I recently got my tongue pierced, and just like they always tell you, all I accomplished by doing that is wanting to get more stuff perforated. I went with my good friend Zeccke because she wanted to get one, and all I pretty much needed was a push into that direction for it. 14G, both of us. It’s funny, personally I love my piercing because it gives me something to play with when I’m bored and don’t have my Game Boy handy (that sounded dirty) and it’s really fun to interact with it while I’m eating out (that sounded dirtier), and somehow that sparked a renewed interest in piercings around my office and friends. A couple of weeks after getting the tongue rings, another friend of us went over to the tattoo parlor we got pierced at (by his recommendation, no less) and he got himself a badass tattoo on his arm. Now, seeing that and hearing the noise of the needle sent tingles down my spine. A little afterwards I called up my mom and asked her to look her tattoo artist up so we can get tattoos. As it turns out, my interest in getting another tattoo was renewed… hopefully I’ll have “The Great Nothing” from “NIL: A Land Beyond Belief” tattooed all across my upper arm and I can’t be more excited… my mom also wanted to touch up her first tattoo which is all blurry so we’ll do that as well. It’s becoming a tradition, that of taking my mom to the tattoo parlor to get tattoos… and I know why that would sound a little off to you but my family is an exception to the rule, which brings me to the point of this article: what’s your stance on piercings and tattoos?

Both these forms of body modification have been around for centuries yet in many countries (and I know that’s the case here as a matter of fact) these types of expression are not seen well. For some reason, anyone with a tattoo is a felon crackhead and anyone with a piercing is either disturbed in the brain, gay or rebellious. In both instances the circumstances of these actions end up affecting the individuals personal and professional lives for reasons that escape my fucking mind. It’s as if a tattoo or a nose ring has the uncanny ability to suck the stamina, intellect, train of thought and just plain common sense of whoever has it. This is fucking silly. In these societies appearances are everything, it seems… and just like a lot of things, in the end it narrows down to who you know, how pretty you look and the like, totally ignoring what really matters when you’re in situations like these: the capacity to do the job. To love. This is an inherent problem inbred inside the very core of society, and as a result it’s something you can’t eradicate unless you take it out from the very root, something too difficult to try… I wonder why belly piercings are so popular. Not that I have anything against them, but I just don’t know where it came from that now it’s socially acceptable (even encouraged) for girls to have their navels pierced. 15 years ago, if a guy wore an earring he was gay, but gangsta rappers have 200K diamonds with their names engraved on them on THEIR earrings and for some reason they’re tough macho men… I mean, who dictates what’s acceptable and what isn’t? I guess this applies to fashion and other fads, being broken down to those who follow the trend just like sheep following the herd and those who see a fad and, whether the fad itself is cool or not in its own right, reject it and look for the most polar extreme of that look, object, trend or whatever it is that they can find, making them the anti-fad or the reverse angle on the same behavior… to my eyes, they’re just the same as the people they’re so desperately trying not to be like.

I find it rather hypocritical when my mom asks me not to tattoo myself in any visible areas when she has a huge butterfly tattooed on her outer ankle. Getting tattooed up and pierced out the wazoo doesn’t take away the capacity of doing good work, being a good friend and tending to your loved ones, I believe. I can be a successful businessman and have 13 piercings on my left ear alone and tattoos on my eyelids for all I care… it’s just that, the way things are now, corporations are only concerned with the way their employees look regardless of what prodigy is standing before them. Vanity. everyone’s guilty of it; If you’ve ever said you’ve wanted to look good for someone, something or yourself then you’ve been vain. It’s embedded in all of us, the capacity to love ourselves…

I’ve had conversations with people who’ve wanted to have tattoos for the sake of having tattoos, because they believe they’re going to be “cool” if they do. I ask them what they want and they’ll usually come up with some tribal pattern of a Japanese/Chinese Kanji, meaning “beauty,” “princess,” “fire” or whatever else they could feel identified with and when I ask them why they’d like to get that tattoo, they seriously don’t know. There will be a couple of moments where they believe they do, but mostly do it out of a drunken night, a whim, to feel good about themselves and more. Personally, I believe that these modifications should have some sort of meaning, a resonance to something you believe in but that’s just me; I make a lot of impulsive decisions I think about after-the-fact, but at least I can find an explanation if asked.

I’ve had trouble with girlfriend’s parents because my hair’s too long. Because I wore flip flops to their house once. The tattoo has gotten me in trouble as well. My grandmother from my dad’s side (my whole dad’s side of the family, as a matter of fact) will drop on her ass when she sees what I’ve done to my tongue, and since I’m not doing any actual work (let it be known that “work” to these people is a fireman, policeman, architect, construction worker, etc) I get in trouble for writing for a living. Because the decisions I make are radical in nature it would make things more difficult for someone original in such a small country. I think it makes me want to do it even more, though… you could look at these modifications as an act of rebellion to the established order and there could be a little bit of that in every tattoo and piercing out there and perhaps that’s good enough of a statement to get your point across to the world, but there’s no point in doing it if you’re not going to enjoy it.

I was told last night that this girl I know got her lip and eyeliners tattooed for 60 bucks. She says all she has to do now is throw some makeup on her and she’s ready to go… I was shocked when I heard this… tattoos for the benefit of beauty. I got home and talked to my mom about it only to realize that *gasp!* she’s done it on herself too! Honestly, it’s times like those where I feel like a Grade-A jackass… I don’t know how much time is cut when you tattoo the eyeliners to your face but looking at it from a logical angle I suppose it does, in fact, cut time down. The fact remains though that these girls can get tattoos on THEIR FACES and I can’t get some on my arms because people will think I’m in a street gang? Fucking mierda… this problem is not only in my country, and I know it; it just sucks that just because I want to express myself this way I have to get lip from close-minded individuals stuck in the stone age… I get enough of that as it is! I wish we lived in a society where someone with 10 piercings on his face can walk down the street and not get looks like if he had horns, hoofs and a trident. But then again, I also wish for a society where everyone has a fair chance to speak their minds and express themselves, something that can’t be done if you’re anywhere under 30, apparently. And even still, to be applicable for parlay with people that matter and could make your opinion into a tool that’ll shape society in a way that could benefit the populace you need to take off your rings, cover up your tattoos in a fancy business suit and try not to get to the meeting half-baked.

I know that with every tattoo and piercing I get I’m sealing my fate more and more, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’d rather be poor, smart and free than rich, dumb and hung up on how society sees me because of a fucking tattoo.

Share This