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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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