Remember when the very idea of you getting a piercing put the fear of God in your mother, grandmother, teacher and neighbour and dog? Well, to put it bluntly: piercings aren't quite what they were. Or at least, they're no longer as earth-shatteringly shocking as they were. 

And this is something that finds its lineage in the model world, rather than the celebrity world. It's the model alliance that are badass enough to puncture their flesh with metal. Call it a rebellion away from having your appearance presupposed by someone's else's aesthetric every working day of your life, or put it down to the fact that models tend to be first with all sorts of future trends we'll one day be clambering over, but it's a thing. And it looks damn good.

Thanks to a wealth of fine jewellery options for septums, traguses (tragi?) and noses, which have finally rendered those cumbersome ball-bearing, piercing shop rings null and void, a piece of metal threaded through a body part no longer screams Cyberdog or Torture Garden. No, the new breed of piercings are tasteful, cool and actually pretty feminine. All of which is probably why I didn't buy a pair of Louboutin's when I turned 30, I got my nose pierced.  

Click the gallery for a whistlestop tour through the badass model piercings of now*

*Disclaimer: we cannot be held responsible for spontaneous piercings you may later regret.