Editors Note: This story was written before COVID-19 had an impact on Iowa City. The piercing shops mentioned are temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Are you ready?” he asked me, ...

Cultures around the world still honor ancient traditional practices of body modification, or the intentional and often irreversible alteration of the skin. For many practitioners, body modifications ...

The Easters don't refer to the practice of ear stretching as body modification, as many in the field do. They believe "body modification" is too vague, a term that could be applied to weightlifting or ...

Caitlin Cartwright says branding "is absolutely safe as long as it is with an experienced, professional artist." Amber Luke has a split tongue, lip tattoo, gauged ears, tattoos on nearly every part of ...

Ear stretching (also called ear gauging) is when you gradually stretch out pierced holes in your earlobes. Given enough time, the size of these holes could be anywhere from the diameter of a pencil to ...