We know that Victorian women had a fondness for tattoos, but getting a nipple piercing is a line you wouldn’t imagine a Victorian lady would cross, or even come close to touching. Certainly, there isn’t more of a contradiction in terms than that of a straight-laced corseted woman jangling bits of metal beneath her dress. But the history books tell us this Victorian fad for nipple rings did exist—albeit one that was short-lived.

These saucy adornments sprung up in the 1890s and continued to enthral women into the early 1900s. Firm evidence for the trend remains elusive, but Cristen Conger, author on the website Stuff Mom Never Told You, successfully roots out the available information. She found a source that says, “During the late 1800s, some women in Europe had their nipples pierced and wore gold ‘bosom rings’ in each breast. Some women also wore a chain connecting the two rings.” Another book claims it was commonplace for those rings to match the ones in a woman’s ears—though for whose benefit remains unclear.

As with several risqué trends of the Victorian variety, it seems this one started in Paris. In a long discussion thread on the University of Michigan’s Social Science and Humanities website, one contributor mentions a collection of letters from the early 1900s that delve into the details of this anatomical art:

One correspondent saw a complete shop window that was filled with jewellery for breasts in Paris. There was a luxurious variant (solitaires, turquoise, brilliants, diamonds, pearls, scarabs, tiny golden bells ‘in the Swiss style’ with brilliants, extra jewellery to fix on the rings) and a cheaper variant which consisted of ‘simple golden rings’.

The thread goes on to mention that anecdotes from the time suggest that while nipple rings were most popular in France, jewellers in Britain began to tap into this trend and try their hands at nipple piercing, too. So we are to assume that during the late Victorian era, some bold English women went around unconventionally bejewelled beneath their prim uniforms.

Why did this trend gain traction? The available evidence suggests that as with tattoos, women saw a novelty in nipple piercing. Perhaps, they were also were spurred on by the belief that nipple piercings caused bosoms to enlarge—a notion that, unfortunately for them, was entirely false.

The true extent and popularity of this trend is something we will never know for sure—but perhaps that’s what those daring women would have wanted; perhaps it added to the appeal. We can certainly chalk up the Victorians as a secretive lot, and as rather more open-minded and worldly-wise than they are traditionally perceived.

(h/t Stuff Mom Never Told You)