Ten years ago body piercing was considered a deviant behavior, something one might learn about in sociology class.

But times have changed, and society is growing more accepting. While it was a practice of different subcultures before, piercing has now found a home in the mainstream world as well.

“You’re starting to see a lot of teachers and nurses and doctors coming in and getting things pierced,” says Clint Sletten, body piercer at The Asylum. “This isn’t in the back streets anymore in some rinky-dink shop.”

Body piercing is by no means a new phenomenon. Cultures across the world have been using piercing for one reason or another for centuries. According to the Web site Piercing and the Modern Primitive, the Romans used nipple piercing to attach their cloaks. Manchester and Leeds Piercing Company Web site says during the 18th century, French aristocrats thought certain types of body piercing were a sign of high class.

For much of the last 15 years, body piercing has been more of an underground sensation. It was heavily tied with the punk movement of the ’80s. But it started peeking its head above ground during the mid-’90s, and today seeing someone with a pierced eyebrow or naval is common.

One of the most obvious signs of the growth in popularity has been the increased business local tattoo and piercing parlors have experienced. Both The Asylum, 111 Welch Ave., and Lasting Impressions, 114 Welch Ave., say piercing business has expanded drastically since they started.

“People coming in for piercing is astronomical in numbers compared to what it was seven years ago,” says Lou Smith, co-owner of Lasting Impressions. “Now we have people coming in eight or nine times a day.”

Both piercers and piercees see piercing becoming much more accepted by people like parents who frowned on such behavior before. Sletten says The Asylum now sees a lot of parents coming with their children to get pierced and even getting pierced themselves in some instances.

The ultimate test for the acceptance of body piercing lies in the hands of employers. Smith and Sletten say employers have historically been somewhat unwilling to let workers display their piercings while at work. But again, times are changing.

When asked about policies regarding facial piercings at work, both Campus Book Store and University Book Store said they have no such policy intact.

“We hire a lot of students and we figure they are students and our customers are students and if that’s the style then that’s the style,” says Lynette Seymour, general manager of University Book Store. “Some of our employees have eyebrow [piercings] and quite a few have nose [piercings]. Quite honestly we have foreign employees and in some cultures it is quite common.”

Gadzooks, North Grand Mall, sells alternative clothing and body jewelry but does not allow its employees to sport facial jewelry except for on the ears. Sletten warns many businesses won’t let employees wear the jewelry during work and it’s definitely not worth losing a job over.

Ryan Watts, senior in management information systems, has multiple piercings but has run into no trouble with his current employer, Old Navy.

Watts had his first piercings, earlobes, done when he was a freshman.

Since then, he has also pierced his septum, both nipples, belly button and penis.

Watts says it was his nipples that was the most painful experience.

“I didn’t notice at all; I think I was too busy being afraid and worried that it was going to hurt so bad that I completely 100 percent didn’t notice it,” Watts says.

The more erotic piercings are becoming more and more popular. Smith and Sletten both say that neither of their stores gets requests for one particular piercing more than another and that they have only begun to see the real evolution of body piercing.

“We do a lot of the regular – earlobe, nose – but we also do a lot of unusual, like a guy who had five piercings done in his tongue,” Smith says. “It’s becoming more body adornment, much like tattooing.”

When Sletten talks about the future of body piercing, he comments on some more elaborate work that has started showing up. One of these is an implant-type piercing where people are having rings or balls put under their skin.

“We’ve seen some of those things and we’ve done some of those different things so I think those kinds of things are going to pop up in the future,” Sletten says.

“It’s going to start going into some completely different levels,” he said.