"Destroying your body."

This has always bothered me. I really resent it when people say, "How can you pierce yourself? Do you just hate your body? Are you dissatisfied with it?"

FUCK NO, I'M NOT.

My piercings have made me appreciate my body more - did I ever look really hard at my eyebrows or lips or ears before? Not really. Now I pay attention to them, they mean something more to me...

Anyways, I just wanted to vent on that. I seem to get asked that "Why do you destroy yourself" question a lot.

Anyone else get that much? Or any other stupid questions and good ways to deal with them ?

 

Whats your problem wonderboy!!!???

Your body's a temple!!!
Even if your peircings make you appreciate and like your body even more, its still sinful!!!

Hahaha just kidding man.

Don't worry about people who say that.
Who knows what thier problem is.

 

"Your body is a temple" does not preclude adding a few windows. Or a frieze on the walls.

 

lol! i'll get right to adding some windows.

could you imagine how much that would freak people out,

 

is that what you are looking for?

 

I get the whole destroyin/mutilating your body thing occasionally. You really can't let it bother you because then you are stooping to the level of the people who are bothered by what other people do to their own bodies.

You can also point out that body mods are just a function of culture working on our appearance, the same as haircuts/bathing/clothing. If they want to play that whole leave your body natural card, you can ask them where they draw the line. OK, that was the anthropologist coming out in me.

Peace

 

a piercing needle kills 20-40 skin cells. which are regenerated very quickly and easily. your body destroys, and creates thousands of skin sells a day. as for harm, thats bullshit. alcohol harms brain cells which only some are regenerated, but people dont call drinking self harm. ...thats what i tell people that say the piercings are self harm.

 

The way I look at it; if there really is a God....he give me a clean slate to beautify. Tattoos and piercings don't destroy my temple....drinking might, but not tattoos. Tattoos and piercings make my body prettier to look at than a body that looks like everyone elses. I get my tattoos and piercings for myself....my enjoyment. I don't give a fuck if someone else likes them or even approves of them. When I get comments like "If God intended you to have piercings he'd put holes there" I find something they're doing wrong and turn it on them, that usually ends the conversation.
Stop worrying so much what someone else is saying about you and your poison and just be you.

 

Pfft... living kills you. Every second of your life you are decaying. Why not have a little bit of fun ?

 

i'm a christian no matter how uncool that is to anyone else(jesus was the first hippie), but i think of it like this (even though we all know the body is a temple comment was a joke) God said my body is a temple as is the church which no one finds any harm in decorating. lets take stained class windows, and all the other pretty stuff. well a tattoo is like a stained class window just decoration. then consider a temple in the terms of what it is you don't build a temple and leave it bare, you make it beatiful and nice for your god to look at and enjoy. so in essence you would be making your god happy by making his temple even more beatiful to look at.

 

Who gives a piss if Jesus was a hippie or not....in case you didn't catch on, you don't have to be a hippie....or know a hippie to be here.
Being the Christian that you are, you'd know God doesn't really like churches or temples, he says gather and pray, why waste all that money on erecting a building in which you worship? It's no safer to worship in a church than it is to worship in your own house.

 

I'm not too concerned about what other people say, it doesn't like keep me up at night or something, it's just the occasional jabs that make a person kind of weary... anyone else know what I'm talking about? It's all funny, I'm not a humourless guy lol, I love people making fun of me - I'm just trying to get at the point that a lot of people just seem to take piercings at face (lol, pun) value. But, I guess, that's what they are there for, in a way.

Good discussion... Hopefully we don't get into a religious debate here

 

i've never gotten a question like that, but the other day i was walking with my shirt off and this woman was like" HOLY TATTOO!" i thought it was hilarious. she just kind of glared at me and walked away.

 

I don't get it a lot but it does happen. I think it's sad that people can just assume that you hate your body rather than trying to see the beauty of piercings, tattoos etc. Even if I'm not into something I always try and see it from someone else's view rather than assume straight off.
If I ever say to family members, "I'm thinking of getting........." they'll always try and persuade me otherwise by saying, "you'll regret that later in life" or "why would you ruin what you've been given?" and my personal favourite by my dad, "you want to watch yourself, you're turning into a bloody pin cushion" that always makes me laugh! But we have our own minds and the way I like to deal with people's negativity is to listen, then ignore them and do what I want.

 

hehe, I know exactly what you mean, my dad was once like "No, I never got piercings 'cause I'm satisfied with my body." I was like hey, that's snarky there buddy

 

I've never gotten that response from what I recall.. I've been asked what the point of piercings are.. I don't really know. I think I originally got my lip pierced to accentuate my lips, bring attention to them I guess? I still like it though, its just decoration. So whoever says its cuz you're not happy with your body is lame, cuz I love my lips and thats why I did it. =P

To each his own ya know.

 

In defence of wonderboy's dad, the fact that he (dad) is satisfied with his (dad's) body the way it is, does not imply that wonderboy should not try to decorate his (wb's) body. Perhaps dad ment it that way. (wonderboy would know) But Dad needed some answer to "Why don't you have a tat"?

Why do so many people think, "I like this, therefore you should like it too."?

 

Snarky? I'm seriously out of the loop with the slang these days.

Whether you like it or not, there will be people who judge you. Make your decisions wisely. Tattoos and piercings are still marginalized to rebelling youths, and are often associated with the less educated or coarser people in life. You know as much as anyone that this is NOT always the case. Regardless of whether your body is a temple, a canvas, a whatever, be prepared for changes in attitude and many assumptions that people will have of you. If you cannot accept it, maybe you should be thinking twice about body modification, and where you place what.

Lastly, what happened to filial respect? If your parents don't like it and you're living under their roof, why on earth are you doing something to create tension? You have your whole life to live and do as you like in a matter of a teeny handful of years! When the time finally comes when you're on your own, you'll wonder why you rushed into things so quickly or got frustrated so easily.

 

I've got my nose pierced, six piercings in my ears and a few tatts. I was at work the other day (i work in a restaurant/bar) and a guy told me my boss should make me take the piercings out and cover the tatts. He reckoned he didn't want to 'see that while he was eating.' I got my boss to come talk to him...he shut up after that. My boss is over six foot, has his eyebrow and lip pierced and has both arms tattooed in full tribal sleeves. ha ha. He reckons i should get more.

 

haha, great discussion! I don't live with my dad, I'm not a rebel, I don't get piercings to try to go against the man. I am fully aware that people are going to judge me, and I'm amazed by the amount of people that have told me this like it was news, and I'm just trying to share some fun stories. I don't get upset by people judging me, I don't dislike them because of it, I don't try to force piercings or body modification onto other people. I was once like "Dad, did you ever have piercings?" I didn't say "Why didn't you ever get piercings?" It was just conversation, not an accusation. hehe, I wasn't in any case trying to create tension with my father... I only see him a handful of times a year, and we're on relatively good terms, and I know it doesn't matter to him what I do with myself.

Monk's Girl, that's so funny that someone was like "I don't want to see that while I'm eating." I don't even know what I'd think to that, just laugh at them or something hahahaha.

I think it's often interesting to see different people's particular biases on the subject of body modification, and to understand why people think what they do. I know people will judge me, but I'm not going to entirely ignore it - I want to understand why they believe what they do. I'm not going to get in their face about it, but I do like finding out why people think the way they do (and it might illuminate some of my own thought processes). But I do find the vast majority of people never have any response to my piercings at all (although that might be because I'm at university at the moment).

Keep it goin' with the stories!

By the way, Magical Fire Lady, your lip ring looks really nice.