__________________
Piercings continued..
Lips;
The piercing of the lips for the insertion of objects into them is very widely practised throughout the world, however only two tribes pierce the lips with a ring; the Dogon tribe Of Mali, and the Nuba of Ethiopia.
Among the Dogon the piercing of the lip has religious importance, they believe that the world was created by their ancestor spirit "Noomi" weaving thread through her teeth, but instead of thread out came speech.
All the other lip piercing that is practised in the world is done with labrets, which can either be a pin of wood, ivory, metal, or even in one case quartz crystals. Among the tribes of Central Africa, and South America the Labret piercing is stretched to extremely large proportions, and large wooden or clay plates are inserted.
Among the ancient Aztecs and Mayans labret piercing was reserved for male members of the higher castes, they wore beautiful labrets fashioned from pure gold in the shape of serpents, golden labrets with stones inset and ones of jade or obsidion (labret in Aztec "Tentetl").
The Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, and the Inuit peoples of northern Canada and Alaska wore labrets fashioned from walrus ivory, abalone shell, bone, obsidian, and wood.
The Makololo tribe of Malawi wear lip plates in the upper lip called Pelele. The African explorer Dr. Livingstone asked a chief the reason for this, in surprise the chief answered..
"For beauty! They are the only beautiful things women have. Men have beards, women have none. What kind of person would she be without Pelele ? She would not be a woman at all."
The plug of wood in the lips, which became little by little a disk, and then a real plaque, was in some manner a sign of possession of the husband of the Djinja woman. It is the man who is to marry her, and very often him alone who operates, transfixing the lips of the young girl with a blade of straw forms the first sign of the deformation to which she will be subject as an adult.
Among the Dogon the piercing of the lip has religious importance, they believe that the world was created by their ancestor spirit "Noomi" weaving thread through her teeth, but instead of thread out came speech.
All the other lip piercing that is practised in the world is done with labrets, which can either be a pin of wood, ivory, metal, or even in one case quartz crystals. Among the tribes of Central Africa, and South America the Labret piercing is stretched to extremely large proportions, and large wooden or clay plates are inserted.
Among the ancient Aztecs and Mayans labret piercing was reserved for male members of the higher castes, they wore beautiful labrets fashioned from pure gold in the shape of serpents, golden labrets with stones inset and ones of jade or obsidion (labret in Aztec "Tentetl").
The Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, and the Inuit peoples of northern Canada and Alaska wore labrets fashioned from walrus ivory, abalone shell, bone, obsidian, and wood.
The Makololo tribe of Malawi wear lip plates in the upper lip called Pelele. The African explorer Dr. Livingstone asked a chief the reason for this, in surprise the chief answered..
"For beauty! They are the only beautiful things women have. Men have beards, women have none. What kind of person would she be without Pelele ? She would not be a woman at all."
The plug of wood in the lips, which became little by little a disk, and then a real plaque, was in some manner a sign of possession of the husband of the Djinja woman. It is the man who is to marry her, and very often him alone who operates, transfixing the lips of the young girl with a blade of straw forms the first sign of the deformation to which she will be subject as an adult.
Navel;
Navel piercing is a modern invention and has never been recorded in primitive cultures; however the navel has long been recognised as an erogenous zone, because of the difference between men's and women's stomachs. Women's stomachs differ from men's in that they are more rounded in the lower part, are longer than men's, have a greater distance between the navel and genitals, and are more deeply recessed than men's; these features are often exaggerated by artists to make women appear more feminine in paintings.
IF ONLY I COULD HAVE THIS STOMACH :(
The invention of the Bikini in 1953 caused a big stir because the navel was seen as being sexually provocative because of it's similarity to the female genitals. The Bikini revolutionised women's lives, along with the liberation of their clothes their lives in general became more liberated. The process was completed when Madonna started the craze for showing of the midriff in the 1980's. The ability to flaunt their sexuality in public gave women more power and confidence in themselves.
"It is easy to pinpoint the moment when body piercing went mainstream. Christy Turlinton came out at a London Fashion show, and in the middle of her navel was a ring! The next day Naomi Campbell showed the world that anything Christy could do, so could she. A gold ring with a small pearl pierced her navel. And then at Isaac Mizrahi's show the two came out together, navels bared: body piercing as a Supermodel totem" Suzy Menkes The New York Times September 1994.
"I have the most perfect belly button - an 'inny'. When I stick my finger in my belly button, I feel a nerve in the centre of my body shoot up my spine" Madonna Time Magazine 1985
"I like it, I think it's fun!" Naomi Campbell.
"I always thought it was a pretty feminine thing to do - and you can always take it out" Christy Turlington.
IF ONLY I COULD HAVE THIS STOMACH :(
The invention of the Bikini in 1953 caused a big stir because the navel was seen as being sexually provocative because of it's similarity to the female genitals. The Bikini revolutionised women's lives, along with the liberation of their clothes their lives in general became more liberated. The process was completed when Madonna started the craze for showing of the midriff in the 1980's. The ability to flaunt their sexuality in public gave women more power and confidence in themselves.
"It is easy to pinpoint the moment when body piercing went mainstream. Christy Turlinton came out at a London Fashion show, and in the middle of her navel was a ring! The next day Naomi Campbell showed the world that anything Christy could do, so could she. A gold ring with a small pearl pierced her navel. And then at Isaac Mizrahi's show the two came out together, navels bared: body piercing as a Supermodel totem" Suzy Menkes The New York Times September 1994.
"I have the most perfect belly button - an 'inny'. When I stick my finger in my belly button, I feel a nerve in the centre of my body shoot up my spine" Madonna Time Magazine 1985
"I like it, I think it's fun!" Naomi Campbell.
"I always thought it was a pretty feminine thing to do - and you can always take it out" Christy Turlington.
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