{Precursor: For those weak of heart, or just plain easily offended piss off now. Don't be an ass in the comments. You can't say I didn't warn you. }
Just to start off, I don't have any tattoos, or piercings, brandings, never had any henna work done, no botox, lipo, or tummy tucks, or any of all that other rejigging we do to our bodies.
But I love the culture. I read Modblog at least once a week, I occasionally trawl flickr and the likes looking for pictures of tattooed or pierced girls to inspire me, especially for my post-apocalyptic poetry or just because I need cheering up. It's fascinating to me what people are willing to do to themselves to try and reach their ideal of what they should look like. And to me that often seems the main bone of contention between modders (body modifiers) and squares (non-modders) [note: I just like the word squares, I'm not a spokesman for the community or anything]
Why would anyone subject themselves to all this pain and anguish? What possible use does this kind of thing serve?
Well to be honest, I don't care what that particular tattoo was supposed to achieve, but we shall continue none the less. We shall start gently...
Why do people wear makeup? Answer, to feel more confident, more at home in their own skin.
Why do people spend large amounts of money on haircuts? see above.
Why do people go to gyms, run 5 miles a day, eat tofu? ...you see where I'm going with this.
So why when it comes to body mods, should anything be any different? To me it seems very simple: you want to look different, you are willing to pay someone to make that change for you, or you're willing to do it yourself, so do it. Dyed hair, cut hair, gelled hair, hair under a fisherman's hat: you're changing your appearance. What I think scares people about body modification is that unlike hair, it won't grow back, you can't reverse these procedures, and you'll be stuck with it the rest of your life. If you change your mind: tough.
However, people make life changing decisions every day on a whim, not using birth control, driving a couple of miles per hour over the speed limit, eating that extra muffin even though you know you shouldn't. All of these things could change your life radically, and you'll never be able to change it back no matter how much you want: a baby you're not ready for, a car accident, heart disease. OK, I'll concede that one muffin won't give you heart disease, but I digress...
What got me thinking about this topic was this article which is profoundly anti-body mod. It annoyed the piss out of me because it cites all the same reasons that anti-tattoo people always cite: what about when you're 80? You're only doing it to be cool, it looks ugly, we have to draw the line somewhere otherwise yada yada yada fuck off.
Well, you're not going to look like a supermodel when you're 80 anyway, unless of course you're a big fan of plastic surgery, which I might add is major surgery, as opposed to some ink under your skin, or an intentional wound with some metal in it. So essentially, how much worse are you going to look for having the tattoo?
You're only doing it to be cool. People buy cars to be cool, they buy expensive clothes, hell people even change their diet so they're all free-range, organic, natural, hand-reared celery types, just to be cool. People smoke, drink, watch films they don't like, read books they hate, and dress in hideous clothes just so they can fit in, and be cool. Don't tread on me because I want to be cool with some ink under my skin, as opposed to buying a 100 dollar pair of sunglasses that'll be out of fashion in 3 weeks anyway.
It looks ugly: Your opinion. Take a moment if you will to ponder this woman look how good she looks, she'd attractive, she's beautiful, and she's got a little ink under her skin. Her beautiful green eyes are enhanced by that little picture on her arm. She's stunning. And if I were to see her, yes, I'd be floored, but I would never stop liking the way she looked for a tattoo. If anything I'd feel the need to talk to her about it, and I'm sure it's a wonderful conversation piece. [don't think that I forgot about all you ladies out there]
Body modders are a community of people, there is an instant solidarity with other modded people, much like the camaraderie between smokers. Two groups very often segregated from society, who band together to share a common interest, similar motivations and similar goals. It's about free expression, it's about wearing who you are right out on your skin for everyone to see, it makes a bold statement, either good bad or indifferent.
And then people like Mr. Mario Barros from the Somerville News come and say that this is weird, it's wrong, it's ugly, and tattoos should be gotten rid of. Because he doesn't get it. He's not part of the culture, he doesn't read the articles, watch the youtube videos, hear stories of horror and triumph, stories of rejected piercings, infected tattoos, and the beautiful successes where a tattoo last forever, exactly the way it was supposed to be.
Oh and "what about when you're 80?" Why don't you ask this guy or this swinging grandma, how about a 100 year old woman or this sweet old Grammy that got her first tattoo at the age of 80.
So yeah, quit belittling something you'll never be a part of.
