If you’re like me, getting a new piercing is a little scary, very exciting and exhilarating. Now imagine yourself thousands of years ago, sitting in a mud hut in a village somewhere. Getting your first piercing is suddenly a lot scarier! No safe sterile piercing needles here, if you’re lucky, a pointy piece of metal was heated beforehand to sterilize it as best as possible. That is what the first people who decided to pierce their faces and bodies had to go through. As of now, we don’t know a whole lot about the history of piercings, but we do know that it was a fairly common practice among cultures around the world. In fact, the oldest mummy found so far, Otzi the Iceman, had both of his ears pierced and stretched, as well as multiple tattoos! People have been decorating their bodies with metal for a very long time. The first instance of nose piercings were in 1500 B.C.E., for example. Nipple piercings go as far back as ancient Rome, where soldiers would pierce their nipples to hang capes from their chest plates. Genital piercings show up in ancient India around 320-550 C.E. Of course earrings were among the most popular piercings around the world, most often a mark of nobility/wealth, and was even known to be a method of deterring demons from entering the body. Earrings are also mentioned in various passages in the Bible, as well as in connection with the goddess Lakshmi.
