Thousands of years ago, man had very few avenues to express himself with. Painting on cave walls and the like wasn’t what you might call public art, as it was for those few who had enough spare animal fat or oil to burn long enough for the painter to actually do the work, as none of those caves were open to the light, so you could say that then as now art in painting form was for the rich and not the common man. Tattoo’s were around, as was body painting but again we’re back to the fact that they were for priests or rich men, head men, chieftains usually so they would stand out, leaving the common man with the left over animal parts (bones at this point) to decorate himself with, and so we come to body piercing.

Since then man has indeed come a long way, but we now see the return of primitive man’s most usual adornment as a current way of showing how different people think they are, by using body piercing to show their independence, or so it seems. While not exactly original, the forms that today’s body piercings take are somewhat different than a simple bone thru the nose. With bone implants, body modification to the extreme of splitting, ahem, appendages (No, not a tongue, and yes, there ARE some people who have done it – really!), and the like, a simple piercing seems to be a little old hat and conservative.

But what will the archaeologists of the future think, when in 1,000 years or so, they start pulling up embalmed bodies and the like with pierced eyebrows, nipples and bellybuttons, from lots of different locations around the planet, and probably having no record of what it was about or why it happened at all? Just considering the amount of details that we’ve lost from an era less than 100 years ago has got to make you wonder exactly what those descendants will think of this society where tribe members are scattered across the earth with only body piercings to tie them together.

With all that said, although many may think that it’s a new fad or fashion, body piercing is really about the oldest form of showing individualism that all men have ever had, so it shouldn’t be looked upon as a bad thing, but as an expression of solidarity with man from all times, with the common bond extended over time for all to know about.

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