About a month ago I read an article in my local newspaper that not only appalled me but shook the very ground I stood on (mostly from my tempered stamping). It was all about how teens who had piercings and/or tattoos were dickety percent more likely to be alcohol or drug addicts. From the article, which I read approximately 76 times, I got that whoever did the research ONLY asked teens with visible piercings and tattoos these questions and neglected to ask teens without these characteristics. Yet, he/she compared teens with tattoos and/or piercings directly to teens without them.
At A Glance Author Spot Contact [email protected] When N/A I am a teen with visible piercings. I do not have a tattoo, since I believe this is more permanent and should involve much thought. I am also straight-edge. Don't get me wrong, I have drank, I have done drugs, but in limited amounts. The funny part is, all my friends who do drink (with the exception of one) are lacking both these "tell tale" signs to drinking and drugs. My friends who do not partake in such activities HAVE both tattoos and piercings in most cases. Allow me to go into detail on the "substance" in this article.
Teens Who Have Piercings Are More Likely to Try New Trends First
It's so funny that in my school almost everyone with a visible piercing is called a carnie. I think in order to deal with this, you probably have your own style in the first place. Maybe all the people the surveyor asked were teenie bopper eleventeen year olds with poorly placed, half rejected navel rings they didn't have the sense to take out. I'm not trying to ridicule anyone, but I found this statement quite contrary to what I have seen.
Teens With Piercings or Tattoos Are More Likely to be Vegetarians
And to top it off they made it seem like being a vegetarian was an injustice to humanity. I don't see how this topic related to anything or was even remotely necessary. It's almost like the writer and surveyors were just scratching for some way to point a finger at teens with piercings and tattoos and make them into evil demons who drain the good out of society. Of course we all knew this. If you don't feast on the blood and meat of innocent animals, you MUST be some sort of anti-Christian who has no right to live.
Teens With Piercings or Tattoos are More Likely to Listen to Punk/Goth/Thrasher/Rave
This did make some sense to me, but at the same time contradicted the whole "first to try new trends" issue (unless you count all the people you count Avril Lavigne as both a trend and real punk). I never knew goth was a new trend everyone was dying to try. I've always been made fun of. And despite the I-Wanna-Be-Punk-For-A-Day trend that has suddenly come about, true punk has almost always been mocked too, and not been the new trend of the week. I do find most people with obtrusion or art on their skin to listen to one of these genres, but the generalizations offends EVERYONE with tattoos or piercings.
Teens Without Piercings or Tattoos Are Perfect
After I presented my friends with this article we decided to go around our school with our own survey. We found most people didn't have piercings (this excluded general lobe piercings), or tattoos, but almost half the people we asked (this was totally random) smoked weed, and almost all drank regularly. Now, we did note that pretty much the same amount of people with piercings other than lobes and tattoos did the same, but the article clearly stated that people with piercings or tattoos were almost 60% more likely to drink, do drugs and smoke than those without. It's funny how real life differs from the one made up in the minds of reporters.
Now the purpose of all this writing wasn't to say that people with piercings are perfect and people with tattoos are equally perfect and anyone without is absolutely evil. It was to say there's NO difference between the two in the way they act. Maybe some difference in music, clothing and friends, but when it comes to smoking, drinking and those activities, everything is the same. It's unfair to publish this article, expecially when there's already so much discrimination against people who choose to decorate themselves. I'm sure some manager read this article and decided to fire anyone they had working with piercings, because OF COURSE what they read is true. Or someone didn't hire a perfectly qualified person applying for a job, simply because they read this article and decided everyone with a piercing is a heroin addict. Why does our media still choose to publish poorly educated writers, and poorly researched statistics. I'm only 16 and understand for fair statistics, you need both sides of the story.
"There's lies, there's damn lies, and then there's statistics"