Jim Ward was a pioneer in modern day body modification, it's great to see him mentioned. Recognizing the difference between sacred cultural traditions & modern day body modification is important. I was first exposed to body modification from reading my grandmothers National Geographic magazines. I felt this magnetic curiosity with the visuals of various tribal modification without quite understanding it. I was lucky to grow up next to a buddhist temple, and I used to escape the toxicities of my chaotic childhood. I noticed how the buddha was always shown with stretched earlobes... So I asked a monk and they explained that it was a practice that the buddha explored called Asceticism. I found this very captivating... I decided in my 30's to stretch my lobes in honor of various traditions. With all of that said though, I am very aware that I'm a cis male and that the line between cultural appreciation and appropriation can be thin. This is why understanding the history of traditions is important. I also think it's valid for modern day modification to have very "tribalistic" practice in a non cultural tradition. If you read all this props to you ha!

The history of the modern American piercing industry literally started with the gay S&M scenes in NYC, LA, and SF. There are pictures of hyper stretched nipples and giant PAs with monster jewelry many years before The Gauntlet ever started, in some of Fakir Mustafar's collection. My piercer was an old, salty biker who learned at The Gauntlet (also because tattooing was still illegal in NYC at the time), who always wore his leathers and his deep green mohawk despite being near 60 at the time, so he also had all the stories and pictures to back that all up. So many Americans not understanding that very real history, or even the development of modern piercing jewelry and best practices, is oddly hilarious. Though also not very surprising.

I recently watched a docufilm related to some of the culture that started the modern body piercing industry this past weekend (Bloodsisters 1995), so it's a coincidence to see this video today too! A fantastic listen as always, and your clarity and specificity is always appreciated in delineating modern and traditional practices. I think your description is missing the link to your extra readings/media list though.

This is so cool! Something I vividly remember from my childhood is a video of someone getting pierced through the mouth to create a marking on their chin as part of a ritual. Cultural and ancestral body mods are so cool to learn about. I'm not in a financial place to donate right now but I will save this video to come back to it when I do

This was a great video Lynn! As a Latina from the Caribbean I’m interested in how people of my culture (Taino) used piercings as a part of their tribe! If you could make a video about that that’ll be great!

this was soooo informative! great vid!

I live in a state where a lot people are from the Caribbean while my relatives are from the Caribbean and the other half is from New York. My grandma kept saying we have Indigenous in our blood but within the corporate world like suit and collar jobs require too much professional looks rather than accepting people for who they are and what they choose to showcase such as facial piercings and tattoos. My mother is more acceptable of my piercings in a way but I feel like those with piercings or tattoos are being discriminated against from jobs.

Can you please do video on Gauntlet??

Title is very clickbaity. Of course it wasn’t! It has existed for almost all of human history across most if not all cultures..