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Body Piercing in “Modern Primitivism” and in Thailand’s

Vegetarian Festival: A Comparative Study

Erik Cohen

Professor Emeritus of Sociology, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

Western “modern primitivists” and spirit mediums at the Vegetarian Festival in southern Thailand
are the leading practitioners of body piercing in the contemporary world. This comparative study
finds that they share a similar marginal social background and aspirations for individual distinction
though body piercing, but differ radically in the cultural context, specific practices, and kinds of
objects used for piercing. “Modern primitivists” are pierced by relatively small piercing objects,
which combine with tattoos as part of their everyday attire. Entranced spirit mediums, believed to be
possessed by Chinese deities, tend to be pierced by spectacular piercing objects, but only during the
Chinese shrines’ street processions in course of the annual Vegetarian Festival. In contrast to the
“modern primitivists,” who are shunned by mainstream society, the spirit mediums are worshipped
as deities by devotees, and constitute a major, but ambiguous attraction for foreign tourists: while
piercings are “real,” and hence “authentic,” the sight of gruesome self-mutilation by some pierced
mediums may offend the tourists’ sensibilities. The article concludes with the observation that some
“authentic” sights might be too hard for some tourists to bear and will hence repel rather than attract
them. “Bearability” is thus a factor mitigating the attractiveness of such sights.

Key words: Body modification; Body mutilation; Modern primitives; Spirit mediums;
Vegetarian Festival; Southern Thailand

(VI 16.3.11 (8917”)

Denn das Schöne ist nichts
als des Schrecklichen Anfang, den wir noch grade ertragen,
und wir bewundern es so, weil es gelassen verschmäht,
uns zu zerstören. In jeder Engel ist schreklich

(For Beauty’s nothing

but beginning of Terror we’re still just able to bear,
and why we adore it so is because it serenely
disdains to destroy us. Each single angel is terrible).
(Rainer Maria Rilke: Duineser Elegien, First Elegy, 1911)

Address correspondence to Erik Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem
91905, Israel. Tel: +66-2-5782491; E-mail: mserik@mscc.huji.ac.il

