As fashion and/or a symbol of status. We have evidence of piercing being a thing going back to Ancient Egypt and the popularity of it has come and gone over time.

Much of the modern day upsurge of interest in tattoos and piercings can be traced to the publication of the book Modern Primitives by V Vale and Andrea Juno by RESearch Publications in 1989. This book chronicled tattoos and piercings in the underground fetish scene of the 1980s. The book was very popular with counterculture tastemakers, rock musicians, etc. who would go on to get tattooed or pierced after reading it and from there interest in tattooing and peircing began to spread into the larger culture n general.