Discrimination is a word you can read fairly often on the pages of this website. Usually those who have chosen to alter their appearance in "unconventional" ways are treated differently by society. People who do not sport piercings or tattoos are often slightly afraid of those who do. Those who are not afraid are usually curious, and almost anyone with a tattoo will have at some point been asked either if it hurt, do they regret it (usually voiced along with the opinion that if they don't now, they surly will in the future) or why did they do that to themselves?
At A Glance Author sassie Contact [email protected] When N/A This stereotyping is common practise and dealing with it is an important part in the process of choosing your body mod. Certain proceedures will almost definately lead to those who don't know you forming an instant definition of you as a person in their heads and may well lead to you being refused employment etc
However recently I have been on the receiving end of an almost reverse snobbery.
I have 6 tattoos and 11 piercings, but none of them are on "display" when you catch me in jeans, trainers and a t-shirt. As I'm now married with 3 children and lead a mainstream life (with very small minded employers) the hair is a sensible colour and you wouldn't look twice at me if I passed you in the street.
I used to look far more extreme and sometimes it's almost painful that I've had to tone it down to live the life I've chosen.
Occaisionally the old photo's come out of the drawer and I relive tales of old folk crossing the road rather than share a pavement with me. Sadly, my 3 children are totally straight laced and conventional (backlash of having nothing that could make me keel over with shock I suspect) so I don't even get to "play" through them.
But I digress..
I popped into my local tattoo shop to get a small piece of script added to my most recent tattoo.
Usually my tattooist welcomes me with a "you know where the kettle is" and there are a couple of faces I can chat to while he finishes whatever he's doing. I'm obviously "at home" there.
This time he must have been piercing something personal for someone as he had the studio door firmly closed so I made myself comfy on one of the sofas to wait.
I was alone in the shop until a visibly heavily modified chap came in. He sneered distainfully in my direction and asked if I knew what I wanted and would it take long.
I told him I thought I'd be no more than 10 minutes and he sat down.
My tattooist finished what he'd been doing and emerged from the studio. Mr mods informed Lee that the "girl" was only after something small so she could go next. Seeing that it was me, and obviously reacting to the look on my face, Lee played a blinder. "Can I help you, have you chosen something off the wall" etc as if we'd never met.
We went into the studio and i showed Lee what I wanted. One small disagreement about how to spell temporary and we were away.
I got my script "Pain is temporary, Pride is forever" added to the dragon on the sole of my left foot,paid Lee and made to leave.
"Here mate, want to see what she had done?" bellows Lee at Mr Mods. "Ok" he smirks. I show him my foot and he nearly falls over. Suddenly I'm treated like a member of the gang, all smiles and jokes. Having a tattoo on the bottom of your foot is obviosly enough in his eyes and we're now friends.
My point is, when we spend time complaining that people judge us because of our mods, how often do we judge those who don't have them?
How often has someone in a tattoo shop picking a small piece of flash from the wall been treated differently to someone having work on a larger piece completed? So what if every 18 year old in town now has a piece of tribal hanging out of the back of her low rise jeans. A tattoo or piercing is always something special to the person who's had it put on their body. Although it's now trendy, almost mainstream, to have work done does that mean we can belittle it?
Maybe I'm taking things too personally, but since it happened I've noticed that there is a definate sub culture begining to evolve amongst the more heavily modified folk in the community and simply having a tattoo or a navel piercing is no longer "alternative" enough to belong.
Have we really spent so long complaining that we are treated differently, only to find that this is actually what we wanted all along? I must admit that I'm guilty.. my offence was caused at being treated like an ordinary person in the tattooists and I felt that this wasn't me.
I'd love to hear others views on this, and thanks for reading.