At A Glance Author Daethe When N/A I admit it. I am a proud freak. I dont worry too much when people look at me oddly or shake their heads at me. I am not hurt when they ask me why I would "get those holes in my face". I am not offended when my peircings suddenly become a conversation peice and my feelings are not hurt when people say that I'm an example of the deterioration of society in general.
I find modified people who are sad about society's views on mods interesting. I have to wonder what these people were expecting. I've come to realize that peoples minds are going to stay closed for a while yet. If you're not mentally equipped to deal with that, don't get modified. I think it would save us a lot of greif if we stopped expecting people to really embrace body modification. The vast majority of people don't.
I've come to believe that there are some people who get into mods to look different. These people should know better than to expect people to look at them as if they were not modified. I mean if your going into this to get noticed know this: there are going to be a few awesome people who really think your modifications are interesting and make you beautiful and unique. And there are going to be a huge amount of people who are going to look at your modifications as ugly and freakish. Be prepared for this. Then there are alot of modified people who are sort of pathetically saying "Look at me I'm diferent from you. Accept me please" These people would have had to have spent the last decade in a box to expect real acceptence from society in general.
Take in to account that much of society actually seems to think they are helping you by telling you that you look bad. Some how they think that this "fact" has escaped you and they should be the ones to tell you. They seem to think that once we walk into the piercing/tattoo parlour that we leave our sanity at the door of course it is up to them to recover it. I think that as closed minded as it is. Often people think they have your best interests at heart. It is a rare person who really hates you for your body modifications.
As any modified person will tell you it is often difficult to find a job with your modifications. As unfair and crappy as it is. That is the state of affairs now, and if you think that one smart kid with a good resume, good attitude and a lot of body modifications is going to change their minds forget it, I've tried. But again what were you expecting? I knew that some employers wouldn't hire me if I got modified, I got modified anyway. I bet it's the same for you.
Here's a hint. So long as modification isn't painless people will ask "Didn't that hurt?" So long as modification isnt free people will ask "Why did you pay so much for that?" and so long as modification isn't exactly mainstream people will ask "Why did you DO that to yourself?" I've come to expect dumb questions.
I'm starting to think that this should be my mission. Most people know that Body modification hurts, they know that it's often permanent and they know that it costs money. I don't see people sad about their newly modified body's about these. What I'm finding is that they just aren't prepared for a general ignorant / negative attitude towards body modification in general. I guess they honestly thought their grandmothers would adore their newly extended lobes or tattooed upper arm. I dont know, I've never met such an open minded grandma.
So you have to ask yourself, is this worth it? How much do I care about what old ladies think of me? How much do I care about getting a job? I'm not one of the people who thinks you left your sanity behind. I think you can get really good answers to those questions and figure out if you really want to do this whole modification thing. If you care so much about what people think, I wouldn't be getting into counter-culture. Its no fun being a meek-freak. But if you think that you can just take all the crap in stride then major kudos to you. May your skin be filled with ink and your body riddled with holes :)
So bite the bullet guys, you are only doing this for YOU. Don't worry so much about what other people think. What are a bunch of closed minded people to YOU anyway?
If they call you a freak so what? Consider it a compliment.
Be a proud freak
-Daethe