TCC12-2-3_200.indd 1 1/29/2013 8:44:33 AM

 2 COHEN
Introduction
Body piercing has been perceived in the Western
world as a mark of savagery of “primitive” people.
The traces of that perception survive to this day in
cartoons, in which “savages” are often depicted
with bones, or similar objects, stuck through their
noses or ears. Body piercing was one of the first
traits of their appearance, besides nakedness, which
Western colonial administrators and missionaries
demanded them to abandon in the process of “civi-
lization.” However, even as the last remnants of
“primitive” people displayed their nose-piercings
in the Mt. Hagen and Goroka tribal festivals on the
New Guinean highlands (Lingis, 2009), body pierc-
ing underwent a popular revival in two parts of the
world: On the one hand, in the urban youth subcul-
tures of the contemporary West, and especially
among the non-mainstream (Klesse, 1999), self-
mutilating Neo-Primitive (Atkinson & Young,
2001) or “modern primitivist” (Klesse 1999, Turner
1999) movements, and on the other hand, in some
Asian religious festivals, especially in the Hindu
Thaipusam in southern India, Singapore (Kong,
2008), and Malaysia (Collins, 1986, 1997; Ward,
1984,) and in the Chinese Vegetarian Festival in
southern Thailand (Cohen, 2001; DeBernardi,
2009). In the latter, the piercing practices of the
spirit mediums reached a degree of diversity and
spectacularity, incomparably higher than in any his-
toric “primitive” society, or in the non-mainstream
piercing subcultures in the contemporary West.
While the Vegetarian Festival and its rituals
have been extensively studied by Cohen (2001,
2008) and by other researchers (DeBernardi,
2009, pp. 182–215; Hamilton, 2004, Maud, 2005),
the practices of self-afflicted mutilation, and spe-
cifically body piercing by entranced spirit medi-
ums in the course of festival events, have never
been investigated from the perspective of contem-
porary approaches to body modification. In this
article I shall focus on these practices, and com-
pare their touristic attractiveness to that of modern
Western “primitivism.”
Body Mutilation
Body modification, the temporary or permanent
alteration of bodily appearance, involving various
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 2
cosmetic procedures, as well as different forms of
mutilation, such as skin incision, tattooing, cutting,
piercing, and branding, has in recent years attracted
the critical attention of theorists of postmodernity
(e.g., Featherstone, 2000; Pitts, 2003; Schildkrout,
2004; Turner, 1999). However, their studies have
been exclusively concerned with the emergence
and growing popularity of such practices in con-
temporary Western societies.
Critics of the emergence of “body arts” (Jeffreys,
2000) and of “body marks” (Turner, 1999) in the
West tend to lump together various forms of body
mutilation (e.g., Jeffreys, 2000, Turner, 1999,
Wohlrab, Stahl, & Kappeler 2007) in their studies,
and to pay little attention to the peculiarities of each
practice. Piercing, as one of the most severe forms
of body mutilation, has received little specific
attention in the body modification literature.
Of all forms of body modification, only cosmetic
procedures offered by foreigner-oriented hospitals
in less developed countries to “medical tourists”
from developed countries have received some
attention in tourism studies (e.g., Cohen, 2010;
Connell, 2006; Henderson, 2009). To the best of
my knowledge, the various forms of body muti­
lation have never been discussed as a (potential)
tourist attraction in the literature, though some,
especially tattooing and body piercing, may well
attract tourists, as clients as well as observers.
Tattooing seems to be the most socially accept-
able, most widely practiced, and most formally
institutionalized form of body mutilation in the
contemporary world (DeMello, 2000). It has
achieved a wide recognition as a form of “body
art.” Numerous websites and several periodic pub-
lications are devoted to tattooing, and tattoo studios
in many countries offer a huge choice of tattoo
designs. A flourishing international tattooing sub-
culture has emerged, staging hundreds of annual
tattoo conventions and festivals. But in the absence
of studies, it is not clear whether “tattoo tourism,”
as a “special interest” segment of the industry, has
emerged in the contemporary world.
Tattooing, though painful, is a slow and elabo-
rate process, lacking dramatic tension. In contrast,
body piercing, is a quick and incisive, often spec-
tacular, act. The severity of its more extreme forms
might both titillate and repulse potential observers,
holding a fascination akin to that of some forms of
1/29/2013 8:44:34 AM
 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BODY PIERCING
“dark tourism” (Bowman & Pezzullo, 2010). In this
article I examine the potential and the limitations of
body piercing as a tourist attraction.
Body Piercing in the Contemporary West
I depart from a statement by Elizabeth Grosz
(1994): “The body is . . . a point from which to
rethink the opposition between the inside and the
outside, the public and the private, the self and the
other, and all the other binary pairs associated with
mind/body opposition” (p. 21). Body piercing is an
intrusion into the body that crosses the inside/out-
side boundary, as do some other forms of self-muti-
lation (Favazza, 1998). Like those, body piercing
involves a swift, often painful penetration of the
body. But it is distinguished by some peculiar traits:
it is a perforation, performed to insert some (remov-
able) extraneous object into the body. This blurs
somewhat the outside/inside distinction, because
that object is (at least partly) inside the body, but,
unlike tattooing, scarification, and some other
forms of permanent body mutilation, does not
become part of it. Body piercing thus possesses a
degree of flexibility, absent in most other forms of
body mutilation. Even if perforated holes in the
body are permanent, the piercing objects can be
easily removed (Wohlrab et al., 2007, p. 92) and
replaced by others; in contrast, tattoos are intended
to be permanent, and can be removed only with dif-
ficulty and pain (and considerable expense) (Wax,
2011). Piercing can therefore more easily keep pace
with changes in custom or fashion than tattooing.
Moderate forms of body piercing, such as the
piercing of the earlobe, have been practiced in the
Western world since times immemorial. But, like
other forms of body mutilation, body piercings
have “increased tremendously in popularity” from
the late 1990s onward, “raising not only in numbers
but also involving a broader range of social classes”
(Wohlrab et al 2007, p. 87). Novel practices, such
as the piercing of the navel, tongue, nose, lip, nip-
ple, and of the genitals, were introduced.
The growing popularity of body piercing began
to attract the attention of researchers (Waugh,
2007; Wohlrab et al., 2007). However, most studies
of contemporary piercing have been conducted by
medical professionals, and are primarily concerned
with the incidence of various piercing modes in the
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 3
3
general population and with their medical threats
and consequences (Bone, Ncube, Nichols, & Noah
2008, Laumann & Derick, 2006). Medical surveys
have shown that piercing is fairly common: about
10% of the present population of England aged 16
and over (Bone et al., 2008) and 14% of the
American population (Laumann & Derick, 2006)
have had a body piercing (other than of the earlobe)
in the course of their life. The studies found that the
phenomenon is most common among young peo-
ple, and is more prevalent among women than
among men (Bone et al., 2008).
My concern here is with the “non-mainstream”
Western piercer subculture (Klesse, 1999), espe-
cially with the “modern primitivists,” rather than
with piercing in the general population The distinc-
tive social characteristics of body mutilation in
“modern primitivism” have been succinctly stated
in Turner’s (1999) discussion of “body marks”:
