Roman Body Piercing Research Paper

When you see someone walking down the street with his or her ear pierced you probably do no think much about it, but when you see a man or woman walking down the street with their tongue pierced you probably take a second glance or make a slap judgment about them before even taking the time to think about why he or she got a body part pierced. Body piercing has become more mainstream in the past ten to fifteen years, but can still not get past the stigma attached to getting a body part pierced. But what most people do not realize is that piercing of body parts other than ears date back as far as Biblical times and have symbolic meaning rather than just shock value. The art of body modification has been in practice since as early as the
The Roman's were a very practical people. Anything they said or did served a purpose. (Roberts, 2004) When they would have a body part pierced it meant something. Roman centurions got their nipples pierced because it gave the men strength and virility. It was a bonding ritual with the members of the army. Julius Caesar symbolized his strength and manhood by having his nipples pierced. (Roberts, 2004) Another piercing that the Roman's used was that of the genitals. The Roman gladiators had the head of their penises pierced. These men were slaves and this piercing served dual purposes. This piercing was used as a tool to pin back the man's genitals during a gladiator battle, and was also used as a way to prevent the slaves from having sex without the owner's consent. (Sanders, 2005) Though this may sound very barbaric, the Roman's pitted their gladiators against beasts to fight for their lives, it is doubtful that they were upset about having their genitals
The church spent most of its free time repressing the freedom of expression to its followers, which intern dulled down the exposure of piercings. The Dark Ages also brought poverty and most of the society could not afford to get a piercing to show off beauty or their social status. Piercing was then used as a punishment rather than a fashion or status statement. Those who were pierced were marked and society took a negative view upon them. This might also have a lot to do with the plague which was affecting most of citizens as well causing birth defects and body deformities. This is probably why most of the Western culture views piercing as a negative attribute rather than a symbol of strength or virility. (Sanders,