Pierced Beauty. Fashion and Pain
January 3rd 2010 20:25
The standards of beauty change from time to time. It used to be that both men and women who were fat were considered beautiful. The reason was that only the wealthy could have as much of any kind of food as they wanted. Moreover, the wealthy weren't breaking a sweat every day in the fields so they did not in general turn that food into muscle. They had the leisure to turn it into fat.
Enter the pirate. Men of daring-do and adventures. Mostly gangs of ruthless criminals who performed unspeakable crimes for financial gain and to frighten or at least dissuade their enemies. Nevertheless, just as mobs and gangsters are romanticized in our time, pirates were romanticized in their time. Pirates and sailors in general went to exotic places and saw exotic things like tattoos and piercings.
In our own time we have youths who have to find some place to push the envelope of outrage a little past their parent's comfort zone. Thus we come to those daring things that at one time only sailors and pirates do namely tattoos and piercings. Just listening to the old folks cringe on that odd occasion that the family encountered a sailor let the rebellious youth know exactly what to do.
If we go far enough down the line of body modification we get the people who seem to have the need to cut them selves for the pain,scars and blood. Most of us, even those who have a painfully won tattoo or who have pierced a tender bit of flesh think that needing to cut yourself every day is a sign of being disturbed.
Nevertheless we cannot deny that even in the absence of piercings and tattoos much of what we affect is at least on occasion, non functional, worn for fashion or out of habit. To put a fine point on it, we could go naked much more often than we do. Certainly in the warmth and comfort of our own homes but most of us are not about to try it.
A tattoo or a tongue piercing can make the person of marginal looks seem a bit more exciting or risky so we can actually totally get it when ugly people get pierced and tattooed. But except for the peer pressure or the trying to be cool thing,t why would otherwise attractive men and women mar symmetrical flesh with barbs and trite sayings?
Still a cute girl with a small and tasteful tattoo and a piercing that does not interfere with bodily functions like breathing eating, or blowing her nose is still cute...
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