I ran into an article positing the question: "What Will Our Descendants Think of Body Piercing"? Part of it reads:

But what will the archaeologists of the future think, when in 1,000 years or so, they start pulling up embalmed bodies and the like with pierced eyebrows, nipples and bellybuttons, from lots of different locations around the planet, and probably having no record of what it was about or why it happened at all? Just considering the amount of details that we’ve lost from an era less than 100 years ago has got to make you wonder exactly what those descendants will think of this society where tribe members are scattered across the earth with only body piercings to tie them together.

It is an interesting concept to consider. Though, of the pierced individuals I know who have passed on, their body jewelry was removed prior to burial. I am not sure if that is standard practice or not. My friend who was cremated willed his body jewelry to his good friends, and they had it sterilized and wear it in their bodies so his memory and “part of him” lives on inside them. That’s pretty cool! Moreover, in 1000 years, hopefully they’ll still have the record of my book, The Piercing Bible, which explains all about every aspect of modern body piercing. Or maybe not.... Elayne Angel