I got my first lobe piercings at age 5 or so � done by my aunt in not very sterile conditions but I took it like a man (if that is possible for a little girl) and this was enough for next few years. During my high school years I gradually drifted from being a goody two shoes in nice, "proper" clothes to becoming a rebel clad in ragged clothes and wrapped in an old leather jacket. It was then that I discovered that one could have more than one set of lobe piercings. It looked cool on others (it was kind of a standard thing for most girls in my class to have three lobe piercings in their left (yes, the superstition got over here as well) ears. I did not really know why all people I knew had their left ears pierced multiple times and an explanation I got from one of my punk friends (left as non-gay side) was not really convincing. The only reason I decided to pierce my left lobe as well was the fact that I am right-handed and it was much more convenient to pierce my left ear. Over the course of a few weeks I went from having only one lobe piercing in my left ear to having six of them � all done by myself in the silence of the night, with a fat sewing needle or, later, with a safety pin (I was a punk kid, after all), surprising my mother every few days. It was great to have these new piercings and no one said anything except "you must be an idiot to get so many piercings!" or "Cool!" or "How many more you're gonna get done?"
At A Glance Author Ania Contact [email protected] IAM deadly pale When N/A I stuck to my six ear piercings for a few years. During this time I began to study at the university and became a bit more tamed and less rebellious. I put aside my ragged t-shirts with safety pins in and played with some other fashion styles. I was changing and somehow piercings were not on my list then. I even started to think that it was over and I just grew out of them, just like we grow out of our clothes. I still kept my earrings in my ear but did not expect to get anything new.
Then, suddenly, I went for a long trip abroad and things changed. I felt independent and great, so decided to pierce my ear cartilage to commemorate, by means of a new piercing, events that changed me and make me believe in myself more. I was still an university student, so no one really cared, as if it was completely normal and socially acceptable to people in their teens and early twenties to get pierced or do other "weird" things.
When I was 26, however, and my like for body piercing awoke again, things changed. Suddenly it was not all right that someone at my age would even consider getting pierced. All of these "Aren't you too old?" "Isn't something that teenagers do?" "What others would think/say?" sermons started and I began to feel guilty about wanting to do it. These first few weeks after getting my eyebrow done were quite hard and I hated that people just had to tell me what they thought about my decision and a new element of my face. They tried to convince me that it was a mistake and I was behaving unreasonably and plainly stupid. As a result, when I got my first tattoo I did not tell anyone about it; I preferred to keep it just to myself, so others would not destroy my joy and good feelings I got from this first inking experience.
I did not know about BME yet, so I somehow thought that I was maybe the only one who played Peter Pan instead of growing up and focusing on more important things. And when I saw this vast archive of experiences written and submitted by so many and so different people I understood that it does not really matter how old you are or what you do because you always have the right to change your body for better.
The society we live in teaches us about social roles ascribed to us way before our births; it tells us how to behave, what to dream of, what to look like. The way others react shows us whether we look or behave well and these reactions make us feel either great or awfully bad. We all need to be loved or at least liked, so it really matters what others think about us. Their opinions have a huge impact on us, whether we want it or not.
The majority of people think that body modification of various sorts is acceptable (to some degree) only when you are a teenager or still a relatively young person. Once you get caught in the adult life, though, they start telling or showing you how immature and irresponsible body modification actually is � you waste your money on things you actually don't need, you will have difficulties with finding a significant other and a good job, you spoil your "proper" looks and overall behave irresponsibly.
You can find traces of fear of others' opinions and reactions in experiences written and submitted to BME by middle-aged women and men; you can see how great they feel when they discover that their children seem to share their fascination with body modification and support their decision to get some body mod done. In many cases there is a huge initial fear, a hard fight to overcome not only their own fears and false preconceptions imprinted on them by the society but also their fear of pain and reactions of their families. And then there is this great empowering feeling of achievement and enthusiasm and promises given to themselves to be back at a studio really soon to change their bodies again.
I always love reading BME experiences written by people in their forties, fifties, sixties etc. I love reading about the past and watching how the society changes and how individuals change, grow, embrace their physical side, learn to love their bodies. Reading such posts as these two make me feel even better because this is a real proof that it is never to late to challenge the old, imposed on us rules about the way we should look, behave, do, feel, think.
When I seriously got involved into tattoos and some more extreme body piercing I was 27 and was told by many people out there that I am way too old to do "such" things but what our age really means? What does it tell about us? Time flies and we cannot change it no matter what but it is up to us what we will do with our lifetimes. It is never too late to change things for better, start feeling better about ourselves and start loving ourselves. And if it is never too late to do good things to ourselves, it means that it is always a good and proper time to modify both our bodies and minds! After all, if not now, then when?