Pierce This
Posted
May 3, 2008 at
7:10 pm by
Rita
Please tell me what’s up with the tattoos and the piercings. I’m not talking the regular old ear piercing, or even erotic piercings. Those, I understand. I can even see how the little nose stud can be cute (although sometimes they photograph more like warts). I mean the funky eyebrow piercing, or the labrets or the bull rings in the nose. What’s with that?
I remember watching a documentary on the history of tattoos a few years back. And, if my memory serves me, this was a custom that certain tribes used as a coming-of-age status. The idea was to withstand the pain of the tattooing process, and the tattoo was the proof that the boy did endure it and was now a man. They didn’t get the tattoo because of the image, the image was a result of the process. It made sense.
It also made sense that it was for men and not women. Women have their own coming-of-age status symbols. For one, every 28 days, we bleed for a week. The proof that we endure that pain is that everyone in our hut is still alive after the week is done. If that’s not enough, then given the right circumstances, we have live human beings yanked out from our bodies in one way or another. The proof we survived that is well, the child.
But, if even that isn’t enough, then we also have our stretch marks, saggy skin, deformed belly buttons and floppy tits to commemorate the experience. So, what’s with the body altering tattoos and piercings?
I was at the aquarium the other day and I saw a woman with two sons. She was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and on one arm, she had a tattoo of a flower and a boy’s name and a date of birth. On the other arm, she had another tattoo of a flower and the other boy’s name and date of birth. I don’t know why she did that. I talked about it with my husband later and I said that maybe the boys were adopted, and she felt she missed out on the pain and physical body alteration, so she had that done to compensate? Or maybe she suffered short-term memory loss and was constantly afraid of forgetting who those kids were and when they were born? I don’t know. Because otherwise, the boys could just tell you their names and birth dates. It didn’t need to be permanently etched into her skin.
Isn’t it the same with piercings? Weren’t they originally supposed to be proof of pain tolerance? I know some were intended to be solely ornamental. But, bull rings in the nose? Isn’t that just a bad idea? There’s a reason that farmers put the rings in noses of bulls in that particular manner–because the pain is so excruciating, the bull has no choice but to submit to whatever’s pulling on it. Seems like a really, really bad thing for a young woman to voluntarily do to herself, doesn’t it?
Now, I am typically a “live and let live” sort of gal. I really don’t care if someone wants to cover her entire body with green ink and poke herself all full of holes, here, there, and everywhere. But, the idea of mothers doing it irritates me. It irritates me because like I said, we have built-in proofs of pain tolerance. Badges of our unique status already walking around and also forever marking our body. But, rather than make it fashionable to go around showing off those, we’re instead adhering to men’s pain tolerance symbols. Does that seem right? Why not make it really the new cool thing to show off our post-partum bellies? Instead of investing in uncomfortable bras that try to boost our breasts into gravity defying shapes, why not adopt some fashions that let them swing low and free like our tribal sisters? Have pride in the pain and disfigurement that went along with pregnancy and childbirth. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate feminist stance?
Tags: body-piercing, child-birth, Humor, motherhood, stretch-marks, tattoos |
45 Responses to “Pierce This”
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31. JamieS said:
May 4, 2008 @ 11:34 am
[quote comment="160176"][quote comment="160166"]Oh, I think you like to debate. [/quote]
And yeah, I do. Sadly. It’s not something I’m always proud of (as discussed on my own blog recently), but yes, I am easily drawn to debate.[/quote]
You just have a firey personality. Not such a bad thing I think.
32. Rita said:
May 4, 2008 @ 11:54 am
33. JamieS said:
May 4, 2008 @ 12:02 pm
[quote comment="160190"]OK, so I figured out the “glitch” that wouldn’t let me post in a way that shows that I was responding to my own blog entry. Being the only Rita here (so far), I didn’t think it was that huge of a deal. But, I accidentally figured out what it was that was wrong, and like pretty much all “glitches” here, it had nothing to do with the IP website, staff, or formatting and everything to do with the fact that I am a technological eeeediot.[/quote]
HAHAHA Aren’t most of us?
