INSURGENT BLOG TOUR: PIERCINGS

As part of the Team Dauntless UK blog tour for Insurgent, I'll be looking at the wonderful world of body piercings.

Although tattoos and piercings are now fairly commonplace in our society, they can still be a taboo thing to have, especially when it comes to work. But in the Dauntless faction, it wouldn't be odd or out of place.

Nowadays body piercing is a form of self expression, but different forms of body piercing have existed since ancient times, often with a spiritual or ritualistic element. The oldest mummified body with ear piercings is 5,300 years old and the tradition in India for women of childbearing age to wear a nose stud dates back to the 16th century. Even back then you could find the dauntless!

As my current partner is an ex-body piercer (and it was in this role that we actually met) I thought I would ask him about some of the more unusual and interesting piercings he’s done: 

"The more unusual and most complicated, piercing I did was a corset piercing on a girl's back. It took two of us to do and 4 hours overall, as we had to do 12 individual ring piercings that all had to line up as it would later be threaded with ribbon to make the corset effect. The most fun one to do was actually nail piercings as I got to use a tiny drill to make a hole in the nail. But it was often the most unassuming of people that would walk in, wearing their office suit, to get hidden piercings..." 

Many, many years ago as a young teenager I was considering what first piercing to get when I saw an article on the different types of piercings in Kerrang magazine. The one that stood out for me was the septum piercing (think Keith from Prodigy). After that I got the back of my neck pierced with a small bar, followed by my wrist piercing (which was when I met my lovely other half whilst he worked in the piercing studio) and then I set about stretching my ears to 10mm. I've lost a few piercings over the years, but think I may still  have one or two left in me.

But if piercings aren't daring enough for you, then there is a myriad of other forms of self expression that might take your fancy such as implants. Far from the 'normal' surface piercings such as ears, lip, belly button or tongue, dermal implants are surgically anchored under the skin with the jewellery showing on the skin like a little flat ball. For those with no fear at all, then full implants under the skin might be your style.

What I’d really like to know is whether you have been tempted or could be tempted to get a piercing? What kind of piercing would you have and where would you get pierced?

Click here to pre-order Insurgent which comes out on 1st May 2012.

Don't forget to check out Jayde's post which is also up today and forthcoming posts from Andrew and Keith…

28th April: Jayde @ Ink Scratchers
29th April: Andrew @ The Pewter Wolf
30th April: Keith @ Books and Writers