I once commented years ago when I first started getting pierced, that if you see someone with a lot of tattoos and piercings, they had money. I was thinking about how much money I have spent on piercings so far. I think it was a couple hundred (US)dollars at the time. I was 20, and still living with my folks, so $200 still seemed like a lot of money. Think about it however. There are certainly people that look down on the modified. They cannot understand it or maybe refuse to understand it. Maybe there is another reason.
At A Glance Author aniorange Contact [email protected] IAM aniorange When N/A Think about how much money you have wrapped up in piercings. The jewelry alone can really run up a tab. Ten (US)dollars for this, twenty for that. If you get into larger gauges, the price certainly goes up. The cost of tunnels, plugs and tapers, it all adds up. Now factor in the cost of getting those things installed for the first time. Most piercers do not work for free. Yeah, sure there are some pretty cheap places to get pierced. Even if have a place that charges 20 (US)dollars a pop (or poke) after 5 pokes you are at 100 dollars. It adds up.
For my personal experience, I have spent anywhere from twenty (US)dollars to ninety (US)dollars a piercing. Probably the average I have spent is 40 (US)dollars. I would say that is pretty common. So basically the more piercings you see on a person, the more money they have invested in themselves. Oh, and lets not forget the piercings you cannot see. A lot of shops charge more for those piercings (hence my $90 dollar PA). So for that person that has a ton of facial piercings, tack on a little extra for what you probably cannot see.
Then there is stretching. For those with larger jewelry filling the gaps, the price multiplies. You have not only the cost of the initial piercing and jewelry, but also the cost of jewelry at each stage. The larger the gauge the more the jewelry costs. Do not forget the tapers. If a person does it themselves, they typically buy tapers to get the job done out. If a person has a studio that puts them in, they may not have to buy a taper, but I bet they leave a nice little tip for the artist.
Enough about piercings, what about tattoos? They are certainly not free, not for most people. My first tattoo was about a hundred (us)dollars. It was not that big, just some flash around my ankle, but I imagine it is a pretty average starting price for small tattoos. The price goes up as does the complexity and size of the tattoo (obviously). The larger it is, the more colorful it is, the more time an artist had to spend on it, and the more the wearer had to spend on it. Pretty logical I think. If a person is covered in tattoos, once again, they have invested a pretty penny in themselves. They have time and time again dropped somewhere over a hundred dollars for each one. Often it is much more than a hundred, and if it is big enough, it takes more than one sitting and more than one payment. After all that payment for services, if the artist does good work, chances are the tattooed will leave a tip. It all means more money, and more time.
Much the same can be said for scarification, cutting and branding. Just like tattooing, a professional job can be time consuming and costly. It takes time to do it right, do it as safely as one can, and cleanly. Again, that means more money for the work, and probably more tipping.
You will notice that time is a common factor in the last couple of paragraphs. It takes time to tattoo a tattoo. It takes time to carefully cut, or brand someone. Perhaps you have heard this phrase in the business world before. Time is money. For the artist, that is obvious. For the consumer, if you will, that not only means they are spending money, it is time that they are not making money. For the larger pierces of work sometimes you have to take off of work. It all adds up really.
Lets not forget the possible health costs. There are risks involved. We all spend at least some money in cleaning and healing products. It may be Biotene, sea salt, or ointment for your tattoo, but it is part of the process. For the unfortunate few there are the trips to the doctor or even the emergency room when things go awry, further adding to financial cost of being modified.
Once you think about it, many of these people are doing pretty good for themselves, especially the people that are obviously visually modified. One would think perhaps these people have trouble finding gainful employment because of their modifications. I do not think it should be that way, but tell me it is not to some degree. Maybe they are not lawyers or politicians, but they are doing something right to be able to afford what they have.
In conclusion, not only is body modification a form of expression, it can also be looked upon as a status symbol. A heavily modded person is much like that guy with a BMW Roadster, or the nice big fishing boat (minus perhaps the midlife crisis). Of course there are many factors here. There are cheaper ways to get modified as well as much more expensive ones. Some people are happy with pretty hubcaps when others have to go all out and get the aluminum rims. Please do not take that the wrong way; there is nothing wrong with that. To each their own. I think however it is something to think about and keep in mind. Maybe some of those people that dislike those with body mods, are no different than people that hate their neighbors for the nice entertainment center they have. They wish they could afford to do the same.
So the next time someone gives you a hard time, or dirty look because of you mods, go ahead and tell them, "Your just jealous!"