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Ear Piercing, It’s History And Evolution
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Ear Piercing
Ear piercing practice dates back to about 5,000 years ago. This is backed by evidence of a mummy known as Ötzi the Iceman, a man who lived during the 4th millennium. It was discovered that his ears had piercings on them.
It is also proven, that the Egyptians of ancient times had ear piercings as evidenced by the holes found on the ear lobes of King Tutankhamen’s mummy – a pharaoh of ancient Egypt. They also found earrings in his tomb.
Ear piercing hascultural and spiritual significance. In some primitive societies,when a child approaches puberty, their ears are pierced incelebration. Spiritually, some communities in the past believed thatevil spirits possessed humans through the ears, so the earlobes werepierced for them to be able to leave when they enter while somebelieved that metals kept the evil spirits away, so they woreearrings.
In Africa, in a clan known as Samburu, their fighters are made to pierce their ears and put on earplugs made of ivory to signify that they have become men and are brave. The father and mother of a child in Borneo would each pierce an earlobe of their child, to show that the child depends on them.
Also, the Borneopeople wore barbells on their ears. The Dayak of Borneo was known towear them, many years ago. In the 70s, the man who founded the firstbody piercing shop in the United States, Jim Ward, was the one whomade barbells popular.
Around the 16thcentury, in Europe, men who worked in the King’s court were known topierce their ears. Sailors also usually wore an earring on one ear tosignify that they have sailed far and wide. They also wore them incase they died at sea, so whoever found them would sell the earringand give them a decent burial with the proceeds.
However, towards the18th century, clip-on earrings started replacing earrings thatrequired piercing. Piercings were left to the lowly of birth, tillthe 50s, after the war. It was as if people, women especially, wantedto make up for looking disheveled during the war.
Ear piercings becamefashionable once again. Then, there were no piercing shops like canbe found everywhere today. What young women did was to get theirlobes numb using ice block cubes, before piercing. As time went on,it became necessary to get ear piercings in hospitals to avoidinfection.
Ear piercing shops began gaining popularity around the 80s, and by the 90s, fewer people had reservations about getting their ears pierced. Today almost every country and culture have people who wear earrings, mostly for adornment purposes.
Piercing of the earhas evolved so much so that different parts of the ear can bepierced. Types of piercing include the standard piercing; which isdone on the earlobe. Daith piercing, conch piercing, tragus piercing,industrial piercing;(usually done on both parts of the top of theears, for barbells to be inserted, ) and rook piercing. An individualcan have more than twenty different piercings on the ear becausealmost every part of the ear can be pierced.
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