"With all the different types of body modifications, it’s easy to see how the origins of tattoos, piercings, and more bizarre body mods, like earlobe stretching, tooth filing, and neck elongation, can't be traced back to a single continent, country, or culture. In fact, piercings on their own cannot be traced back to a particular culture or religion considering nose piercings are associated with Hinduism, earlobe stretching (represented in mainstream culture as “gauges”) has been traced back to King Tutankhamun and ancient Egypt, and even nipple piercing dates all the way back to Ancient Rome."