Body piercing refers to the piercing of the human body for the purpose of wearing jewellery. It is a form of body modification which also includes tattooing, branding, foot binding, tongue splitting, plastic surgery and body building. Body piercing is sometimes practiced for religious or spiritual reasons but these days, in the West, it is mostly carried out for ornamental purposes.
History
In the industrialized nations of the West, attitudes towards body piercing have changed dramatically since the latter half of the 20th century. Ear piercing for women has existed continually since ancient times, although it went into decline in the US, between 1920 and 1960, mainly due to the advent of clip on earrings. In the 1960s, ear piercing became popular with gay men. Prior to that, the only men who would wear an earring were sailors. To them, it symbolized having sailed around the world. To homosexual men in the 1960s, piercing the ear was a statement that they had "come out". Hippy men also started to wear earrings as a sign of being open-minded and during the Punk era of the 1970s men wore earrings as a mark of rebelliousness. By the 1980s, pierced ears became popular with a lot of men in the West. Usually, straight men would only pierce their left ear as having the right ear pierced was considered to mean that you were homosexual. Today, men of all classes and sexual orientations will pierce both ears and multiple piercing of the ear is also very fashionable.
Almost every other type of piercing has come to the West from other cultures. Nostril piercing, for example, existed in the Middle East 4000 years ago. From there it spread to parts of Asia. Certain ethnic groups in India believe that if a female pierces her left nostril, she will increase her fertility. Nostril piercing was introduced to the West in the 1960s when there was a general interest in all things Eastern.
The Gauntlet
Thirty years ago, body piercing in the West was largely associated with BDSM. BDSM refers to several sexual activities that may include any or all of the following: Bondage, Bondage & Discipline, Domination & Submission, and Sadism & Masochism. In the 1970s, body piercing became popular in the gay and BDSM subcultures in the US. It was in this context, in 1975, that Jim Ward opened The Gauntlet, a business that pioneered the field of body piercing in the West.
The Gauntlet operated out of Ward's Los Angeles home. By 1978 it had already started gaining a large enough clientele to move into a location on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. From there it spread to San Francisco and New York. During the 1980s The Gauntlet ran a very successful mail-order service and manufactured its own jewellery.
The Gauntlet also published a magazine which helped to popularize body piercing. The magazine was called Piercing Fans International Quarterly or PFIQ. Originally it was a simple black and white newsletter but as The Gauntlet grew the magazine became glossier and included well-produced photos, artwork, stories and tips related to body piercing. For a long time it was the only reliable source of information about body piercing.
By the 1990s The Gauntlet had fallen into financial difficulties and Ward's health deteriorated. After almost twenty years of bringing body piercing into the mainstream, The Gauntlet closed its doors for good.
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