History Main / SavagePiercings

This is kind of TruthInTelevision, since many real tribes use various forms of body modification as part of their culture. Before piercing became mainstream in TheNineties, in the western world it was common only among certain subcultures, except for the accepted form: earrings (women only). So someone wearing rings through his or her nose (or lips, or belly buttons, or nipples, or [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus naughty bits]]) must be a savage. Bonus points if we aren't talking about metal rings, but pieces of wood, or worse, bones. These bones often (especially in comics and animation) will more look like [[StockFemurBone the standard doggie bones]], implying that these savages aren't even sophisticated enough to use tools. (In reality, stone age humans were capable of making quite delicate carved objects.)

* ''/{{Warcraft}}'':

This is kind of TruthInTelevision, since many real tribes use various forms of body modification as part of their culture. Before piercing became mainstream in TheNineties, in the western world it was common only among certain subcultures, except for the accepted form: earrings (women only). So someone wearing rings through his or her nose (or lips, or belly buttons, or nipples, or [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus naughty bits]]) must be a savage. Bonus points if we aren't talking about metal rings, but pieces of wood, or worse, bones. These bones often (especially in comics and animation) will more look like the standard doggie bones, implying that these savages aren't even sophisticated enough to use tools. (In reality, stone age humans were capable of making quite delicate carved objects.)

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Films -- Animated ]]

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action ]]

* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' had a tribe of Na'vi with bones through their nose.

* Averted in ''Film/BlackPanther2018''; various characters sport body modifications traditional to different African cultures (such as a lip plate), but they're all presented as refined and high-class.

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* Trolls in the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' universe have bone piercings (they're mostly Jamaican-accented).

** Sulik the tribal in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' wears bones that he claims contains "bone spirits", the spirits of ancestors. The strongest is the one driven though his nose, Grampy Bone. Grampy bone lets him talk to the rest of the bone spirits and provides sage advice (but not for you).

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', the [[InHarmonyWithNature Simoe]] tribes who live by the Great River of Libaterra tend to intentionally pierce and scar their faces and bodies in elaborate ways as they worship the water spirits.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Sideshow Mel from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has a bone in his ''hair'' to suggest savagery but not make the AnimatedActor get an actual piercing.

-->'''Marge''': Bart, I told you not to get your lip disced!

* The males in ''WesternAnimation/MikeLuAndOg'' have rings through their noses, while the Cuzzlewitz clan have bones through them.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* There are several southern African nations in which lip plates are, or were, the custom for women.
** Ironically, it's thought that some of the more extreme versions may have come about [[NewerThanTheyThink to deter interest from slavers.]]
*** That theory has largely been debunked. There are just different standards for beauty, apart from a handful of basics, like symmetric features.

Let's say, there's a hero from the western world meeting a tribe of savages somewhere in DarkestAfrica, or another part of the world far from western civilization. How do we depict that these people are savages? By showing that they're pierced.

* Subverted in ''Film/BlackPanther2018''; various characters sport body modifications traditional to different African cultures (such as a lip plate), but they're all presented as refined and high-class.

* Bonolenov's tribe from ''Series/HunterXHunter'' subjects themselves to willful mutilation among the males at the age of three on up by shoving piercings into their bodies to eventually cover themselves in holes and turn themselves into living musical instruments that channel spirits with their Nen when they dance and the holes catch the wind. It's incredibly barbaric and sometimes the young unwillingly get this treatment.

* Subverted in ''[[Film/BlackPanther2018]]''; various characters sport body modifications traditional to different African cultures (such as a lip plate), but they're all presented as refined and high-class.

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* Mandibuzz from ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''.
* Sulik the tribal in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}''.

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'':
** In ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' Jack is caught by a [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal]] tribe wearing these and chased down a beach.
** Blackbeard's zombies in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides On Stranger Tides]]''.
* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' had a tribe of Na'vi with bones through their nose.
* Subverted in ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'', where it seems that all local tribes have piercings. The hero's tribe have simple piercings, while the more technologically advanced and urbanized Mayans have extremely intricate and ornate piercings, which are meant to show the decadence of their conspicuous consumption.

* Among the many self-mutilations common to the savage Reavers in ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' are bits of metal, bone, etc. inserted into the skin. The same is true of ''{{Series/Firefly}}'', the television series on which the movie is based, but you get a much better look in the movie.

* Spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}: Escape 2 Africa''. When the other giraffes make Melman their WitchDoctor, they present him with the requisite nose bone. "Don't worry, it's a clip-on."

* In ''PastwatchTheRedemptionOfChristopherColumbus'', [[spoiler:Hunahpu]] travels to the 15th century and tries to convince some Zapotec villagers that he's a God in order to unite all of Mesoamerica under one benevolent rule. In order to do that, he must prove that he's a man by piercing the skin of his penis with metal needles and appear to the villagers with his junk exposed. Being a civilized man, he uses what little medicine he brought with him to sterilize the wounds and stop the bleeding, also taking a painkiller prior to the mutilation. When the villagers meet him, he wants each of them to pull a certain needle out and wipe the blood on their own body (as a blessing). He also demands that an ugly slave girl from a neighboring tribe be set free and also pull a needle from his penis. She does so and immediately pierces her tongue with the needle. This shocks the villagers and [[spoiler:Hunahpu]], but not because of the savageness of the act. This is the act of a wife, not a random slave girl. [[spoiler:Hunahpu]] pulls the needle out but ends up marrying her anyway.

* Sideshow Mel from ''TheSimpsons'' has a bone in his ''hair'' to suggest savagery but not make the AnimatedActor get an actual piercing.

* The males in ''MikeLuAndOg'' have rings through their noses, while the Cuzzlewitz clan have bones through them.

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* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'':

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** Jack is caught by a [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal]] tribe wearing these and chased down a beach.
** Blackbeard's zombies in ''On Stranger Tides''.

* In ''Nomads of Literature/{Gor}}'' the Wagon Peoples (a nomadic subculture in southern Gor known for their wild and barbaric ways) give nose piercings to all females, free and slave.

* Among the many self-mutilations common to the savage Reavers in ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' are bits of metal, bone, etc. inserted into the skin. The same is true of ''{{Firefly}}'', the television series on which the movie is based, but you get a much better look in the movie.

* In ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'' most of the tribesmen and women had piercings of some description. There were wooden and jade studs, as well as more complicated, ornate pieces.

* Trolls in the ''WarCraft'' universe have bone piercings (they're mostly Jamaican-accented).

* Mandibuzz from ''{{Pokemon}}''.

** Played with in ''FalloutTactics''. The default characters you can choose from are members of various tribal groups that sprung up in the aftermath of WWIII and have various facial piercings, but they're all the kind of nondescript metal rings and studs one would find at a big city tattoo joint rather than anything especially tribal-looking. This probably has something to do with the fact that all the character portraits were digitized from real people.

* In ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'', Jack is caught by a [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal]] tribe wearing these and chased down a beach.

* In ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'', Jack is caught by these guys.
* ''[[ThreeHundred 300]]'', anyone?