In what era were the first ever piercings found?

Ancient Egypt – an ear piercing was found on a mummy.

In what year do you think nose piercing started?

1500BC – found on the Goddess Lakshmi according to Hinduism.

Lip and tongue piercings are historically found to be together. In what tribes were they first found in?

African and American – stretch lips for beauty and pierce tongue as ritual symbol.

Where in the world do you think the first nipple piercing was found?

Italy – sign of masculinity for Ancient Roman soldiers.

In what country did genital piercing originate?

India – sexual enhancement.

Increased popularity of body piercings (Bone et al., 2008).

The study was influenced by Schorzman et al. (2007) – found females have more piercings than males and dominant motivation is aesthetics, i.e. like the way it looks.

Factors to be considered were: gender, age, common motivations, common anatomical sites for piercings, and if further piercings were considered.

There were four hypotheses together to test each factor.

Females will have more piercings than males.

Younger people will have more piercings than older aged people.

The dominant motivation for body piercings will be aesthetics.

Individuals with multiple piercings are more likely to get another piercing.

Inclusion criteria: participants to have piercings.

50 participants: 39 females, 11 males.

Ages ranged from 18-50+.

Participants recruited from two body piercing studios.

Self-created seven-item questionnaire.

Recruited trained research assistants who agreed to collect data on researcher’s behalf.

When questionnaires completed, they were collected.

Minimum number of piercings – two.

Maximum number of piercings – 43.

Males more piercings than females.

Middle-aged and younger people had more piercings than older-aged people.

Dominant motivation – aesthetics.

Individuals with multiple piercings considered further piercings.

Most common place for piercings – ears.

Most common place for further piercings – ears.

Main motivation for further piercings – aesthetics.

Gender differences.

Individual differences.

Findings partially support Schorzman et al. (2007).

Males had more piercings – suggests trend is changing.

Looking good is key motivation – could test for other motivations.

Trend is also changing for age. In the future, the trend may look like this.

Further research could see motivations for further piercings.

Gender and individual differences both important due to preferences.

Further research could test relationship between piercings and ethnicity.

Interesting findings about prevalence and motivation of body piercings.

Body piercers and doctors – why people have piercings.

People who didn’t think about motivations, can question motivations.

I would like to thank the owners of Blackburn Piercing Studio and Hex Piercing for kindly taking part in the study, as well as to all the participants who took part.

ANY QUESTIONS?

Bone, A., Ncube, F., Nichols, T., & Noah, N. D. (2008). Body piercing in England: a survey of piercing at sites other than earlobe. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 336(7658), 1426-1428. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.39580.497176.25

Schorzman, C. M., Gold, M. A., Downs, J. S., & Murray, P. J. (2007). Body Art: Attitudes and Practices Regarding Body Piercing Among Urban Undergraduates. J Am Osteopath Assoc., 107, 432-438.