[–] skullfuku ago 

One guy decided to make it a fad, back in the 1970s: Fakir Musafar.

"Founder of modern primitive" -- sounds like a typical D-voter.

Fakir Musafar My 60 Years of Body Play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RtV0vDZP7MYouTube

Thanks, but I stopped watching that five seconds in.

After a career in the advertising industry,

Okay, I don't need to check the "early life and education" section anymore.

this guy got into body modification, taught a lot of people about piercing and tattooing, and had quite a large and active cult in the San Francisco Bay area in the 70s and 80s.

Was that at the time when Reagan abolished funnyfarms, by any chance?

I knew some of his disciples, they were the first people I knew who had visible piercings and tribal tattoos.

Europe had them, too. Cops did not like the public performance art with people dangling from lampposts on meat-hooks. Thanks for the instruction and discussion; never heard of the guy, but I've seen the fallout of his teachings. Now sort of mainstream.