I am likely going to make a few enemies among the younger set by writing this, but I can see no better way to combine my two great loves, arguing, neuroscience, and pi...er, three! three great loves of neuroscience, arguing, and piercing into one lovely editorial titled, as you can see, the neuroanatomical reasons that waiting until you're sixteen for, well, just about anything is a darn good idea.
At A Glance Author WasabiTurtle Contact [email protected] IAM WasabiTurtle When N/A I actually got the inspiration for this editorial not from the myriad piercing stories on BME but from a class on forensic neuropathology, the study of psychology, neuroscience, and the criminal justice system. Today's lecture was on juveniles in the court system and how they are being ridiculously underserved by a populace more concerned with punishment and appearances than rehabilitation...but I digress. As per usual. "But turtleface," you might say, "what in god's green earth does a fourteen year old on trial for stabbing someone with a pointy object have to do with a fourteen year old with a badly done tongue ring?" Plenty. It all comes down to the brain.
And now, a moment of science. *tympani roll* The brain is a massive connection of what, on a simple scale, amounts to leaky hoses. As anyone knows when playing with ho's, er, hose, there are two ways to minimize the effect of leaks on the hose's overall function: make the hose really huge so you can get a lot of water through in spite of the holes or wrap the whole darn thing with duct tape to plug up the hose. Believe it or not, your brain and nervous system do something similar. Really important nerves, such as the ones that move your muscles, are very thick. The problem is that if everything in your brain were as thick as these nerves, your head would be the size of a watermelon, easily. So the brain produces its own duct tape in the form of this great stuff called myelin, which wraps around the nerve and makes it transmit information more quickly and more reliably than it would otherwise.
Still with me? If not, get a bit of a stretch and a sandwich, then come back. Okay, moving on.
We're not born with our brains fully myelinated (covered in myelin). Anyone who has ever hung around with a newborn knows that they aren't too good on the whole walking, talking, thinking bit. Well, that's because their brains aren't fully formed yet. They have all the neurons in place, but they aren't that well connected yet. As we get older, our brains get more myelin, leading to certain obvious changes, such as walking and talking, but also certain less obvious changes, such as planning and thinking ahead. The parts of the brain that are "human," the parts involved with planning, rational thought, decision making, impulse control, and other "adult" behaviors don't start actually working until well into our teens and don't finish until we're about twenty four. In many ways, save a few years of schooling, a seven year old and a thirteen year old are on about the same developmental and neurological level. Which brings us back to piercing and criminal justice.
The big argument against trying kids as adults is that kids don't fully understand the consequences of their actions in a future, abstract sense. Don't believe me? Ask a room full of fourteen year olds what they will be doing in four years. Heck, ask them to interpret their Miranda rights (to remain silent, access to attorney) while you're at it. Most don't understand what is happening, even when the kids have the vocabulary down; the long-term comprehension is totally absent as are the implications of a plea bargain or going to trial. It is hard for a fourteen year old to conceive of what two years in prison will mean, other than being away from friends and family. It's hard for a fourteen year old or fifteen year old to understand the changes in his or her life that will happen in that time period. The parts of the brain that control that deep understanding are just beginning to get their myelin and are just beginning to function. A fourteen year old is not equipped to be tried as an adult, regardless of the heinousness of the crime, unless he or she possesses precocity above and beyond that of someone her age.
So let's talk piercing and tattooing, that's what we're here for, after all. If a fourteen year old, as I've described, lacks the neural and psychological development for rational, reasonable planning in the long term, that fourteen year old should not be left in charge of largely irreversible modifications to his or her body. The average fourteen year old does not understand septicemia, being turned down for a job based on a visible modification, or the possibility that his or her life may be very different from one moment to the next. The average fourteen year old is far more suggestible to peer pressure than someone even just three years older (by a factor of 20-40% depending on the test). The average fourteen year old has difficult with abstractions and future planning. Rather than just rag on them without any justification, let me give you a few examples.
As all BME fans should, I enjoy reading and reviewing. I have noticed certain trends that occur much more frequently in younger piercers than in the older. First, there is the tendency to want something right now now now now now now...*cough*...regardless of what authority figures or even their own common sense dictates. Told to wait until they are of legal age, they can't. Told to even wait a month, or a week, or another day, they can't. There is the pull to the "Now" that is almost impossible for them to overcome. Those are the frontal lobes failing to engage when asked. Impulse control is something we develop over time and, even if we understand the societal and rational basis for controlling our impulses, we still revert back to childish behavior when under stress or are merely immature.. Theory is better than practice, as always.
There is also the failure to abstract, or, more simply, bad things only happen to other people. This is the girl who pierces with a dirty pin even though her friend gets an infection because this girl is better, or different, or something like that. This is the guy with the really excellent wrist bar who is positive it isn't going to reject though he takes terrible care of it. They can't apply what has been learned, what they know to be true, to themselves in a practical fashion. It's the invulnerability of youth that leads to 100 MPH car crashes with no seatbelts on, since they don't need to wear seatbelts because they never crash. The "theory of mind," the ability to see oneself in the world in reference to other people, is present by age seven, but it doesn't come into being totally until sixteen or seventeen. Other people don't become applicable to our own lives until well into our teens, and beyond.
This is part and parcel of the last bit, the failure to predict the future. Predict, meaning, foresee the consequences of one's actions, have a conscious perception and understanding of what those consequences could be, and going through with those consequences in mind. I can't count how many stories of home-done or friend-done piercings end with, "It's been three days and it is all great no infection!" Of course not. Unless you've introduced something rather grotesque into your body, an infection and rejection will take a bit longer to occur. This is not the, "Well, things are okay so far..." that many older people write at the base of their experiences. This is a conscious, literal expectation that the next three days will be exactly like the last three. This is the kind of mindset that makes them surprised when parents and teachers aren't totally thrilled at the new piercing, furious that there were consequences of lost privileges, and so on. When the future, for all intents and purposes, doesn't exist neurologically, it's damn hard to contemplate oneself in it.
My advice, thus, to anyone in their early teens is simply wait. I'm not saying not to do it. Well, I am, but I can't prevent you, can I? Pick a piercing and see how you feel about it in two weeks, when the novelty has worn off or the magazine has passed on to the next fad. Do more reading about people such as myself, who were left with big masses of scar tissue from stupidly-done piercings. Ask yourself if that cute little butterfly will be what you feel like in four years, or even two. Ask yourself whether you will want to pay for chipped teeth, infected holes, costly removals, and other expensive consequences of piercings down the road.
So wear what you want, but be prepared to deal with the commentary and actions that come from that. Have sex if you want, but if you get (someone) pregnant, don't turn to your parents for help; that's your burden, totally. Fight for whatever rights you think you are entitled to, and you are entitled to quite a few (An aside: never talk to the police without a lawyer, EVER. You're more likely to end up confessing to something you may not have done...78% of the time if you're 12-14 years old) However, don't pretend that you are an adult just yet. I could whip out a two Tesla magnet and prove just how far from adulthood you are. Even more, though, if you're so sure you are an adult, what keeps the "system" from treating you like one? A kid caught stealing vs. an adult will likely get off earlier. If you're so confident that you're an adult, perhaps you'd like to try your hand at criminal court after you get caught shoplifting.
Let your brain catch up to you. Wait for that myelin to wrap itself nice and snug around your neurons before getting an armful of ink or a face full of metal. All things are better when you know what you are doing.