Running the Gauntlet: An Intimate History of the Modern Body Piercing Movement by Jim Ward; Gauntlet Enterprises, $49.95
In the 2003 MTV documentary The Social History of Piercing, Jim Ward was called "the granddaddy of the modern piercing movement." Today he still upholds that title, and defends it brilliantly in his new book Running the Gauntlet, a defining tome that could be considered both a vivid autobiography and a comprehensive and illuminating history of the body piercing revolution.
With a revealing blend of prose and pictures, Ward chronologically details his personal history being raised in the early 1940s in western Oklahoma by strict Presbyterian parents. His sexuality developed quickly, fortified by bodybuilder ads in magazines and a handsome church reverend with wandering hands. Never abandoning his dreams of becoming a popular music composer, Ward, a "prissy teenager" in high school, cultivated a love of the harp, but eventually settled on a career in interior design in the 1960s. Ward openly shares his experiences dabbling in erotic sadomasochism, leather gear, motorcycles, and a particular fascination with piercing, which may have temporarily relieved the emotional and psychological scarring that took place when he recalls undergoing circumcision as a toddler �" without anesthetic �" and the "botched" surgery then needing to be repaired at a hospital.
The 1975 grand opening of The Gauntlet, the world's first body piercing studio, at 8720 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, became Ward's defining moment as the piercing movement's popularity took off for heights the author neither foresaw nor imagined. Together with partner Doug Malloy and a host of other creatively gifted artists, Gauntlet Enterprises became responsible for piercing techniques and the use of custom-designed jewelry such as the Fixed Bead Ring, the septum retainer, barbells, nostril screws, and various nipple-enhancing ornaments (see Janet Jackson's 2004 wardrobe malfunction), which today have become industry standards.
A magazine, Piercing Fans International Quarterly (PFIQ), flourished from 1977 to its final, 50th issue in 1997, as did Ward's business for its 20-year run with satellite locations in New York City, Seattle, and San Francisco, with some famous clientele including Madonna, Lenny Kravitz, Cher, and Farrah Fawcett. Despite the crushing surprise of an HIV+ diagnosis in 1986, Ward's love life also blossomed when he met his current partner Drew in 1988, and became enslaved by him soon after at a spirited "bonding ritual," an event that was memorialized by Mister Marcus Hernandez in this newspaper's leather column.
Ward's beautifully produced book will be a must-have item for the hardcore aficionado as the author includes explicit, provocative (not for the squeamish) photography on both male and female genital piercings, scarification, and even the extremist ritual of eyeball tattooing. And while these generous photographs (many are wonderfully vintage) definitely deliver the wow-factor, it's the author's text that really clinches the deal. Ward's writing style is relaxed yet thorough; his stories of the 1970s and the rise of the piercing and tattooing movements are compelling and obviously cathartic for him as a body manipulation pioneer and a gay man having navigated the treacherous waters of the 70s and 80s to the challenging contemporary times of today.
With piercing having already become as commonplace as tattooed body art, Jim Ward's outstanding book is sure to satisfy an audience eager to discover the movement's genesis, its intricate nuances, and the amazing individual who started it all.