At A Glance
Author	Anonymous
Contact	anonymous
When	N/A

Since first discovering and entering into the body modification community I have been fascinated by reading experiences that people have submitted, sometimes it's a real joy to read how someone has been influenced by what they have seen on BME and now, as a result they have spent hours of their time researching about the piercing or tattoo that they want and have travelled many, many miles just to find the perfect studio and the perfect piercer or artist.

It's in situations like this when peoples addiction to body modification begins to grow and because they have had a good first experience they then feel an impulse to get another modification � sometimes people like to explore and experience the talents of other studios and sometimes people feel that they have found a studio they can trust and nothing will ever stop then from being loyal to their decision.

My biggest upset and concern is when one person within a friendship group decides that they want a modification, they want to make some kind of statement and they want that statement to be associated with the recognition they feel that they deserve by putting themselves through the pain of a modification.
Time progresses and the other group members adopt the same view and soon after they all have the same adornment on their bodies and start to think of it as an initiation task that others MUST do if they want to become a member of the "gang."

The same pretence is often seen by groups of teens, the most obvious and well known of which would be the Navel piercing. The Navel piercing although once not all that popular, in the late 1990's became one the most wanted fashion accessories, it was seen as a relatively safe and painless modification which if they got they would suddenly be turned into a person who was following the fashion and hence it would make them "trendy," people would want to be like them and so they too would follow the trend.

In one of the recent experience updates, there were 15 navel experiences approved and added to the BME collection; 4 of those contained girls begging their parents to allow them to get the piercing, 6 of them said they went ahead with the piercing because they thought it was "cool" and their friends also had the same piercing and 3 of those decided they wanted a piercing, walked into a random shop and then complained about the quality of the work in their experience.

In recent weeks the singer/songwriter Christina Aguilera had been pictured sporting a new centre labret piercing, and no doubt teens who idolize her will start to ask their parents if they can get the same piercing in an attempt to be like her � a similar trend was seen when former Spice Girl, Victoria Beckham performed at a concert wearing a fake lip ring. In a bid to be like her, fans got their lips pierced and parents were furious to find that their children had done such a thing only to find out at a later date that former "Posh Spice" was faking it.

Since the years have progressed and piercings have become more popular many modified people, although they will not admit to it carry around a feeling that to become a member of the modified community you have to get a more extreme piercing � simple ear lobe piercings or navel piercings were too common for their owners to be accepted into the community.
There become small groups of people as with any community who start to break away from the rest and create their own rules and gain themselves a reputation, this happens in all communities but it almost for some is an insult when that attitude is adopted within the community of modified people.

Whether someone chooses to have a single navel piercing and wear a silver jewelled banana bell in it or whether someone gets a large quantity of genital piercings doesn't make either person any "better" or more significant within the community.
Each person has been modified in a way that they want and it is with each modification no matter how popular or unique it may be that the person is welcomed into the community.

A friend, Daniel even told me a story of when a relative of his was taking a tube ride; his relative was a respected gentleman who had a very established thought for common courtesy. The tube was full and one of its occupants was a pierced man � the relative *immediately assumed that the pierced man was little more than a waste of space. As the ride progressed an elderly lady made her way onto the tube and it was the pierced man that stood up to allow the lady to take his seat, when all of the other passengers turned away and ignored her presence; due to the pierced mans nice gesture the relative of Daniels actually felt ashamed of himself for misjudging the pierced man and for not being courteous enough to give up his own seat for her - in a sense this shows that you simply cannot judge people by their looks.

People who have taken the time out of their lives to spend time and money adorning their bodies have all been through the similar pleasures and pains of modifications.
Many of these people have been discriminated against in some way or another, whether it be at a job interview and they are turned down due to their excess ink or facial piercings, whether it be passing through a security area or whether it be the simplicity of people turning their heads and staring when just walking down the street � these people all know what it feels like when others place them in a different part of the social community and reject them as outcasts of the "norm."

For those people who go out and pierce on a whim, simply so that they can walk around and think that they are cool and to give themselves a feeling of being better than the rest I can only feel sorry; I know that we all have our own reasons for getting a new modification, but going through that amount of pain, to impress someone and almost certainly to get bored with the modification soon afterwards hardly seems worthwhile.
The majority of these people do very little if any research at all into what exactly is entailed in getting their piercing; usually just walking into a studio, pointing to a part of the body and saying "can pierce this for me?"
>From sitting in my local studio on a Saturday afternoon I have seen the groups of teens flooding through the doors; their only concern is the want of a new piercing, sometimes not knowing the name of the piercings and on the majority of occasions not realizing that there would be any sort of aftercare needed - so long as that piece of metal is in their bodies they assume that they'll somehow be classed as elite, not only that but it is these people who will usually walk around and complain about their modification saying that it wasn't performed properly and the studio are at fault.

So many teens fight for the right to be heard, and in honesty such a large quantity of teenagers are mentally mature enough to go through a modification knowing all of the implications that can arise from it, but it is these teens who that think they have something to prove that make things worse for everyone else.
We can all walk around with excess holes and ink in our bodies, but there is a very large difference between those who modify for fashion and those who modify for themselves and it all comes down to mental maturity.

The point of this although somewhat unclear can all be summed up as follows: If you want to modify your body then do it for the right reasons, research what you want and find a reputable studio you feel safe with, don't mark your body for life just so that you can show off to people. We only get one go at life and we only get one body, so respect it!