Ethel Granger


Ethel Granger was one of the most famous main figures in the development of contemporary piercing and body modification in Europe. As world record holder with the narrowest documented waist size, she entered the Guinness Book of Records with a waist circumference of only 13 inches.

Life

As a young woman, Ethel met astronomer William Arnold Granger, whom she married in 1928. The marriage produced a daughter, Wilhelmina Granger. Her husband required that she wear a corset so that she would have a narrow waist. She wore it day and night, eventually cinching her waist to a circumference of 33 centimeters.
Her husband's fetishism led him to start piercing Ethel himself. Thus, in the following years, she received several piercings from her husband in her nose, lips, cheeks and nipples.

Reviews

In September 2011, the Italian edition of the fashion magazine Vogue wrote Ethel Granger an issue.
In 2019, the Association of Professional Piercers and the US Body Piercing Archive created the exhibition Mr. Sebastian and the European Piercing Underground to be presented at the Las Vegas Conference in 2020. The exhibit also highlights piercing pioneers Horst Streckenbach and Ethel Granger. Lecturers include Jeremy Castle of the Alan Oversby/Mr Sebastian Archive, Manfred Kohrs of the Institute of German Tattoo History, European-body-art-focused art historian Matt Lodder of University of Essex, Paul King of the U.S. Body Piercing Archive, and Jim Ward.

Literature

Guinness World Records 2015 Volume 60 Publisher Guinness World Records 2014,.