Ear piercing in general has been around for thousands of years. There is evidence that it dates back as far as 5000 years ago. When the ancient mummy known as Ötzi the Iceman was discovered it was also noted that his ears had piercings in them, stretched to around 7-10 mm, and he lived during the 4th millenium! There's also poof that the ancient Egyptians also had ear piercings, King Tutankhamen was found to have holes in his ears and there was even earrings found in his tomb. The history around ear piercing is really interesting, there is lots of cultural and spiritual significance around them. Culturally some babies will have their lobes pierced, one each, by the mother and father to show the child's dependence on them, some children will have their ears pierced as they reach puberty to celebrate the passage from childhood. Some fighters in African cultures will have their ears pierced and have plugs, made of ivory, placed into the holes (gauged to stretched the hole) to signify that they have become men and to display their bravery. Spiritually come communities had the belief that a person could be possessed by a spirit entering through the ear, so would have their ears pierced so the spirit could leave once they'd entered. Some had them pierced as they believed the metal itself would prevent the spirit from entering altogether. Ear piercing as also popular in Europe, during the 16th century men who worked in the Kings Court would have their ears pierced to show their position. Sailors during this time would also wear earrings usually in one ear to show how far they had sailed. It is also believed they wore them to provide for a decent burial in the event they died at sea so whoever found them could sell the earring to pay for it. Ear piercings dipped in favour during the 18th century when the started to replace them with clip ons. Its thought that during this time actual piercings were left to the poorer classes until around the 1950s (after the war) its thought they raised in popularity as people wanted to express themselves and feel better after feeling so low and appearing disheveled during the war. This led to ear piercing being considered fashionable, although there wasn't the abundance of shops that we have now, this lead to women numbing their ears with ice cubes and the piercing it with needle to insert a stud, obviously this isn't hygienic and there was a rise in infections, so much so that some hospitals would offer ear piercing to reduce the chance of infection. Piercing shops started to become a presence during the 80's and piercings in general became much more acceptable which lead to many people getting their ears pierced to show beautiful jewellery. Nowadays ear piercing is largely cosmetic, with people getting their ears pierced to show off jewellery or even as a statement to the outside world. There are many different types of ear piercing, and over the coming weeks we will look at them all more in depth
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