34. Friend said:
May 4, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
I would say YES to that!!!!!!!!!! Fiery may be a little weak even……
35. Grandma frm Ks. said:
May 4, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
I just got in on reading, Jamie S., Kat Von D is a beautiful woman, did you see her when she was with Miami Ink,? she got her feelings hurt really bad, Any way I just wanted to re mark on the old grannys laying in their caskets, They’ll probably have on a turtle neck (LMBO)
36. JamieS said:
May 4, 2008 @ 1:36 pm
[quote comment="160232"]I just got in on reading, Jamie S., Kat Von D is a beautiful woman, did you see her when she was with Miami Ink,? she got her feelings hurt really bad, Any way I just wanted to re mark on the old grannys laying in their caskets, They’ll probably have on a turtle neck (LMBO)[/quote]
Grams,
I don’t buy she got hurt. She was getting her own show so they had to do something. They still, at least when I was watching for awhile, did some things related. Ratings. Yes, she is a beautiful girl and I’m not sure why she’s tatooed (sp) her body like that and even on Miami Ink she was upset and uncomfortable about Miami not being like California where that much displayed ink was the norm.
37. Kristy said:
May 5, 2008 @ 10:10 am
This is an interesting discussion.
I have two tattoos. When I was planning to get the first one and people would say things about not wanting them later, I would say “If I turn into a person who didn’t like tattoos or was judgmental of them, then the one(s) I had would be the person I was then having her revenge on the bitch I’d become.
I don’t think of my tattoos as being about proving I could take the pain, although I’m sure some people do. I didn’t actually find it that painful; more like irritating or mildly unpleasant. I think in some ways the idea has a different meaning for me now than it did then (my 20th birthday was the first, when my best friend graduated from college we went together and I got my second–they don’t match or anything.) Then it was about wanting to hold and remember a time in my life that I knew would quickly pass. For the first one, I was turning 20, entering adulthood and had been on my own for two years. I felt very young and free and in love with life, and I wanted to freeze that feeling for the future. I wanted permanence in what was otherwise ephemeral.
Now, I do want more. I want the first one I got redone, because it’s a perfectly circular vine and the guy just underestimated the darkness of my skin so it’s darker and less detailed than I’d like. Dh teases that it looks like my foot is sewn on. I want it turned into an art-deco stylized vine that tendrils up for a few spirals around my lower calf and down onto my foot a little. I want it in lighter colors but I’m not sure what they’ll be able to do and have it blend well with the existing one. I’m not sorry I got the one I have, I just want it changed some. And I still like my other one, which is an old-fashioned violet on the inside of my left ankle.
Now, I think of getting tattooed as a way to choose and have some control over the way my body looks as that becomes less and less the case. I can’t control or change what time and four babies have done to my body. And I know now that worse is in store. I like being able to assert my will over merciless nature in that small way. I want to create something beautiful and make it part of my body.
Although I guess…the other and last one I want symbolizes my kids, but it won’t have their names or anything. Each of my kids was born in a different season, and there are four of them. I feel like that combined with the cyclical nature of the seasons and of life just lends itself so perfectly to a tattoo. I want it on the back of my shoulder, and it will be botanical, looking like the old botanical drawings or seed catalog illustrations, and there will be elements of each season. So I guess that is, again, about making one thing permanent from a situation that is ephemeral. All children disappear. We don’t get to keep them; they turn into adults. Everything about my life with my children now is going to phase out. I just want a reminder of this time to carry with me.
38. Rita said:
May 5, 2008 @ 10:54 am
It’s just not necessarily the way I go about memorializing things.
But, like I said, if I even win a Pulitzer, then I’ll have that somehow etched into my skin. But, it won’t be a hidden place, it’ll be prominent, to encourage people to ask, “Hey, what’s that tattoo?” And I’ll humbly (NOT) answer, “Oh, I got that to commemorate the day I won the Pulitzer.”
39. Tracy said:
May 5, 2008 @ 1:41 pm
I’ve had a “bull nose” ring before. I’m not sure why I got it but I think one day I was eating a cheeseburger and my friend and I decided to get a piercing. At the time I thought it was adorable and on some gals I still think it is. To be honest, I’m also a complete and utter wuss and it didn’t bother me too much, and I took it out when I found out I was pregnant. I’m not sure why because I don’t care about piercings or tattoos but something in me said “no bull ring while carrying a baby..” I don’t miss it.
