For me personally, piercing has never been a fashion statement. I was driven at a very early age to pierce my own body, and the inspiration seemed to come from deep within, rather than the pages of a magazine or anything I saw on TV.

That said, I have always defended aesthetics as being a perfectly acceptable motivation for getting pierced. It was one of the many historical reasons for piercing among tribal and primitive peoples, and--of course--it is still common today.

Still, it was a little odd to find The Piercing Bible shown on this site along with books on knitting, sewing, and Coco Chanel!