“body marks in pre-literate societies were perma-
nent, collective and largely obligatory” (p. 39).
They were “significant in demarcating stages in
sexual maturity” (p. 40), and as such served as sta-
tus symbols. In contrast, Turner argues, in contem-
porary Western society, “Body marks no longer
need to indicate or to define gender in the life-cycle
and so they become optional, playful and ironic;”
they are no longer “functional” (p. 41). Body marks
in modern primitivism are “narcissistic, playful
signs to the self” (p. 42). However, they are not a
free invention; rather, they are imitations of body
markings of other, earlier cultures (p. 40). Tattoos
(and, by implication, other body marks, such as
piercings) in contemporary primitivism are thus
“parasitic upon the Other and the primitive” (p. 41).
Students of body piercing and of other forms of
body mutilation seem to agree that their growing
popularity is rooted in the late modern crisis of
­personal identity, and is motivated by “wishes to
create and maintain self-identity, being special and
distinct from others” (Wohlrab et al., 2007, p. 88).
The more extreme, non-mainstream mutilation
practices can be seen as countercultural strategies,
providing people occupying a “despised social sta-
tus” (Jeffreys, 2000, p. 410), or belonging to
socially disadvantaged groups with “unequal access
to power and influence” (p. 414) in mainstream
society, with an alternative way of self-expression
and identity formation.
1/29/2013 8:44:34 AM
 4 COHEN
However, the sociologically oriented studies of
body mutilation, though they deal predominantly
with the social significance of their more extreme
manifestations, show relatively little interest in a
detailed analysis of various practices, and few pay
attention to the specifics of the piercing subculture.
It is therefore only possible to sketch out its princi-
pal characteristics.
In the contemporary West, non-mainstream tat-
tooing and piercings often complement each other.
However, as Wohlrab et al. (2007) pointed out,
the “relevance and peculiarities of motivations
may differ between tattoos and piercings. . . . Perm-
anence promotes a long-lasting decision process
concerning tattoos. . . . In contrast, piercings can be
easily removed and do not involve as extensive
costs as most tattoos” (p. 92); consequently, the
authors speculate, “Tattoos obviously contain more
personal meaning for the bearer, whereas piercings
seem to be rather fashionable adornments” (p. 92).
Piercings, according to these authors, are often
used as fashion accessories, whereas an increasing
number of tattooed individuals refer to their tattoos
as a piece of art (Wohlrab et al., 2007, p. 88).
In the contemporary West, the piercers are faced
with a huge variety of mostly industrially produced
piercing jewelry. Since the embellishment of per-
sonal appearance is reportedly the primary motiva-
tion for piercing (Wohlrab et al., 2007, p. 88), the
choice of piercing objects is left to the taste and
preferences of the individual piercer. Most com-
monly chosen piercing objects are rather discreet,
such as bejeweled pins, needles, or rings. They are
mostly inserted in the head—particularly in the
nose, lips, tongue, eyebrows, ears, or in the navel,
and more rarely in the nipples or genitals. The
wearing of such objects is not restricted to any spe-
cial occasions; they are in daily use and constitute
part of the person’s ordinary appearance.
Mainstream Western social attitudes to moderate
new forms of piercing tend to be ambivalent; but
the more drastic subcultural forms, practiced by
piercing enthusiasts, are offensive to mainstream
society; they therefore became an effective means
to express rebelliousness (Atkinson & Young,
2001; Jeffreys, 2000, p. 417; Turner, 1999).
A leading consideration in the choice of more
extreme styles of body mutilation in the contempo-
rary West is a desire to test or demonstrate the
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 4
ability to endure pain, or even to experience the
pain inherent in the procedure (Wohlrab et al.,
2007, p. 90). In particular, “The pain associated
with the procedures of body piercing is greatly val-
ued in body modification society” (Wohlrab et al.,
2007, p. 91).
In Western countries, body mutilation became an
industry (Jeffreys, 2000, pp. 415–418), with tattoo-
ing and body piercing its most popular branches.
Most piercings are at present performed in studios
by professional piercing practitioners (Bone et al.,
2008; Jeffreys, 2000, p. 417; Laumann & Derick,
2006). Some studios advertise their work on the
Internet, illustrating it “with an extraordinary array
of piercings into all parts of the body” (Jeffreys,
2000, p. 418). However, the piercing profession
is not (yet) fully institutionalized, and is not com-
prehensively regulated (Jeffreys 2000, p. 419;
Laumann & Derick 2006); there exist no profes-
sional piercer organizations and no code of ethics
for piercing practitioners. The practitioners acquire
their technical skills informally. However, infor-
mation is available in the media: from the 1970s
onward several periodicals dedicated to piercing
have seen light (Ferguson, 1999), and more recently
a growing number of websites devoted to body
piercing emerged on the Internet.
Most piercing practitioners serve a local clientele.
A few, however, have acquired a wider reputation,
and became leaders in creating new piercing styles
and in spelling out the basic ideology and the ethical
precepts of the profession (Jeffreys, 2000, p. 419).
While female piercers predominate in the gen-
eral population, the more extreme, non-mainstream
forms of piercing seem to be practiced primarily by
males. They constitute a loose subculture of people
interested in piercing, subdivided into streams, fol-
lowing various spiritual or ideological inclinations,
among which “modern primitivism” seems to be
the leading one. Members of the subculture are usu-
ally pierced by a large variety of piercing objects,
mostly body puncture jewelry, and pins, rings, and
earrings of various sizes; some of these, such as
“American Indian”-style nose rings, are quite con-
spicuous, but most are small and conventional. The
piercer’s “primitive” appearance seems to be
achieved primarily by a combination of tattooing
with a multiplicity of relatively undistinguished
piercing objects.
1/29/2013 8:44:34 AM
 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BODY PIERCING
The piercing subculture is a diffuse phenomenon,
lacking a geographical focus or a common lifestyle.
Members are brought together in piercing conven-
tions, but there are no piercing festivals. Unlike the
hippies of the 1960s, the piercing subculture did not
attract a wide public attention and did not become a
popular tourist attraction, despite the marked exhi-
bitionism of some of its practitioners.
The main concern of critical studies of body
mutilation was to relate its manifestations to late
modern social trends in the West; however, the
researchers have omitted to ask whether such social
trends can also be found in modernizing non-West-
ern societies, engendering similar phenomena,
even if the modes of their expression, and hence
their social acceptability, may be very different
from those in the West—as they are in Thailand’s
Vegetarian Festival.
Turner’s (1999) dichotomic distinction between
“preliterate” and contemporary Western practices
of “body marks,” while useful for his particular
purpose, is incomplete, since it disregards other
possible permutations of such practices, which are
neither obligatory, nor borrowed or “parasitic” on
other cultures, but have thrived under contempo-
rary circumstances on the basis of older traditions.
The Vegetarian Festival in southern Thailand is
perhaps the most prominent example in the contem-
porary non-Western world of a recent proliferation
of various forms of body piercing, and of similar
practices of self-mutilation, such as body cutting.
The Vegetarian Festival in Thailand
Background
The Vegetarian Festival (ngan kin che) is a 9-day
