People who have decided to adorn themselves with body jewelry, however, respond with “Why not?”  Tongue rings and nose rings are just two more ways for a person to express himself or herself.  The idea of body jewelry is similar to the idea of tradition earlobe piercings:   people want to be able to decorate themselves.

In addition, less traditional forms of body jewelry such as tongue rings, nose rings and eyebrow rings, are sometimes used as an outlet for rebellion against one’s parents or against a conformist society.  The purpose is to essentially say, “Hey, it’s my body, I can poke holes wherever I want.”

The beauty of body jewelry is that most often, when a person decides that the body jewelry is no longer a desirable form of self-expression, he or she can simply remove the nose ring or tongue ring, and the tiny hole will eventually close up.  Body jewelry is a semi-permanent way for people to show their style, rebel, or simply decorate the body.

T.C. Kuster