I have been visiting BME for several years, and every time I add a new experience to the site it often begins with a line such as, "Ever since I was young I wanted this," or "This has been a fantasy even before I knew it was possible to get this," and so on. However, it seems that being young and knowing that one wants a particular modification to ones body is a big no-no in the body modification community.
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Now, for the record I will say that this is not true for the entire community (broad generalizations on either side of an argument never help a case). Furthermore, I know of many people that share my point of view fully; that is everyone has the right to change their body according to their own desires.
At first glance, the typical reader is probably saying, "Well of COURSE everyone has the right to modify themselves! Why shouldn't they?" It'd be nice if more people truly sympathized, but unfortunately they don't. When the same person says that they fully support equal rights in the BodMod scene, they probably don't include this afterthought: regardless of their age. This can be shown in many experiences on BME, along with several editorials on the site (I'm not posting links; you can search the site and find them for yourself). There are stories that express outrage at how many kids they see with stretched earlobes, multiple tongue rings, or teenyboppers with colorful navel barbells. I admit that many of these articles have good intentions; people who made mistakes at young ages don't want other young people to make the same mistakes by going to a bad piercer or tattoo artist. My point is that if one was actually concerned about this particular aspect of body modifications, then that author would take the time to write a piece about what to look for and avoid when going to get a piercing and not say (in so many words), "You're young; you don't know what you want, so wait until you're older." I imagine a pat on the head to accompany this condescending tone.
To touch on an earlier and more personal topic, I have been interested and near obsessed with body art since I was very young. At five years old I envisioned myself to grow up and be a motorcycle-riding, Marlboro-smoking, punk rock hardcore freak with a huge pink mohawk, giant lobes and a ring in my nose (a toro piercing as I then referred to my septum), and covered in tattoos. I have no idea where I got this image of myself, as I was raised in a very dull working class town with very little outside influence until I was about ten. Regardless, the notion stuck with me and I never let it go. Had it been possible, at five I would have jumped at the chance to have my septum pierced! It was a constant thought in my mind, and when I was 19 I finally had it done. I made the mistake of going to a low-quality shop and had to take it out, but I recently (1-9-02) had it repierced.
Did my age have anything to do with the fact that I had a bad piercing? Of course it doesn't! It could have been an awful experience if I was 8 or 80, and alternatively it could have been perfect no matter when I had it done. Age has nothing to do with how qualified a person is to get pierced. If you feel that you are ready to take a major step in changing your life, then go forth with that knowledge and do what you can to make it happen. It's extremely liberating and wonderful to change your body, and it shouldn't be something that can only be understood by people who reach legal age.
We live in a society that hates youth and tries to stifle it at every turn. Kids are not treated as people, but as an inferior class. Everywhere you look, they're being treated like criminals or weirdos simply because of how many years they've been on this planet. It's as though having seniority over somebody not only makes one more knowledgeable about any given subject, but also it makes for a better person as well. I don't believe that to be true, and so I will continue to be outraged and appalled whenever I read an article or witness ageism in my scene.
Ageism sucks no matter where you find it, whether it's in the supermarket, a piercing salon, or on the Internet. It's discouraging and disheartening to feel like the world is against you and wants to stop you from claiming your body as your own. There's no place for any kind of discrimination in the body modification community if we want it to be a place where everyone is accepted and recognized for the interesting and wonderful people they are, instead of just numbers. Everyone has the right to express themselves through whatever means necessary, no matter how old they are.