Fakir Musafar & Blake Perlingieri. (Patreon)

When we think of the roots of the modern piercing revival in Western culture, starting in the late 1960s and continuing through to, say, 1995, (which is my general terminus point for research; thankfully Ari and Lynn have post 1995 covered) we generally think of it's intersection with gay leather culture. 

Given Gauntlet/PFIQ founder Jim Ward's connection to the leather scene- it's natural that, especially in the early days, his clientele came from the community he was part of, and soon a "pierced tit" or "bull ring" became part of the leather identity as fluidly as leather became part of the piercing aesthetic of the era. 

And while he was connected with leather and the BDSM scene, Fakir Musafar (born Roland Loomis, August 1930) often presented a stark, diametrical opposition to the archetype. The grandfather of the "tribal aesthetic"- Fakir would influence folks like Vaughn and Blake Perlingieri, who I credit as being the biggest nodal points in the emergence of a "new" piercing archetype in the late 1980s/early 1990s. 

This video features Fakir and Blake at NOMAD's (Portland, OR) anniversary party.