Taoist celebration, widely practiced in Chinese
shrines in southern Thailand between the first and
ninth day of the ninth month of the Chinese lunar
calendar (usually late September or early October).
Though introduced in the region by Chinese immi-
grants in the 19th century, its celebration has gradu-
ally spread into the southern Thai Buddhist
population. It principal venue is Phuket island,
which also happens to be the South’s major interna-
tional tourist destination (Cohen, 2001). The festi-
val’s popularity increased significantly in the last
few decades; it is presently celebrated in more than
a hundred Chinese shrines throughout the region.
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 5
5
The major festival events on Phuket and in Trang
town and, more recently, Krabi town (Cohen,
2012), attract growing numbers of participants,
devotees, and tourists from other parts of Thailand,
Chinese devotees from neighboring countries, and
Western tourists.
The Vegetarian Festival is basically a festival of
personal physical and spiritual purification and
communal renewal. Its distinctive marks are white
dress and abstention from meat (and some kinds of
vegetables) during the festival period. The gener-
ally mild ambience of the festival contrasts sharply
with the extreme forms of self-mutilation and the
spectacular feats performed by entranced spirit
mediums, particularly in shrines following the
Hokkien (i.e., immigrants from the Fujian province
in China) customs of the festival.
Spirit mediums play a prominent role in the
shrines’ ritual events, especially in the shrines’
street processions. The number of participating
mediums has grown substantially over the years. In
the processions of the major shrines in Trang town
and on Phuket island participate several hundred
mediums. In the biggest shrine in Phuket town,
Chui Tui, their number had reached about 800 at
the end of the 20th century (Cohen, 2001, p. 119,
Table 6.1), and has probably increased since. In the
recently introduced conjoint procession of more
than 50 Chinese shrines in Krabi town, a mainland
province neighboring Phuket, the number of par-
ticipating mediums may in 2010 well have
approached 1,500, as announced on the festival
poster (Cohen, 2012).
Mediums are predominantly male, but the num-
ber of female mediums increased constantly over
the years. Many of the mediums, both male and
female, are pierced by a variety of objects in those
processions, while others cut their tongues or backs
with axes, swords, and other sharp implements. I
shall here focus on the mediums’ body piercing
practices at the shrines’ street processions, which I
have observed almost annually between 1994 and
2011, in the festival’s principal venues, Phuket
island (Cohen, 2001, pp. 88–94) and Trang and
Krabi towns.
The Spirit Mediums
According to the master narrative regard-
ing Chinese spirit mediumship, people with an
1/29/2013 8:44:34 AM
 6 COHEN
untoward astrological configuration are ill-fated;
they will be unhealthy and die young. However,
they might strike a deal with one of the lower dei-
ties (or spirits) of the Taoist pantheon, to let the
deity borrow their body for short periods of time,
and in return, the deity will prolong their life; they
become the deity’s medium. As mediums enter into
trance, their spirit (vinyan) is believed to leave their
body, as the deity possesses it; they become the car-
riers of the deity or an “entranced horse” (ma song).
This might occur spontaneously, but the medium
might also ask the deity to enter his or her body, as
is customary in the course of various events during
the Vegetarian Festival.
The Chinese term for spirit mediums is tang ki
(young man), reflecting the fact that in the past
most mediums were supposed to be young and
male. In Phuket a young man would customarily
serve as a medium for 3 consecutive years; the
custom thus resembled a male rite-de-passage.
­ turn offer a singular opportunity to the lower class
However, it seems that this custom is not much
heeded any more. Moreover, female mediums
started to participate in the festival some decades
ago, and their numbers have markedly increased in
the last few years. In the conjoint procession of
local temples in Krabi town, the number of female
mediums by 2010 approached that of male ones.
An important factor accounting for that increase is
the growing popularity in Thailand of the cult of
the Mahayanist goddess Kuan Yin (Kwan Im in
Thai); many female mediums are devotees of the
goddess and possessed by her, or by one of her
assistants, during major festival events (Hamil-
ton, 1999).
Male mediums are more frequently pierced than
female ones, and their piercing objects are more
intrusive, heavy, and complex. Until recently, only
few female mediums have been pierced. The many
mediums of Kwan Im, a high goddess, and those of
her assistants, do not pierce. Nevertheless, from
year to year ever more female mediums undergo
piercing; their piercing objects are becoming more
elaborate, a trend that is probably related to the
quest for greater similarity and equality among
genders, which also finds expression in Thailand in
other areas, such as in the growing popularity of
female boxing.
Most mediums who pierce their body are youths,
belonging to the lower classes of Sino-Thai, and
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 6
increasingly southern Thai, society. Their low social
origins are reflected in the low place they entertain
in the hierarchy of the shrines’ spirit mediums.
That hierarchy is determined by the position of
the deities, possessing the mediums, in the Taoist
pantheon. The highest Taoist gods are believed
never to possess humans. The higher deities who
do, usually possess veteran older mediums of
Chinese origin, who are ordinarily not pierced, or at
most wear a single, short needle through their
cheek. The mediums of lower class origins are
mostly possessed by lower deities and spirits, espe-
cially those of soldiers of the past; these are believed
to demand substantial piecing objects, to demon-
strate their prowess. The lower the status of the
deity (or spirit), the bigger and more intricate its
medium’s piercing objects tend to be; hence, the
lower class mediums will usually be the most heav-
ily pierced ones. Such intricate piercing objects in
youths to display their power of endurance, and to
play a conspicuous role in the festival proceedings,
thereby gaining a momentary personal distinction,
which evades them in everyday life.
Many of the pierced mediums are also exten-
sively tattooed, just as are Western piercers. How­
ever, in the medium’s case, there is only an indirect
connection between the tattooing and the piercing.
The tattoos are believed to provide their bearers, as
individuals, with magic protection in everyday life.
The piercing objects are an expression of the pos-
sessing deity’s power, and are not intended to pro-
tect the body of the possessed individual. Tattooing
is particularly desired by people engaging in dan-
gerous, often illicit or criminal, pursuits (Cohen,
2009). Many of the heavily tattooed young medi-
ums are engaged in such questionable activities in
daily life and take to mediumship to atone for their
sins, or to accumulate merit, counterweighing their
less meritorious activities.
The Piercing Objects
The shrines’ street processions are the only
event at which the mediums’ bodies are pierced,
and various objects inserted through the perfora-
tions. The size and variety of the mediums’ pierc-
ing objects proliferated enormously in the last two
or three decades.
1/29/2013 8:44:34 AM
 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BODY PIERCING
When asked about the choice of their piercing
objects, mediums generally offer the standard
answer that the choice was not their own, but was
made by the possessing deity. While that seems to
offer a “theological” explanation for the choice,
according to another version, particularly common
in Phuket, the mediums are supposed to submit to
the wishes of their sponsors or companions (pi
