After reading the article entitled 'Why young people need body modification' I was reminded of an incident I bore witness to recently in my local piercing studio, and thought it appropriate to share it with the patrons of BME.
At A Glance Author Jonn Contact [email protected] When A month ago Studio Metal Bodies, The inshops Location Cwmbran, South Wales About a month or so ago whilst in metal bodies, talking to my piercer, Sean, a young boy who looked about 17 or 18 came into the studio and started talking to the girl behind the counter about getting his tongue pierced. She told him to go and check with Sean and find out if he would be able to, if he had too many veins, etc...
Now, metal bodies have a policy that they will not pierce any one under the age of 16 without parental consent. So taking this into consideration, and the fact it was in the middle of a week day and the boy wasn't wearing school uniform the girl behind the counter presumed that he would be over 16 and didn't bother to ask for any proof of age so, after careful checking of the boys tongue and deciding where to place the piercing Sean took him into the piercing room and proceeded to insert a ptfe bar through the boy's tongue.
When he came out he seemed very happy with the piercing, there was virtually no bleeding and he said that he had hardly felt anything. He promptly paid up and left to continue with his day.
About 3 or 4 hours later (yes I was still there, I'm a poor virtually jobless bum and have nothing better to do) a fairly angry looking middle aged women stormed into the studio and, since Sean had gone on his lunch break at this point, proceeded to shoot her mouth off at the poor girl behind the desk. She claimed to be the boy's mother and said that he was only 15 and should have been in school at the time and so they were breaking the law in piercing him, despite the fact that as yet there is no legal age placed upon body piercing. She also, quite vehemently, informed everyone in the radius of about 200 metres that her son had come home bleeding profusely from his tongue and had had to be taken to hospital.
The shop girl at this point was in tears because the boy's mother had told her she was going to the buildings managers and she was going to make sure that she was sacked and that she was also going to phone the police. By the time Sean returned from his break the cashier girl had gone home because she was in such an upset state.
The next day the boy who had had his tongue pierced returned. He first apologised for not saying that he was 15 and for causing so much hassle to everyone at the studio as he had skipped school and changed out of his uniform to get his tongue pierced. He then however said to pay no attention to his the woman who had been in to complain as she WASN'T his mother, she was his aunt. The only reason she had come in to complain was because she didn't agree with body piercing (I would like to point out however that she had her ears pierced). Not only had he not been to the hospital or had his tongue been bleeding but he had had barely any swelling from it.
Now some of you reading this may say that the boy was irresponsible for lying about his age, but if anyone can say that they've never lied about their age or skipped school I'd appreciate them telling me because I certainly couldn't claim that. Some of you may say that the girl working behind the counter was irresponsible for not checking the boy's age, but I disagree because who hasn't made a mistake or misjudged a situation at least once in their life? My opinion is that the only person acting irresponsibly in the whole situation (pun intended) was the boy's aunt. Her act of pre-meditated deceit was deliberate and quite frankly a very bad example to set for her nephew who she was so worried about.
He did not get any infections from his tongue bar, he did not experience profuse bleeding from the piercing, he certainly didn't have any problems from his actual parents when he went home and showed them his new metal, he told me when I saw him again a few weeks later that they thought it looked nice. The only thing that he got out of the piercing was a positive experience, a healthy and well placed piercing, and possibly a visit from the local truancy officer.
So what then, was so wrong with a simple little tongue bar that an indirect member of his family felt the need to publicly harass professional and hard-working young girl? Simply put her personal prejudice against body modifications and her own misgivings and incorrect assumptions about a perfectly normal and healthy act of personal expression.