Picture Dev-o Armadi, an eighteen year old Ojibway boy, six foot four, head shaved into a mohawk, and some fifty odd piercings. His lobes are stretched to 00g, big enough to shove a bottle of Tylenol through, and are piercing with small silver hoops all the way up. He has various other ear piercings, tragus, rook, etc, and the variety of his facial piercings is enormous- center labrets and both sides, a medusa, a monroe, both sides of his nose, septum, three eyebrow rings, bridge. Oh yes, and both of his nipples as well as a subclavicle, not that he goes shirtless a lot. His left arm is an entire sleeve of beautifully done Koi fish, and his right shoulder is a Dali elephant. He is beautiful, inside and out.
At A Glance Author Bec Contact [email protected] When Six months ago People never seemed to be able to accept the fact that this heavily modded boy played classical violin, or that children loved him. People never seemed to be able to accept the fact that despite his piercings and tattoos, he was getting his masters in chemistry at the University of Toronto. Devyn did not have a job since he stretched his ears to 00g- nowhere in our small hometown would hire him. He was not allowed to visit his neice and nephew after he got his tattoos, and he was kicked out of his house at age sixteen, after the fourth facial piercing.
He was a wonderful piercing artist as well- I still have a variety of beautiful piercings done by him, and one tattoo- a Celtic seahorse resting in a bed of eternity knots on the small of my back.
Possibly my favourite memory of Dev-o is him sitting in my Nana's kitchen, with my five year old cousin sitting on his lap, sticking her fingers through "Uncle Dev-o's" stretched lobes in wonder. Despite the fact that this wonderfully smart boy can't get a job because society is ignorant, children are drawn to him, and my family is in love with him.
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On May 8th 2006, Dev-o and I were at a funk show in our hometown. Prior to the show, things got somewhat heated between him and another man outside the club. Devyn was known to get into fights, sure, but nothing serious;he managed to stay out of trouble with this man for the night. After the show that night, the same man pulled a knife on him with no provocation. He was stabbed repeatedly, and passed away May 9th at the local hospital. Police were there, and help to get him to the hospital was very slow. We come from a small town in Northern Ontario, where those with any body mods are considered "punks" and to be against God. (How does that work, anyways?)
There has been no police inquiry into his death. The reason? He was a "punk". Apparently, just because he had tattoos and piercings, his death was his own fault, and not worth being investigated. His family held a private, closed casktet funeral, eternally ashamed of their son's appearance, even after his death. He had been ex-communicated from their family some years previously, due to his appearance.
Those of us who knew him mourn him. We have completed an inquiry into his death, and interviewed the man who killed him. He has admitted to being suspicious of Devyn's appearance, and of being scared of him. He was raised in a home that promoted piercings as the work of the devil *yes, literally* and of having had piercings himself as a teen- but having faced terrible prejudice in the work place, at school, and of being kicked out of his home for having these piercings.
I still remember Kayla sticking her fingers through his ears in awe, and my even smaller cousin being thrilled by the bull-ring in his septum. It makes me sad that in this day and age, small children can accept and love a man who we assume would scare them to bits, but the rest of society can not. It makes me even sadder that these children will never know why he is dead. His piercings got him killed, but not because he started trouble- but rather because of prejudice.
I would like to use this experience to show people that body modifications do NOT mean that one is dangerous, scary, stupid, against God, etc. In fact, they can be some of the best people in our society. There are bad people who do not have piercings, there are bad people who have piercings, there are good people who are not modified, and good people who are. A few holes in the face and some ink on the skin doesn't mean somebody deserves to die, not be hired, or be ex-communicated from their family. Judge by a person's accomplishments and soul, rather than their appearance.