Safety Pins

The wearing of safety pins was a punk fashion and became an identifiable punk symbol early. Maybe started by Richard Hell to keep his clothes together, it was most likely Rotten in pictures like the below that made it take hold as a cheap and easy way to customise clothes and/or wear as an earring and an easily identifiable badge of punk. It didn’t take much to go one step further and actually push them through flesh.

Back in the days of 1976 it was hard to believe that just wearing an earring could mean one of two things; you were either gay or a rebel. So when punks decided to pierce themselves with safety pins in unheard of places people were to say the least repulsed.

They dance to songs that preach destruction…devotion to the cult means wearing safety pins through their nostrils…other Punk hallmarks include swastikas and hairstyles that look as though they have been created with carving knives…Punk Rock girls, with lips painted black, are just as startling. Their outfits include shocking coloured tights with just a G-string over them, and t-shirts with zips over the boobs. Daily Mirror, 1.12.76

The Mirror in its Daily incarnation was the scourge of Punk Rock while its Sunday edition (12.12.1976) was offering fashion tips. In it, Eve Pollard gave a full page guide on how to dress like a Punk. The kindest thing to say though is it’s laughable.

Over the past few weeks we have seen the ugly side of Punk Rock. But there are hundreds of nice ordinary kids who don’t spit and shout obscenities and who believe one good thing has come out of Punk rock: PUNK FASHION.

There then followed an article around a main picture of four clowns dressed hideously in what they thought was trendy Punk rock attire of bin bags, safety pins and bog chains. The article then breaks down that look by price for the wannabee Punk that included safety pins as part of punk fashion.

Tot up the cost of their outfits this way: Launderette bags 15p, dustbin liners 10p, safety pins, 15p a packet; small paper clips, 15p a packet of 30; large, 25p a packet. From stationary shops anywhere. Lavatory chains from 59p, at larger Woolworth’s.

You had two options – cheat  

Nah, there was ways of getting round that. You can get a safety pin and by bending the hook piece back on itself you can make it appear to go through your cheek and out the other side.

or pain

Don Letts Roxy club DJ ” …they would have a safety pin in their cheek or their nose. It was all sore and infected. The more they spoke, the more it hurt, and they would suffer.”

Thank god for modern piercing !!

As we’ve said by 1977 the safety pin was already a thing of the past. Its death knell helped by its appropriation by Zandra Rhodes and her haute couture dress.

This is an evening dress of black rayon jersey with beaded safety pins, ball-link chains and diamante decoration. It was designed by Zandra Rhodes in 1977 and formed part of her ‘Conceptual Chic’ collection.

Long, punk-inspired, sleeveless evening dress of matte black rayon jersey. It is deliberately and decoratively ‘ripped’ on the bodice and lower skirt. The raw edges of the slashes are emphasised with machine zigzag stitching in blue cotton. It is decorated with beaded safety pins, ball link chains (of the type used to secure domestic plugs) and randomly placed diamantes. V&A

From Zandra Rhodes in 1977, the last hurrah for the safety pin was in the Patrik Fitzgerald song Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart and as part of the cover art for the myriad of punk compilation albums that have come out down the years and of course in the header of this website! 🙂

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