Approximately one week ago for the first time ever I got pierced by a piercer who wasn't an English native speaker. I tried to spend some time before setting an appointment and explaining what I want to get done on thinking about an appropriate vocabulary which I could use in case my piercer wouldn't know English words for specific piercings. As it turned out, I didn't have to worry about it as English is present in all spheres of modern life. But my language - related preparations made me to think more about my attitude toward body modification.
At A Glance Author Ania Contact [email protected] IAM deadly pale When N/A To name a thing means to take control over it. It is as ancient as The Bible and it is also as ancient and meaningful as tribal cultures. God has had Adam name all things in Paradise which meant taking control over them. Members of many tribes all over the world had their own secret names which were known only to their closest friends. Knowledge of such a secret, usually acquired at the time of coming out of age, name meant taking control over its owner. Even now people feel, even if they are not really aware of it, that there is some strange power in words and one has to be very careful about them.
When I was thinking about words I should use during my new appointment I realized that my body modification language is not my native tongue, Polish, but my second language, English. I do not think: "Chcialabym miec nowy tatuaz"; I think: "I would like to have a new tattoo". One can ask if does it really matter? It seems to be so irrelevant and weird ... But when we consider body modification as something more than just fashion, rebellious statements or one of many ways to show how pissed off we are, then it is clear that our own rituals, these body - and - mind related rituals, should have their own language. And surprisingly, they have their own language.
For those of us whose first language is English it is hard to realize what it is like to use foreign names to describe things by means of which you want to change your body. It is so simple! Eyebrow piercing, tongue piercing, septum piercing and many many others. What kind of jewelry would you like to use? Barbells, cbr's, ccb's? Maybe surface bars? Again, it is so simple. But it is hard to come out with proper equivalents of these names in other languages. Of course I could say: "Prosze, chcialabym, aby Pan przeklul moja przegrode nosowa" but it sounds somewhat awkward for me. It is so much easier to tell the guy "Prosze przekluc moje septum". But I don't even know if there are any Polish counterparts for piercing jewelery. Well, you can use a noun "koleczko" to let your piercer know that you want to get a cbr but this word just describes shape and can be applied to all kinds of jewelery. Thus it is better to use English names. It's much shorter, more convenient and understandable to piercers all over the world. Thus we can see that body modification is indeed very important - it has its own language after all.
Rituals are not only about specific gestures and special tools. They are also about specific, carefully chosen words. These of us who speak more than one language have to decide then which language they want to use. Your first language is the obvious choice but what to do when you are not able to find words you look for in your first tongue? Then you have to turn to another language. People speaking Germanic languages don't feel this change too much as their languages are related more or less to English. But people whose languages belong to different language groups can feel it really deeply. I don't know how many people ever thought about it and whether it is important to them or not but I do know that using a different language while dealing with my body and mind (and that's the case with body modification for me) means entering a different level of reality. Thus my own rituals become deeper, more meaningful and less accessible for others, especially for those who don't know "my" ritual language. Using foreign names and thinking about my past, present and future modifications in a language which was not my first one creates something more than just a temporary pain and physical changes. And when you start thinking about it, you begin to realize what a great tradition and how many wonderful cultures are hidden behind. The word "tattoo" is not English, is it? But we use it now. "Labret" is of French origin, right? And what about septum? Is it not Latin? How many examples we can find? All these words were important parts of some context; once they meant something on their own. They were used to commemorate and describe important moments of human life. Now many of us use it in much lighter, even entertaining context.
I do not want to analyze here all these words, their origin, meaning, cultural context. What I want to say it that for many of us they still posses some power and they can still be used in context of rituals changing us into better, more mature people. Words which Americans or Canadians use on daily, very ordinary basis for many people mean something more and sound pretty strange at first. Thus, once again words from various cultures and different times regain their power and create our personal sphere of sacrum where we can touch something Divine and feel much better connected to ourselves.