I also have a bicycle tattoo on my wrist, and I love it, and I think I’m going to get another tattoo of a little girl reading under a tree. Why? Well, why not. I like them.
40. Kristy said:
May 5, 2008 @ 2:06 pm
I’ve always wanted a tiny little nose stud, too, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever get it. I just think they’re very pretty and feminine but dh isn’t wild about the idea. I don’t really like any other facial piercings. I’ve had my left ear peirced four times and the right twice since high school, and recently started wearing small studs in all the upper holes again. I used to have one way up the the cartilage on the left too but that closed up long ago.
I know what you’re saying about memorializing things in different ways, Rita. I guess I want something that is a permanent part of me, that can never be lost as long as I’m alive. I think tattoos have an immediate, emotional quality for the bearer that can’t really be replicated in any other medium.
Oh, and as far as being a tattooed old lady, well, I’m going to look like hell anyway, aren’t I? I think we don’t think of old people that way because the generation that is old now wasn’t. But when we get old, we’ll still be ourselves–just old!
41. Rita said:
May 5, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
Plus the girls who I saw with them in were all these really young women (like 17-early 20’s) in Austin, on the drag, wearing goth type clothing, most of them NOT there to study, but to do drugs and engage in risky sexual behavior. I’d see them smoking cigarettes, often high on something or other and I’d just think how that nose ring was going to be used against them. Like they were wearing a weapon to help someone take advantage of them.
I’d probably feel the same way about vulnerable young men, but the guys I saw didn’t have the nose rings. Back then (late 90’s early 00’s) it seemed it was only the girls.
42. Tracy said:
May 5, 2008 @ 2:38 pm
[quote comment="160716"]Now, Tracy, I’ve got to admit, the bull rings just flat out bother me. It’s not an aesthetic thing, because really, whatever a person does to their own body doesn’t visually offend me. But, it’s just the whole concept of it. That the rings are intended to manipulate and make submissive an enormous animal. So, then for a woman to put one in her own nose–I just can’t get away from the “to manipulate and make submissive” idea of it, even though I’m sure that’s absolutely the furthest thing from her mind when she has it done. You know?
Plus the girls who I saw with them in were all these really young women (like 17-early 20’s) in Austin, on the drag, wearing goth type clothing, most of them NOT there to study, but to do drugs and engage in risky sexual behavior. I’d see them smoking cigarettes, often high on something or other and I’d just think how that nose ring was going to be used against them. Like they were wearing a weapon to help someone take advantage of them.
I’d probably feel the same way about vulnerable young men, but the guys I saw didn’t have the nose rings. Back then (late 90’s early 00’s) it seemed it was only the girls.[/quote]
You are one of my favorite people here, FYI.
Anyway, I will agree with you on the context that young girls loitering, stoned, etc will have the nose ring used against them, but really isn’t that what they want? To say fuck you?
I got it when I was nineteen because I thought it was cute, I wore it out when I felt like it, and wore it in when I thought it wasn’t appropriate.
I’m not in the mood to have a serious discussion today; I feel like I could say a bunch on the topic but my allergies are killing me and I’m falling asleep at the computer.
43. Rita said:
May 5, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
44. Kristy said:
May 6, 2008 @ 10:19 am
Honestly my only issue with the big and conspicuous facial piercings is that they’re ugly to me and make it hard for me to look at someone’s face. I get it that this is the desired effect for some people, but it’s a hard thing for me to understand. Because I’m vain, lol.
45. Stacey S said:
June 8, 2008 @ 4:51 pm
As a part time CNA at a long term care facility I get to see some (indescribably horrific things on human beings that would make you tremble with fear) interesting things. I come across some tattoos on the men (so far no freaky deaky chicky poo’s) that are absolutely unrecognizable! It really makes me laugh when I think about what our generations’ is going to look like in 40+ years! Should be interesting for the nurse’s of tomorrow! LOL