Please tweet and retweet
Tweet
The stretching of body piercings has been practiced for thousands of years presumably beginning shortly after humans started wearing jewelry. Mummified bodies with stretched earlobes have been discovered, including the oldest mummified body discovered to date: Ötzi the Iceman (3300BC). Gautama Buddha, an aristocratic and wealthy prince, had long stretched ears. He wore heavy gold earrings or precious stones as a status symbol, and the weight stretched his ear lobes dramatically. When he finally renounced his wealth and discarded his jewelry, his ear lobes were permanently stretched. As a way of remembering Buddha's act of personal self-sacrifice in walking away from his wealth, all succeeding images of Gautama Buddha show his stretched ear lobes without jewellery. Ancient Egyptian pharaoh King Tutankhamen is of one of the earliest known to have stretched ear lobes. It can clearly be seen in one of his more famous images on his sarcophagus. African, Eurasian and American indigenous peoples did and do so for cultural, religious and traditional purposes.
Modern day teens and 20 somethings are also stretching their ear piercings in vast numbers.
