Getting Pierced: The History

These days, it feels like everyone you know has some sort of piercing, whether it be a nose ring, a funky ear piercing, or a bellybutton ring. Piercings are quickly becoming mainstream in society, with 60% of female college students and 42% of male college students reporting they have some sort of piercing - ear piercings being the most common. These body modifications are not new, however, and have held significant cultural meaning for centuries (the oldest person discovered with piercings is over 5,000 years old!). 

Image Courtesy: Dosaes

The most classic piercing of them all, the earlobe piercing, originated in the United States within Native communities as a status symbol. Natives would pay a great cost to pierce their ears, showing their fellow tribe members how much wealth they have. In modern society, ear piercings were not considered fashionable in America until the 1950s, and the trend increased rapidly in popularity.

Piercing shops did not exist, so women used ice and hot needles to pierce their ears. As ear piercings continued to gain popularity and mainstream acceptance, piercing shops began to grow as an industry, and ear piercing evolved from a simple lobe stud to cartilage piercings and other parts of the ear.

Arguably, the biggest piercing trend these days are nose piercings. It feels like everytime you look up, another one of your friends is touting a new nose stud or a septum ring. While nose piercings have been important in the Middle East since the 16th century, the trend did not travel to the United States until the 1960s when the hippies began sporting nose rings. During the 70s and 80s, there was immense backlash against the hippie movement as the United States became more conservative, and nose piercings became taboo. The goth community used nose rings as a symbol of rebellion against the conservative nature of America, and nose piercings began to gain popularity in the punk rock community. More mainstream celebrities like Christina Aguilera, Miley Cyrus, Lenny Kravitz, Nicole Richie, and countless others stepped out with nose rings, and society began to finally warm to nose rings once again.

While society has started to accept piercings as mainstream, many companies will still discriminate in their hiring of people with facial piercings. Studies have been done that show employers view potential employees with facial piercings as less hirable, and many still believe that facial piercings reflect poorly on the company and create an unprofessional appearance.

I, for one, think it’s time people start seeing piercings as a form of self expression rather than something ugly and unprofessional, but that’s just me, right?

Strike out,

Writer: Kendall Broglio

Editors: Lauren Cich & Marissa DeMaio

St. Augustine