Piercing and Pride

Piercing is gay, and has always been. Piercing is queer, and has traditionally embraced those marginalized because of sexual orientation or gender expression. Now, more than ever before, we need to lean into LGBTQ+ history—especially the “T”—as we celebrate piercing and PRIDE.

Piercing as we experience it today is a product of gay culture. Modern piercing started to infiltrate the larger public consciousness alongside the AIDS crisis, Act Up, and the wave of gay rights activism in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Piercing was there as BDSM started creeping into the mainstream. It was there hand-in-hand with the new wave of pro-sex feminism.