Losing Touch with the True Meaning of Body Piercings

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Throughout the world, many individuals have body piercings. Various parts of the body can be pierced, including the navel, earlobe, eyebrow, or even the septum. The many different areas of the body that can be pierced have caused major controversy. While many believe that piercings are an exquisite form of art, others believe that piercings are tacky and a form of self-mutilation. Permanently marking ones skin to insert jewelry has become a hobby that the American culture has become obsessed with. Looking into a crowd of randomly selected people, the amount of individuals who have multiple body piercings is shocking. Although piercings were originally meant to have significant meaning in other cultures, body piercings are a form of self- mutilation that can cause severe scarring and permanent damage to the skin and mind. Piercing the skin is the act of inserting a needle or piece of metal into the body to insert jewelry (ShareCare 1). Body piercing has been a hobby of individuals for many centuries. According to Tribu, a website dedicated to the history of body art, “The oldest mummified body to be found with pierced ears and expanded earlobes (7-11mm in diameter) was found frozen in an Austrian Glacier, and tests show it to be over 5,000 years old” ( Tribu 1). Body piercings were originally symbols for different religious and moral beliefs. Piercings on areas such as the tongue were symbols for the blood-shed of God, while ear piercings were believed to ward off evil spirits (Tribu 1). The body piercings quickly evolved over time, transforming from symbols into a different form of beauty and style. In recent times, many men and women have endured piercings for purposes other than symbolization. Many individuals receive pierc... ... middle of paper ... ...en. "Self‐Care versus Self‐Harm: Piercing, Tattooing, and Self‐Injuring in Eating Disorders." European Eating Disorders Review 2005. Pgs. 11-18. Favazza, Armando R. "The coming of age of self-mutilation." The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 1998. Pgs. 259-268. Koenig, Laura M., and Molly Carnes. "Body piercing." Journal of general internal medicine 1999. Pgs 379-385. Laumann, Anne E., and Amy J. Derick. "Tattoos and Body Piercings in the United States: a National Data Set." Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 2006. Pgs. 413- 421. Martell, James. “The History of Body Piercings.” TheHistoryof.net, 2008. Revised 2014. Web. 8 April 2014. Mwai, Collins. “Body Art: Self-Expression or Self-Mutilation?” The New Times Rwanda, 2014. Web. 8 April 2014. Tribu London LTD. “ History of Body Piercing.” Tribu 2014. Revised March 2014. Web. 9 April 2014.

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