liang), regarding the choice of piercing objects.
The pi liang, who accompany, assist, and comfort
the mediums during the piercing process and in the
course of the procession, are said to decide on the
piercing objects, prepare them, and offer them to
the medium; even if the medium is not particularly
happy with their choice of often heavy or cumber-
some objects, which are difficult to wear during the
long procession, he/she is supposed to defer to their
wishes. The competition between the pi liang of
different mediums is believed to be a significant
factor in the proliferation of ever more spectacular
piecing objects at the festival (Cohen, 2001, p. 133).
However, recently such passivity on part of the
mediums became increasingly less common. Many
mediums actively seek to chose and prepare their
own piercing objects, reflecting a growing desire
on their part for independence and for individ-
ual distinction.
Unlike in the Western piercing subculture, pierc-
ing objects at the festival are not considered to be
“body decorations,” and are not meant to enhance
the medium’s appearance. Aesthetic considerations
are absent in the choice of objects and in the manner
of their insertion. The piercing often leaves scars in
the mediums’ faces, mostly in the region of the
mouth, which impairs their physical attractiveness,
especially that of female piercers, in everyday life.
The piercing objects at the festival are signifi-
cantly bigger, more complex, and more diverse
than any ordinarily used by contemporary Western
piercers; but they are worn for only a few hours,
once a year, and are not part of the bearer’s regular
attire; strictly speaking, it is not the bearer, but the
deity possessing his or her body, who is believed to
wear them. However, the piercing objects bear no
relation to the deity’s iconic representation, in the
sense in which the paraphernalia of Catholic saints
on paintings or sculptures serve as metonyms of
events in their life, or of their acts, miracles, or
martyrdom. But the piercing objects do express the
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 7
7
deity’s strength and power of endurance, as when
the medium is pierced by several heavy objects,
such as two metal rods (Cohen, 2001, Ill. 6.48), or
by a thorny plant, which is difficult and painful to
insert in the perforation on his cheek. Except for a
few exceptions, particular deities are not associated
with specific piercing objects; mediums of the
same deity may thus be pierced by different objects.
There is some arbitrariness in the choice of such
objects, many of which seem to be devoid of any
intended symbolic referent, but are chosen solely
for their distinctiveness, uniqueness, or conspicu-
ousness. This at least partly reflects a wider ten-
dency in contemporary popular Thai culture to
dissociate a sign from its referent; for example,
many Thai girls wear a cross as a decoration, but
are not Christians, and do not associate the wearing
of the cross with Christianity.
As the festival’s magnitude grew and its reputa-
tion spread during the last two or three decades, the
piercing objects underwent a process of increasing
diversification. While the historical process of the
emergence of the wide variety of piercing objects
currently displayed in the street processions cannot
be precisely reconstructed, a sequence of several
analytically discernible steps, by which the pierc-
ing objects were gradually transformed from their
simple original uniformity to their complex con-
temporary diversity, can be identified.
The sequence starts with the only piercing
objects used in the street processions in Phuket in
the middle of the 20th century: short needles, inserted
primarily through the male medium’s mouth and
cheek, and sometimes through his tongue, ear
lobes, brows, chest, or arms (Cohen, 2001, p. 137,
Ill. 3.3–3.8). Some spirit mediums, particularly
those of higher deities, continue this tradition even
at present (Fig. 1).
The first step of that sequence consists of an
increase in the length and thickness of the needles:
they evolve into skewers. In the Phuket festival,
the length of the skewers grew up to several
meters in the late 1990s, so that the authorities
found it necessary to restrict them to 2 meters
(Cohen, 2001, p. 134). But this restriction was not
enforced, and very long skewers are still in use in
the street processions.
Some mediums are pierced though their cheek
with a single middle-sized skewer, with only an
1/29/2013 8:44:34 AM
 8 COHEN
Figure 1.  Female spirit medium of higher deity, pierced by
a single needle, Krabi, Conjoint Shrines street procession,
2010.
apple or orange stuck on its sharp end, to protect
the public (Cohen, 2001, Ill. 6.31). At the Vegetarian
Festival in Penang, spirit mediums are pierced by
similar single skewers, which DeBernardi (2009,
Ill. p. 184) calls “spears.” However, in southern
Thailand, mediums often pierce themselves with
two or more such skewers. Particularly popular is a
set of five relatively short skewers (or thick nee-
dles), to which the heads of the generals of the
armies of the five cardinal directions (North, South,
East, West, and Center) are attached; some medi-
ums even pierce themselves with two such sets
(Cohen, 2001, Ill. 6.40).
In the second step of the process, the skewers
become the basis onto which a wide variety of other
objects can be stuck, attached, or hung, ranging
from pineapples, flags, or banners to a large variety
of more substantial articles, such as a model ship, a
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 8
pair of flowerpots, a pair of images of Chinese
dragons, or even a pair of small bicycles (Fig. 2).
In the third step, various kinds of other sharp-
pointed objects are substituted for the needles or
skewers; various articles, such as knives, swords,
metal rods, scissors, or garden shears are directly
inserted into a perforation through the medium’s
cheek (Cohen, 2001, Ill. 6.42). In some instances
several such objects are inserted into the same per-
foration: for example, three small swords (Cohen,
2001, Ill. 6.47), or two swords and, in the opposite
direction, one of a scissor’s shears (Fig. 3).
In the fourth step, various articles with insertible,
though not sharply pointed, components are directly
pushed through the medium’s cheek. Prominent
among these are various kinds of plants: flowers,
branches of trees or bushes, palm fronds, stems of a
banana bunch, or stalks of thorny plants. But vari-
ous craft or industrial articles are also used as pierc-
ing objects, their suitable components inserted into
a big perforation on the medium’s cheek: the han-
dle of an axe, the pole of a beach umbrella, the bar-
rel of a gun, the plastic tube of diving equipment, a
chain, or even a big TV dish antenna (Fig. 4).
In the fifth step, some articles that have no
straightforwardly insertible parts, are used as pierc-
ing objects: electric fans, hand-saws, trophy cups,
even bicycles are dismantled, a suitable component
passed through the perforation on the cheek, and
then reassembled, to be worn by the medium in the
procession (Fig. 5).
A final step in the sequence is reached when
mediums or their pi liang contrive their own pierc-
ing objects; these are mostly products of fantasy,
such as contraptions made of pieces of metal or
metal pipes, rather than articles with any recogniz-
able external referent, which are then in one way or
another inserted in the medium’s cheek (Fig. 6).
This sequence indicates that, despite the substan-
tive diversification of the piercing objects, most
still share a basic common trait: they are all basi-
cally “needles,” even if they are many steps remote
from the initial objects. There is thus considerable
“orthogenetic” continuity in the process of trans-
formation of the piercing objects.
But the festival also features another innovative
practice, which is not rooted in local tradition, nor
is, to the best of my knowledge, a comparable cus-
tom practiced elsewhere: conjoint piercing, in
1/29/2013 8:44:34 AM
 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BODY PIERCING 9

