THE FUSE

Some people wear jewelry. Others collect pieces, building an archive not just of physical items, but of souvenirs that reflect specific moments and periods of one’s life. Katherine Diermissen has always seen her style choices as autobiographical — the earrings that hang from the hole she first got in the third grade; the piercing on the side of her nose during the first year of college. “I love that I can look back at photos, see what jewelry I had in, and basically recount that time of my life and those memories,” BDG’s Gen Z Social Media Editor shares. She sees them as both accessories and an emotional archive: “Piercings have such an interesting history in so many subcultures,” she adds. “Of course, they’re a form of self-expression for so many people, but for me, they also act as a marking of time.”