A place stuck in time you can say. Atlanta and other major cities have grown so much mentally and culturally, with arguable one of the largest fetish scenes in the Untied States. Yet when you break away from those cities you find small towns most of which only have one or two stop lights. Were red state politics and football is the only thing discussed and having an open mind makes you a sinner. I have lived in a small Georgia town most of my life. Yes we do have plenty of tattoo shops spread through the state, yet we have no regulations regarding operations other than you cannot tattoo a minor with or without parental permission. So this opens up any scratchers from starting a shop and making it look professional even worse you have Piercers out there doing the same using jewelry from gas stations.
At A Glance Author vampire311 Contact [email protected] When N/A With that said, the mind set of most conservatives in the south still have the biker gang mind set when it comes to people with tattoos. Yes more people are opening up to the idea, like in my town at the shop we work at we do a lot of community outreach with charities. Yet prejudice is spread here like a virus, I myself have been escorted out of the Goodys at the local mall here because the staff said they felt uncomfortable with me walking around (I was just looking for my girlfriend). To top off all the prejudice is when I get called a Satanist by many people because of my tattoos, I may not exactly be a religious person but a Satanist never. Yet it makes you think for a minute about how the south really is stuck in time. I have been to Boston and was received like I belong even before tattooing was legal there. I have visited many other cities as well, now yes I know that there are people who will look down on me because of my tattoos and piercings anywhere I go and I am okay with that since this is who I choose to be. Yet for some reason it still bothers me that the south is so caught up in religious injustice of the body that we forget to be ourselves.
Being a body piercer I see first hand the changing mind set of small town communities especially among the younger generations yet many you have admitted liking the heavy mods and unusual piercings said that they would never do that because there friends and family would judge them. Again and this goes for every region when do we let friends make up our minds for us (its like the jump off the bridge line). Now I will admit that friends are very important yet if they do not like you for who you are embracing your heritage that has been forgotten thanks to western and Roman teachings then maybe they really were not your friends. One of the greatest lines I have ever heard was "Without roots your have no tree" I forgot who said that but it is true. We have forgotten our roots thanks to decades of religious extremist even normal western practices like women piercing there nipples in the 19th century so they could be inverted has fallen out of fade now yes all these piercing stil l are around today but they all have very meaningless existence today.
Even in the modification community in the south there is prejudice I was threatened that I would be fired if I stretched my nostrils. Even the shops discriminate against certain modifications especially when it comes to implants, scarification, and other heavy mods. Even among the shops Piercers are still considered monkeys and not legitimate artist. Like me I was an anatomy/art major in college and I still get picked on for being a piercer. Yet I choose to stay were I am at because I have so much to still learn in the piercing world. Now there are many states in the south that do well in understanding like Florida who carry strict regulations on body piercing studios and that is a good thing. Yet I live in Georgia were insane senators try to get genital piercings for females banned and his only excuses was " just think it is plan wrong and goes against what God had for us".
So even today we still struggle with everyone trying to argue about the Christian side of not getting tattooed, using Leviticus as an argument. Were as there are far more scriptures about Jesus having tattoos than God being against tattoos. Read Revelations if you do not believe me Jesus has his name upon his hip and it does say hip not robe but hip. Yet the mind set even outside of the south amongst Christians is your body is a temple to God, well I got to say this then why are most preachers fat and out of shape? They should be the most healthiest people around. The point is when it comes to the Bible people take what they want to read and hear and mold it to there image. Just like we do with our bodies.
Sincerely,
Vampire311