercings - include the tragus piercing. View more ear piercing photos here.
Studies taken from the National Health Service report that as many as 46% of girls ages 16-24 years already have body piercings of some kind. Statistics from the same report show that male piercings have nearly doubled from early 2000; no longer used solely as a cultural signifier as it once served for the gay community or various brands of gangs, male ear piercings make up a small fraction of the more radical and extreme piercings that a number of men sport today.
While the reasons for piercing, extreme or otherwise, are diverse, very few individuals prescribe to their original and historical purposes. Experts believe piercing was first used as a rite of passage (and still is, in many countries); later, piercings and the jewelry that adorned them were signifiers of wealth and status. History notes a number of piercing rituals for the purpose of honoring gods or ancestors, as well as displaying courage and virility among their communities. Extreme or excessive piercing, however, was often temporary (called “play piercing” in modern body mod scenes) and served to reach an alternate state of consciousness from repeated shallow piercings throughout the skin.
Today, piercing stands as a means of self-expression, a way to show physical ownership of one’s individuality, and to accent the body for visual aesthetic or sexual pleasure. This sultry lollipop photo spotlights the hot Marilyn Monroe piercing on RMT member Phukenup. See more Marilyn Monroe and face piercing photos here.
Popularized by gay subcultures in the early 1970s in the United States, the public eye admired the temporary qualities of piercing and favored it to more permanent body modification, such as tattoos or skin scarification.
The most popular piercing, aside from the household ear lobe piercing, is that of the navel. Discreet, sexy, and extremely trendy, belly button rings continue to show up on the navels of teenage girls across the country since their fad explosion in the late 1990s. Oddly enough, however, for a piercing that takes, without question, the longest time to heal, most teens who pierce their navel will have removed it before their thirtieth birthday, leaving a permanent hole or scarring.
There’s only so much the public wants to see, however. While celebrities such as Britney Spears, Alyssa Milano, and Kelly Clarkson sport a variety of ear, nose, and navel piercings, even Fergie’s tame eyebrow piercing has brought some disapproving looks from parents of young teenagers who listen to her music. Music sensations P!nk and especially Christina Aguilera, as well as tattoo queen Kat von D are often the center of body mod buzz for their alternative piercings of tongue rings, nipples, labret, clitoris, and Monroe. When it comes to extreme, however, these barely nick the surface.
Extreme piercings you won’t find inside the celebrity circuit involve radical variations on the typical. Industry piercers often refer to piercings limits with the phrase “If you can grab it, you can stab it!” What more urban and body mod scenesters are proving, however, is that there truly isn’t a limit. From popular surface piercings at the nape of the neck and the bridge of the nose, comes the beautiful, but oftentimes temporary, corset piercing of rows of rings threaded with satin ribbon straddling the spine; from the tongue piercing comes the uvula piercing; and from the lip piercing comes the medusa stud and the lip plate. None of these, however, come close to the extreme art of using piercing as a form of scarification, or the art of implantation (where a variety of objects can be pierced under the skin to create an impression of them on the outer surface of the body).
Corset tattoo photo was submitted by RMT member Kimmers. For a complete visual of the body piercing industry, check out the RankMyTattoos.com gallery body piercing photos.
Common ear piercings: lobe, tragus, helix (upper cartilage), industrial, antihelix, concha, rook, daith, (ear lobes are the most commonly stretched - or gauged - part of the body)
Common nose piercings: nostril ring or stud, septum or bullring, bridge piercing
Common facial piercings: labret, eyebrow, lip, Monroe, Medusa, dimples, tongue
Common body piercings: nipple, navel