Figure 2.  Spirit medium pierced by long skewer, with a pair of small bicycles at its ends,
Phuket Jui Tui shrine street procession, 2004.

which two or more (male) mediums are pierced by
the same object. There are two basics variants: the
mediums are either interlaced by such objects as a
long skewer, a rope, or a chain, which are inserted
sequentially through their cheeks (Cohen, 2001,
frontispiece and Ill. 6.78), or pierced by the oppo-
site ends of an object, such as a sign-board (Fig. 7),
or, in a unique instance, a motorcycle (Fig. 8). This
practice is obviously based on cooperation between
the mediums of different deities, or between their
respective pi liang, and demands very careful syn-
chronization of the mediums’ progress by their
assistants during the procession. Joint piercing adds
considerably to the festival’s distinctiveness and
spectacularity. But it also poses a health threat, and
has therefore been officially banned in Phuket
some years ago; however, the ban has not fully
stopped the practice.

Figure 3.  Spirit medium pierced by two swords and a big scissor, Puket, Kathu shrine
street procession, 2004.

TCC12-2-3_200.indd 9 1/29/2013 8:44:35 AM

 10
Figure 4.  Spirit medium pierced by a big dish antenna, Kra-
bi, Conjoint shrines street procession, 2009.
Figure 5.  Spirit medium piece by an electric fan, Krabi, Conjoint shrines street procession, 2009.
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 10
COHEN
The great diversity and ingenuousness of the
piercing objects considerably enhances the attrac-
tiveness of the festival. But the considerable free-
dom in the choice of piercing objects also offers an
opening for its commercial exploitation: some busi-
nesses might sponsor a medium in order to adver-
tise their products or services on the medium’s
piercing objects. The medium pierced by a huge
dish antenna of the “True Vision” company in
Krabi (Fig. 4), and the two conjointly pierced medi-
ums carrying the “Seacanoe” company’s sign-board
in Phuket (Fig. 7), instantiate such a contingency.
The Piercing Process
Many mediums, especially those merely insert-
ing some needles or short skewers into their faces,
tongues, or ears, do the piercing by themselves.
Longer skewers and more complex objects, how-
ever, demand some expert piercing competence. In
the big Phuket temples, there are some experienced
individuals who customarily pierce the mediums
and insert the various piercing objects into the per-
forations. The piercing of male mediums takes
place in the shrines’ yards in the early morning of
1/29/2013 8:44:35 AM
 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BODY PIERCING 11

Figure 6.  Spirit medium pierced by a fanciful contraption, Phuket, Jui Tui shrine street procession,
2004.

Figure 7.  Two spirit mediums pierced by the signboard of a canoe excursion company, Phuket, Jui Tui
shrine street procession, 2008.

