Tat-us Quo
Perforated Youth
The Perforation Generation
The Tat Pack
BodMod Squad
So, anyway. Far be if from me to criticize the pursuit of a trend. My teenage years were spent right smack dab in the middle of the 80's, and I doubt there has been any era before or since with such abundant opportunity for embarrassing ourselves. And since my interest in trends waned significantly when charged with keeping a distressingly diminutive human being from consuming the contents of a diaper or toddling into a well became the focus of my days, its no surprise that I am woefully unhip.
But never have I seen such a collection of inked and skewered flesh as I have encountered on campus and the surrounding community. They lead me to wonder when being trendy became so painful. And dangerous! As far as I know, fashion trends in the 80's were non-lethal, unless you count the risk of asphyxiation from aerosol fumes. And though we often let our common sense be overruled by our desire to be a Material Girl, I don't think anybody ever contracted Hepatitis C or a raging bacterial infection from parachute pants, though I suppose a yeast infection or two could be blamed on that unfortunate fashion choice.
At the risk of sounding squarer than a saltine cracker...I simply don't get this trend. Primarily because it has got to hurt like heck. I'd say pushing pointy objects through my eyebrows would rank right up there with natural childbirth.
Tattoos, though markedly less shocking, are for me, equally confusing. Perhaps because I find that the human body is already a thing of singular beauty, grace and artistry. In my opinion, marking the human flesh with ink is akin to spray painting graffiti on all the trees in Walden's Woods. Some would argue that tattooing and graffiti alike are valid contemporary art forms. That's highly debatable, but both, even when beautifully rendered, obscure and cheapen the natural beauty of what lies beneath. At a time in my life when I am struggling to maintain epidermal integrity, and still deluding myself about the efficacy of the alphahydroxyretinoidsalycilicsoyextractmicropeelabrasion compounds that I slather on it daily...I am mystified by the apparent dissatisfaction with the dewy splendor of young unsullied skin.
Well, perhaps it is just as well. Stretchmarks and varicose veins do not an ideal canvas make. And at this point, piercing anything that dangles or protrudes will only hasten its inevitable southward progress.
One encounters strange, strange things on college campuses, and some of them can make a person feel like a piece of their innocence has been taken away. I think I'll go unearth my peg leg jeans and my Howard Jones cassette. I might even tease my bangs just a little. I need to think happy thoughts for a while.
I really worry about what my boys are exposed to on a daily basis and I hope and pray that they will have the strength and testimony to stand firm and hold to the IRON ROD.
2 comments:
I don't get as much of the tattooing and piercing as you do. BYU is truly sheltered from the world, but I like it. Of course there are sad fashion choices, just like we used to make with rubber shoes and bracelets, leg warmers and Knits. I should have purchased stock in Aqua Net.
I like how you put it when you said that people who do this are sullying up natural beauty and youth. It really is too bad that the youth cannot enjoy what they have while they have it. One day when they are looking at the gaping holes and the distressed tattoo look they will wonder why they covered the natural beauty beneath.
I totally agree with you. I really don't get it. And what is with the African ear ring thing....the stretching of the lobes. Its just unnatural and freaky.
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