I got thinking about pierced ears the other day. I know, it’s a weird thing to consider, they’re so ubiquitous. Women have them. Men have them. Hell, I’ve seen newborn infants with them. Very commonplace. But, realize, at some point in history, someone had to say, “Hey, I know what let’s do. Why don’t you get something really sharp and jab a hole in this soft, tender part of my ear? Then we’ll cram something in there—metal hoop, boar tusk, monkey bone, something—and see what happens.” And someone else agreed to help with this. Alcohol had to have been involved.

Not only that, but other people saw it and thought, damn, that’s a pretty neat idea! I want holes punched in my flesh, too! Of course, some brave soul saw this happening and decided, that’s fine and all, but why stop with squishy ear parts? Drill a hole in my nose! And my lips. Tongue, cheek, eyebrow, wang… go nuts. Swiss cheese me. And then one enterprising individual realized, against all logic, that people would actually pay good money to have someone hammer a sharp object through their body and then fill it with something. So he could not only get a hammering fee, but then could also sell them the trinkets to put in the hole he just made. And that’s pretty much where we are today.

I’m just saying, it seems like one of those things that if you stop to really think about it, you find yourself asking, “Yeah, what’d I do that for?”