TCC12-2-3_200.indd 11 1/29/2013 8:44:36 AM

 12
Figure 8.  Two mediums pierced by a motorcycle, Trang, Kiu Ong shrine street procession, 2009.
the day of their street processions. The process
attracts a large number of observers, including
Western tourists, among them some heavily tat-
tooed foreign piercers.
The spirit mediums are supposed to be ritually
pure, namely to have abstained from meat, sex, and
alcohol for some days before the festival period, or
at least from the eve of its onset. Ritual impurity is
believed to manifest itself in excessive bleeding
during the piercing process (Cohen, 2001, p. 129),
and to impair a medium’s ability to complete the
course of the street procession. Preceding the pierc-
ing, a male medium pays obeisance to the images
of the male deities at the shrine’s altars, and then
enters into a self-induced trance, assisted by a
ceaseless, repetitive rhythmic drumming (Cohen,
2001, pp. 125–128). Fully entranced, he is led by
his pi liang, who carry his carefully wrapped piec-
ing objects, to one of the specialist piercers.
Though it is a fairly standard, “technical” proce-
dure, the piercing is surrounded by elaborate prac-
tices of ritual purification. The medium is pierced
under the cover of predominantly black mediums’
flags, which are intended to provide magic protec-
tion from evil forces to the piercing site. As numer-
ous prying tourists seek to observe and photograph
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 12
COHEN
the piercing, a curious jostling for position occurs
between the protecting mediums and the photo-
graphing tourists. Despite the commotion around
them, however, the specialist piercers go about
their business casually, ostentatiously ignoring
the onlookers.
The entranced medium is seated on a chair. The
piercer uses a “master skewer,” a long, chrome-
covered conic metal rod with a sharp point, to per-
forate the medium’s cheek (Cohen, 2001, Ill. 6.22).
Bleeding is rare, partly due to the physiological fact
that people in trance bleed less that fully awake
ones, but also because experienced piercers tear the
flesh, rather than cut it. The piercer then extracts
the “master skewer” and inserts the piercing object
through the hole in the cheek; if the perforation is
not sufficiently big, the “master skewer” is used
again to enlarge it.
According to the master narrative, the entranced
medium, being an embodied deity, is not supposed
to feel any pain in the piercing process. In fact, his
self-mutilation is intended to scare away the evil
forces, by demonstrating the deity’s power of
endurance. My observations, however, indicate
that mediums often do suffer pain, particularly
when large or thorny piercing objects are inserted
1/29/2013 8:44:36 AM
 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BODY PIERCING
into their cheeks. But the piercers go about their
business regardless of the possible suffering of
the medium.
In some rare instances the pain suffered by the
medium might become so overwhelming, that he
faints. I have in fact seen a medium fainting during
the process of insertion of six swords into his
cheeks. However, once he came to, and had a brief
rest, he was submitted to the completion of the
piercing process without further ado (Cohen, 2001,
p. 129, and Ill. 6.23).
In contrast to the great care taken to assure ritual
purity, the sanitary precautions during the piercing
process are rather lax, despite the implicit risks of
contagion. The piercers wear surgical gloves, but
use the same “master skewer” repeatedly, cleaning
it between sessions with antiseptic fluid or just with
some coconut oil. No disinfecting ointment is
applied to the piercing objects prior to insertion, or
Figure 9. Female spirit medium pierced by a needle, to
which a heavy metal object is attached, Krabi, Joint shrines
street procession, 2009.
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 13
13
to the medium’s wounds. After blood and spittle is
wiped from his face, the medium is led to the
assembling area, where he waits for his turn to join
the procession.
Female mediums enter trance and are pierced by
female piercers within the shrines’ precincts, in
front of the altar of female divinities. Until recently
only a few female mediums would be pierced, in
most cases with only a long needle through their
cheek or tongue. My recent observations of the
conjoint street procession in Krabi town, however,
indicate that the number of female piercers grew
steadily and that they tend to put on increasingly
more complex piercing objects (Fig. 9), thereby
gradually erasing the difference in appearance
between male and female mediums.
The Street Processions
The street processions are the high point of the
shrines’ festival activities in which the urn of the
Nine Emperor Gods, the images of the shrines’
principal deities, and the other deities’ mediums are
paraded through the town. The processions are not
just a pure performance, but possess a complex reli-
gious and magical significance. The public wor-
ships the entranced mediums as embodied deities,
asking for their blessings; many householders put
up altars in front of their houses, and repeatedly
invite passing mediums to bless them, their house-
holds, and their businesses. However, the distinc-
tion between the possessing deity and his human
medium is not strictly inculcated in the popular
mind; many people see the pierced mediums as
­sacrificing themselves to relieve the members of
the community of their sins as they pass through
town—an almost Christian interpretation of a
Chinese custom.
The thousands of devotees and observers lining
the streets provide an opportunity for the mediums
to display their piercing objects to a huge public.
Though entranced, the mediums are fairly aware of
their surroundings, and willingly stop to offer photo
opportunities to members of the public, taking on
the bodily postures of the possessing deities. It is
their great day. But the processions also impose a
great strain upon the pierced mediums. A proces-
sion often lasts for several hours, as it passes
through the town’s main street to a body of water
1/29/2013 8:44:37 AM
 14
for a ritual, and then returns to the shrine, often
splitting into several sections, which weave their
way through side streets to bless peoples’ house
altars. In the intense heat of the monsoon season,
this is an exhausting trip for the mediums, espe-
cially those pierced by heavy or uncomfortable
objects. The trip demands considerable powers of
endurance, especially since the mediums’ entrance-
ment, deep at the outset, starts to wear off after
some time. The accompanying pi liang seek to
comfort the pierced mediums throughout the pro-
cession: they hold up their medium’s skewers, so
they would not tear the flesh around his wound,
pour tea in his mouth, wipe off spittle and blood
from his wounds, and spray water on his bare feet,
to relieve the heat exuding from the hot tarmac.
Still, some mediums find it hard to endure the tor-
ment. To drop out, however, is an adverse option: it
would not only cause the medium a considerable
loss of face, but it would also be a highly inauspi-
cious omen for the medium’s own fate. In fact,
mediums rarely collapse or drop out from exhaus-
tion during the procession, but a few do. In Phuket
town some years ago, a medium, pierced through
his cheeks by two heavy metal rods, each probably
weighing close to 10 kilograms, was forced to drop
out a short way into the procession. In Krabi town
in 2010, the organizers of the conjoint procession
had the innovative idea of having it led by a banner,
whose grips were stuck into the cheeks of two
entranced mediums, a girl and a boy (the only case
of mixed conjoint piercing that I have ever
observed). As they waited for the procession to
start, the girl fainted; the organizers quickly released
her, and unceremoniously substituted her with a
pierced male medium, extracting his piercing
object, and inserting the banner’s grip into the per-
foration in his cheek.
To reduce their suffering, many mediums are
relieved of their piercing object and exit trance
after the ritual at the far end of the procession, and
do not participate in the back trip to the shrine.
Those who remain become increasingly agitated as
they approach their shrine, and rush to have their
piercing objects extricated by their pi liang and exit
from their trance on the shrine’s altar. As they are
woken by the assistants, they casually put some
ointment on their wounds; these normally heal
quite soon, leaving marked scars in their faces.
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 14
COHEN
Infections seem to be rare, but some mediums with
big cuttings are said to have them surreptitiously
stitched up in a hospital.
The Public
It has been frequently claimed that the growth of
the Vegetarian Festival and the increasing spectac-
ularity of the mediums’ piercing objects had started
as a response to the surge in Western tourism to
Phuket island in the last decades of the 20th cen-
tury. As Hamilton (2004) remarked: “Many com-
mentators . . . discount the contemporary Vegetarian
Festival in Phuket as ‘inauthentic’ created as a spec-
tacle for the tourist trade” (p. 41), thus disregarding
its historical roots in old Chinese practices.
The supposition that the growth and spectacular-
ization of the festival was provoked by tourism is
too simplistic, as Hamilton rightly observed. The
place of tourism in the festival’s dynamics needs
therefore to be carefully assessed within a broader
social and religious context.
The first point to note is that the popularity of the
Vegetarian Festival expanded throughout southern
Thailand, even to remote and marginal localities,
which did not host tourists (Cohen, 2008). Second,
like in the case of Thaipusam in Malaysia (DeBernardi,
2009, pp. 182–215), the great majority of visitors to
the major festival events are locals, domestic visi-
tors, and ethnic Chinese from Malaysia and
Singapore; many of these are devotees, or at least
believers in the power and efficacy of the Chinese
deities in bestowing blessings and good luck on
them. The mediums display the power of the pos-
sessing deities to this public, rather than just show
off to the foreign tourists. Third, though Phuket
island and Krabi province are major vacationing
destinations for Western tourists, the number of
Westerners attending even the principal festival
events, including the street processions, is small in
relation to both their numbers in the beach resorts
and their size in the attending public. In Phuket,
Western tourists constitute only a small minority of
the audience of the major festival events, while
