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..Glass is nothing new to body
decoration. Over millennia ancient cultures and tribal societies
around the world have treasured glass as a symbol of wealth
and status. In the form of glass beads, earrings, amulets
and other items, a precious, even spiritual attribution was
bestowed upon the material. Over 3,000 years ago advanced
glass-working techniques were in use in Syria and Egypt. Glass
flourished during the reign of Amenhotep
II. Blue-green glass earplugs and cords of multicolored
glass beads could be seen adorning the elite of the court,
and swirling glass earspools, brilliant glass nose rings and
richly colored glass-and-gold amulets decorated the tattooed
bodies of the most luxurious courtesans and dancers. Among
the Aztecs of ancient Mexico glass in the form of finely worked
obsidian was in high demand. Women and men of high rank began
each day gazing into mirrors of volcanic glass while adorning
themselves with obsidian ear spools and plugs, septum plugs
and hooks, and blossoming labret ornaments. Members of the
noble warrior societies would proudly display scintillating
black ear spools bristling with exotic feathers, or obsidian
labrets with strings of tubular jade beads, in order to pronounce
their rank and privilege. In pre-historic and early-contact
North America, glass was coveted as a most precious material
for body ornamentation and trade. Among the Tlingit, the Inuit,
and the Eskimo of Alaska, ear, nose, and especially labret
piercing defined social status and rights of puberty. In that
region blue glass labret plugs were the most precious form
of currency and biggest display of personal wealth. |
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