As Anastasia prepared, I browsed through the photographs on the wall. For the most part, they were images I saw everyday on campus. But every now and then I'd come across an extraordinary one and wonder to myself, "Whoa ... what would make someone pierce that?!" I considered my nostril piercing pretty tame in comparison.

According to A. Rubin's Marks of Civilization, there has been a surge of popular interest and involvement in permanent body modification practices within the last decade. This is evident in mainstream society by the appearance of modified bodies in cinema, television, and magazines, not to mention in dorms and on campuses across the United States.

Body modification is the art of permanently altering the look of the human body. Some common forms of body modification are tattoos, piercing and scarification. These modes of visible alteration can be seen across the globe and across history.

Piercing is the insertion of a sterile hollow-gauge needle through the skin to cause an opening large enough for jewelry to be inserted. Piercings fall into one of two categories. Face piercing, or visible piercing, is of the nostril, septum, eyebrow, tongue, and labret or lip. Invisible piercing includes the navel, nipple, and the genitalia.

The procedure is simple. Take my nostril piercing, for example. Anastasia seated me and sterilized my nostril, inside and out.

Invisible piercings include the navel, nipple, and the genitalia.

She then used a clamp to hold the area. This clamp had a hole in the center, through which the area was to be pierced. She then took a long hollow-gauge needle and poked it up through the clamp and through my nostril. This is where I felt I was losing all control of my facial functions. Ouch. She then threaded the jewelry into the needle, and as the needle was pulled out, the jewelry was pulled in. Done.

Piercing is used in many tribal societies to show wealth and status, as well as the person's societal role. For example, in some African tribes, a man's septum is pierced with an animal bone or tusk when he crosses into the tribe's warrior class. In many Native American tribes, a woman's lip is pierced at the beginning of adolescence and the hole is gradually enlarged as she passes other rites of passage.