Body modification is anything you do to drastically change the appearance of part of your body. For example, surgically splitting your tongue in half so that it remains permanently forked is something people do. Body piercing, on the other hand, is creating holes in the body through which jewelry may be placed for personal decoration. Sometimes these things overlap, as is the case with ear-piercing tunnels. If you have ever been curious about ear-piercing tunnels, there is much to be explored.
Why Tunnels?
Indigenous peoples of Meso-America, particularly Incans and the Mayans, regularly pierced their earlobes and inserted spools made of wood to hold the holes open and create large circular holes. They would also widen and enlarge these holes by gradually inserting ever-larger spools. The trick to this is to not step up too quickly or the ear lobes could tear. You can hang larger looping earrings and other body jewelry from these ear tunnels.
How Do Ear Tunnels Cross Over Into Body Modification?
Ear tunnels take traditional ear piercing and cross over into body modification when the person decides to change the diameter of the pierced holes and continue to completely alter their piercings into tunnels. This may be done with both the fleshy parts of the ear and the cartilage as well, although the cartilage is far less flexible. People who do this to their lobes are far more likely to seek out other body modification procedures because they like how these modifications look on themselves.
For more information visit bodyjewelry.com.
