Why Do We Love Piercings?

When I was little I wanted my ears pierced so badly. I was in the car with my oldest sister, Sarah, going home from the jewellers. She had just had her ears pierced.

"When can I get my ears pierced?" I asked.
"When you're thirteen," my mum replied. She was driving and Sarah was admiring the gold balls studded in her pink ears. I counted on my fingers nine years until I was old enough.
"But that's ages away!" I said. I thought about it some more. "Did it hurt?" I asked Sarah.
"No," she said. I was sure she was lying. 

I loved stick on earrings. I loved clip on earrings. I especially loved magnetic earrings, until they flew straight off my ears one windy morning. But I still had so many years to wait to get the real thing.

But in hindsight, I'm glad my parents made to wait. I mentioned in the post Inspiration: Parents that I felt it helped me gain respect for my body, and I maintain that. If I ever have children I will instill the same rules in them. It made me a little more careful, and contrary to popular belief, I say that's a good thing. It's important we are careful. These are our bodies and we should look after them.

I had my heart set on a tragus piercing from fourteen, and on my 18th Birthday I went to Blue Banana in Cardiff and got it done. I still love it, four years later, and often contemplate getting other piercings. In fact, last weekend I got my right ear lobe pierced, but it took me a good few years to finally do it. But why do we do it?

For me, piercings are for the ears only. I guess all the other possible places for piercings – my nose, tongue, belly button – are areas of my body that I am not confident showing off. My ears – I don't mind them so much. They're a little funny looking, odd in shape, definitely not symmetrical (but my face isn't either) but they're ok. So why not accessorize them with jewellery, to make them sparkle and look a bit prettier? If it's that simple, then so be it. Maybe I just like to make myself look nice, but who doesn't?

My dad once joked that the more piercings you want just shows a desire to be loved. In a way, I suppose that theory relates to every time you buy a new dress, pair of shoes, a bag, make up... It makes you feel like you look better, like someone will notice, and think of you, and pay you attention, when the chances of anyone else noticing aren't as high as we might think. I don't think it's an entirely conscious thing, but maybe there is some truth in it.

But does that matter? Do we even want people to notice? When it comes to piercings, I really don't think we do it for anyone else. Maybe with clothes – we dress to impress, sometimes... But piercings are a little more permanent. Not as permanent as tattoos (and that's another topic entirely which I'll come to another time) but they are holes we put in our bodies that weren't there when we were born. Is that disrespectful to the bodies that God gave us to look after? Or is it a new mark, one that we choose to place on our bodies for self-esteem and confidence in yourself? Why do we love piercings so much?

Let me know what you think in the comment box below, or tweet me @hello_flower 
I'm still trying to figure this one out, and find out why I think I'll continue to get my ears pierced until there's no space left – by which point I'm sure I will have overdone it, and want to take them all out.