their numbers in the conjoint temple procession in
Krabi town, and in the festival processions in the
touristically less prominent Trang province, are
miniscule. Finally, and central to the theme of this
article, Western tourists are often not enthusiastic
1/29/2013 8:44:37 AM
 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BODY PIERCING
about the piercings. Their attitude to the festival,
and especially the pierced mediums in the street
processions, is highly ambivalent.
On the one hand, the piercing became the iconic
mark of the festival for Westerners. A mention of
the festival usually elicits a reference by word or
gesture to body piercing. But, while some West­ern­
ers are eager to see it, others are disgusted by the
sight of mutilated and disfigured human beings
(Cohen, 2001, p. 177). Most Westerners have
enough after they had observed a street procession
for a brief time, and leave. The festival’s increased
spectacularity thus had a counterproductive effect
on foreign tourists: it might have helped at first to
bolster the festival’s reputation among foreigners,
but as it reached unforeseen extremes, it began to
repel the foreign tourists, even as the local authori-
ties sought to reign in the “excesses” in the
­mediums’ piercing objects (Cohen, 2001, p. 134;
Kantavanich, 1999). Even if tourism did play a role
at an early stage in the festival’s spectacularization,
the latter soon took on a dynamics of its own, unre-
lated to whatever the opinions and attitudes of
Western tourists might be. At the present time, the
search for ever more shocking piercing objects is
probably primarily motivated by the mediums’
desire for distinction, rather than by any concern to
attract foreign tourism.
Discussion and Conclusions
Comparison
The most important finding of this comparative
study of two contemporary body piercing subcul-
tures is that despite the vast differences between
them in background, style, and presentation, they
attract members of similarly situated social groups
in their respective societies, motivated by a similar
late-modern quest for individual expression and
distinction, which they are unable to achieve by
ordinary means in mainstream society. Both attract
primarily youths of lower, marginalized social
classes, providing them with an opportunity for a
conspicuous display of spectacular individual
appearance, in quest of a personal distinction,
which they are otherwise unable to attain. But there
is an important difference between the public to
which their display is directed. The Western pierc-
ing subculture is shunned by mainstream society,
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 15
15
so the display is double edged: on the one hand, it
is oriented mainly to other members of the subcul-
ture, for their approval and appreciation; on the
other hand, it is deployed as an act of defiance of
the mainstream society. That penetration of the
Other into the milieu of ordinary life is resented by
the mainstream; as such, the Western piercing sub-
culture is not in a position to become a topic of
touristic interest.
Most piercers in the Vegetarian Festival are in a
similar social predicament; but the festival consti-
tutes a break in the flow of daily life, a temporarily
and spatially separate “province of meaning”; it
creates an opportunity for the youths to become
spirit mediums and to display their piercing objects
to a broad local and foreign public. In such circum-
stances, they cease to be marginalized youths of
often questionable preoccupations, and, possessed
by Chinese divinities, are worshipped by the pub-
lic. Rather than of aesthetic value, as in the West,
the mediums’ piercing objects bear a religious or
magical message regarding the power of the pos-
sessing deity, but are not intended to enhance the
medium’s appearance; in fact, the medium is
mostly disfigured by the inserted objects, rather
than made aesthetically attractive. But the display
of the deity’s prowess and endurance provides the
pierced medium with a public occasion for the
expression of individual distinction. The very con-
centration of a great number of mediums displaying
their piercings to a huge public encourages compe-
tition between mediums (and their respective pi
liang) and thereby fosters the contrivance of ever
more outlandish piercing objects. The lively spec-
tacle becomes a tourist attraction, but preserves its
viability because it is not monopolized by tourism.
Western tourists remain a small minority of the
attending public.
The marginal and often criminal youths are thus
offered an opportunity to gain recognition by the
wider society, which escapes, and is in fact not
even aspired to, by the “new primitivists.” The cir-
cumstances of the display of the mediums’ piercing
objects, however, put some important constraints
upon their quest for individual distinction: not only
do they have, in contrast to their Western counter-
parts, annually only a single, relatively brief occa-
sion for that display, but strictly theologically, the
distinction accrues to them only by proxy, as
1/29/2013 8:44:37 AM
 16
“horses” (ma song) of the possessing deities, who
demonstrate their supremacy over the forces of evil
by gruesomely mutilating “their” body, and not to
themselves as human beings; but the public does
not always make the distinction, and appreciates
their endurance and apparent self-sacrifice. What­
ever admiration is shown by the attending devotees
to the pierced mediums is in principle not transfer-
able to the mediums’ everyday life. The standing of
the possessing deity in the Chinese pantheon does
not normally affect the medium’s social status: they
are “gods for one day.” Only the older mediums—
who are rarely pierced—in practice enjoy a mea-
sure of respect in daily life, owing to their
association with the high deities possessing them.
Unlike their Western counterparts, the mediums do
not seek the pain experience—in fact, being in an
entranced state, they are believed not to feel any
pain, a belief that mitigates the severity of their
supposed self-sacrifice. Finally, their quest is in
one significant respect somewhat paradoxical: they
allegedly do not remember their actions and experi-
ences under trance, and hence they cannot cherish
the experience of obeisance and appreciation
shown to them during the street procession.
Body Piercing and the Tourist Experience
The festival’s master narrative ascribes the
mediums’ ability to perform various amazing feats,
such as running over burning coals, splashing their
body with hot oil, walking over a nail bed, or
climbing a blade ladder without getting hurt, to the
extraordinary powers under possession. However,
Western tourists tend to be suspicious of that
explanation, and some doubt the veracity of these
“amazing” feats and suspect that they are in some
way faked (Cohen, 2001, pp. 172–173). Elliott, in
an early study of spirit mediums’ feats in Singapore,
claimed that, though the mediums require some
skill in their performance of various feats, “there is
nothing which a competent stage magician or acro-
bat could not carry out as well, if not better”
(Elliott, 1955, p. 159). In Thailand some years ago,
an ex-professional spirit medium disputed the
mediums’ extraordinary powers, and debunked
some tricks they are allegedly using in the perfor-
mance of “amazing” feats (Cohen, 2001, pp.
169–170).
TCC12-2-3_200.indd 16
COHEN
Body piercing of the spirit mediums, however, is
in that respect exceptional. The perforation of the
medium’s cheeks and other body parts is incontest-
ably “real,” and its veracity hardly put into question
by doubters. While some adventurous Western
tourists tried to dispute the mediums’ extraordinary
powers by imitating some of their feats, like climb-
ing a bladed ladder, or walking on a nail bed, to the
best of my knowledge, no foreigner has as yet tried
body piercing at the festival.
The undeniably “reality” of piercing thus seems
to offer a rare opportunity for an “authentic”
experience to foreign tourists. But many foreign-
ers manifest an ambiguous attitude to it: while
fascinated, they are also repelled by the repeated
sights of the disfigured and apparently suffering
pierced mediums.
Such reactions indicate that there is a limit of
bearability of otherwise authentic tourist experi-
ences. Some authentic sights or events might be so
overwhelming or shocking, that they repel, rather
than attract even those tourists who are in quest of
authentic experiences; they become “unbearable.”
It can be surmised that, paradoxically, many tour-
ists would find the sight of the pierced mediums
more bearable, if they believed that the piercing
was just a staged performance, in which nobody
gets “really” hurt.
The concept of “bearability” has implications
ranging beyond the specific concerns of this arti-
cle. It introduces an important qualification to the
theoretical approach that foregrounds the quest
for authenticity as a leading motive for modern
Western tourism: sights may be authentic, but not
attractive, because they are beyond the limits of
bearability of visitors. The concept may hence be
significant in the study of dark tourism and similar
areas in which tourists are exposed to serious, prob-
lematic, and disturbing authentic situations.
Foreign Piercers
A potentially significant development is the
growing number of foreign piercers who became in
the course of the last decade attracted to the
Vegetarian Festival. Since, as Turner has pointed
out, their piercing objects are mostly borrowed
from other cultures, these piercers seem to have pri-
marily a “professional” interest in the piercing,
1/29/2013 8:44:37 AM
 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BODY PIERCING
rather than a touristic or even a New Age religious
one: to get acquainted with another piercing culture
and possibly appropriate some of its practices.
Hence, they are primarily found at the precincts of
Chinese temples in the mornings preceding a pro-
cession, observing the piercing process. However,
as far as I know, none of them asked to be pierced
(a request that would anyway be rejected for lack of
ritual purity).
Though small in numbers, the visits by Western
piercers are significant, in that they bring the two
piercing subcultures into a first, tenuous mutual
contact. Whether and to what extent these pierc-
ers will incorporate the piercing process and
objects of the Vegetarian Festival into their sub-
culture therefore seems to be a topic worthy of
further investigation.
Acknowledgment
Thanks are due to Kathleen Adams, Einat
Bar-On Cohen, and Nir Avieli for their comments
on an earlier draft of this article.
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