Body adornment has only recently become a subject of serious scholarly research by archaeologists, who have been hampered in studying body piercing by a sparsity of primary sources.
Body piercing, a form of body modification,
is the practice of puncturing or cutting a part of the human body,
creating an opening in which jewelery may be worn.
The word piercing can
refer to the act or practice of body piercing, or to an opening in the
body created by this act or practice.
Although the history of body
piercing is obscured by popular misinformation and by a lack of
scholarly reference, ample evidence exists to document that it has been
practiced in various forms by both sexes since ancient times throughout
the world.
Ear piercing and nose piercing have been particularly widespread and are well represented in historical records and among grave goods. The oldest mummified remains ever discovered were sporting earrings,
attesting to the existence of the practice more than 5,000 years ago.
Nose piercing is documented as far back as 1500 BC. Piercings of these
types have been documented globally, while lip and tongue piercings were historically found in African and American tribal cultures.
Nipple and genital piercing have also been practiced by various cultures, with nipple piercing dating back at least to Ancient Rome while genital piercing is described in Ancient India c. 320 to 550 CE.
The history of navel piercing is less clear. The practice of body piercing has waxed and waned in Western culture, but it has experienced an increase of popularity since World War II, with sites other than the ears gaining subcultural popularity in the 1970s and spreading to mainstream in the 1990s..
