Play Piercing - Kaitlyn Parmely

Play piercing is a ritual performed for sensation or experience where the hole is not meant to be kept open permanently by a piercing. Usually sharps or points (hypodermic needles) are used to pierce the surface layers of skin and multiple piercings are done in a row. Some Hindu based rituals are performed called kavandi rituals; which is large frameworks hold a large amount of needles in the skin for performers of the ritual. There intense ritual is used as a Hindu religious belief to offer endurance of the body to the Gods. Weight and tension are controlled by another person pulling on the two to three dozen hooks so that the needles do not pull out of the skin and cause pain to the person performing the ritual. In todays world some people have piercing fetishs' just because they enjoy the feeling or pain, but it is usually for personal pleasure rather than religous reasonsings. However, in Aztec culture tongue piercings were look at as a sign of nobility offered to the Gods on sacred holidays. Also, sometimes long cactus spines were used to pierce the tongues and a bowl was used to catch the blood that would drip from the tongue which was also seen as an offering to the Gods. Different cultures have different ways of using piercings. Hindu's and Aztecs use needles and "play piercing" as offerings to the gods and strengthening their bodies and expanding their pain thresholds.