Tattoos and Piercings have been around for thousands of years. Many different cultures used either or to make a statement about who they were or where they were from. Piercings were more prevalent in the Eastern countries until the 80's and 90's when finally they began becoming more widely performed in the West such as the USA. In the beginning it was celebrities and members of new age music bands that sported piercings other then the normal ear piercings. As the bands toured the country and younger people started seeing them piercings started to hit the mainstream and it was the tattoo shops around the country that started performing the procedures.
During the first few years of this new fad shops made a killing money wise. They would often start out charging $80 dollars for just a nose piercing. Then to add on to that tattoo shops were really the only place that you could by the out of this world jewelry nobody else could find. So add on another $20 bucks and the shop was making some very decent money. Piercings in the industry is quick easy money that can get an artist by when tattoos are slow. Piercings have been excellent source of publicity for tattoo shops because it's a procedure that takes no time at all to complete and most people do not associate that much pain with piercings as tattoos do.
What many need to realize before going to get a body piercing is that risks are present when shops and artist do not take the proper precautions regards to sterilization and education. Apprentices at Abberation Tattoo must complete 100 piercings of each type of piercing with a master artist before being allowed to pierce on clients. The shop does have a body piercing apprenticeship program that individuals can enroll in. Aberration Tattoo has actually started Illinois first Tattoo and Body Piercing school. We are hopeful that state regulators will one day require actual schooling and training in the arts so that artist can be certified by the State of Illinois
A lot of shops in the area would not support the regulation of artist because they are still getting use to the new shop regulations. But for the industry to keep moving forward into the mainstream we need to push schooling our artist in the craft. It only helps the industry grow and help customers know they will get quality pieces.
As far as some of the risks involved in body piercings I would recommend Web MD and their articles on some of the medical risks that could happen if precautions are not taken.