A Little History

          Body modification is the deliberate alteration of one’s body and it is done for several of reasons. Body modification is generally associated with tattoos and piercings but it could also include other things like scarring, implants, etc. These procedures have been around for a long time but they originated at different times, and in different parts of the world.

          Tattoos are believed to have started somewhere around 10,000 years ago. Otzi, an Iceman who died in 3300 B.C. and whose body was found in 1991, has the oldest documented tattoo. Tattoos of animals and other mythical creatures were also found on mummified bodies of ancient Egyptian people. Tattoos were also done forcibly to identify certain people. The Ancient Romans used tattoos to distinguish their slaves and criminals and the Nazis tattooed numbers on the Jews’ arms during the Holocaust. It became popular sometime in the eighteenth century when tattooing became common with British sailors and seamen.

          Piercings on the other hand, started somewhere around 4,000 years ago in the Middle East, where nose piercings were first recorded. It carried on to India, where it became more popular around the sixteenth century and is still widely practiced today. Nose piercings were also mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 24:22 and Isaiah 3.21). Tongue piercings originated with the Aztecs as a form of ritual to draw blood for sacrifices to the Gods. The Aztecs also had lip piercings reserved for men of higher status. Lip piercings also existed in Africa and is said to have some religious significance. Some tribes were known to pierce their ears due to superstitions. They believe that demons and bad spirits could enter their bodies through the ears, but that they are repelled by metal, and so they pierced their ears. In Borneo, piercings used to be part of a ritual that parents would do to their children. The mother and the father would each pierce an ear of the child to represent the dependency of the child to the parents.

          Though tattoos and piercings have been around for a long time, they have become even more popular in this modern day and age. It has evolved from just being a part of a ritual or done due to a superstition to a way of expressing individuality and telling personal stories through body art. Both tattoos and piercings are ever improving due to new techniques and technology. Piercings are now taken to a new lever and piercers are able to perform microdermal anchoring by inserting surgical implants beneath the skin. So just imagine the possibilities of what future technologies can bring.