 Piercing combined with suspension was historically important in the religious ceremonies of some Native Americans , featuring in many variants of the Sun Dance ceremony , including that practiced by the Crow Nation . During the Crow ceremony , men who wished to obtain visions were pierced in the shoulders or chest by men who had undergone the ceremony in the past and then suspended by these piercings from poles in or outside of the Sun Dance Lodge . Some contemporary Southeast Asian rituals also practice body piercing , as a form of spiritual self @-@ mortification . Generally , the subject attempts to enter an analgesic trance prior to the piercing . 
