Call me old-fashioned, a wrinkly, past it, anything you like - but for the life of me I cannot understand why anyone would want to look like this. Okay, the illustration is perhaps a little exaggerated, but the fashion for mutilating one’s body has been going on for too long. The way I see it is that self-mutilation can only be a reflection of someone’s self-esteem and a pretty low one at that.
Pop psychology aside, we are most of us born with reasonably good looking bodies, unmutilated and pristine. Why do we un-do what we’re given by Mother Nature so readily?
When I was young, six hundred years ago, tattoos were pretty much reserved for certain servicemen -not women- and an earring in the right lobe (or was it the left?) indicated to others a certain sexual orientation. I remember someone who was refused a well-paid job that he was more than qualified to do because he had a tiny tattoo just visible under the cuff of his shirt – discriminatory perhaps, but the job involved meeting the public. Would you like to be served by someone looking like him above?
These days, boys and grown men wear earrings in either or both ears, on their eyebrows, in their tongues, lips and genitals. The thought of it hurts – excuse me while I curl up for a second…
Is this fashion, depressingly on the increase, not a clear indication of youth with too little to do and too much money with which to do it? It’s not cheap by any means.
But don’t get me wrong, a little decoration in the right private place that no-one sees except at private moments can be a delightful surprise. (Yes, I thought you’d like the picture…)
(c) Alexander Bewick 2008
Pop psychology aside, we are most of us born with reasonably good looking bodies, unmutilated and pristine. Why do we un-do what we’re given by Mother Nature so readily?
When I was young, six hundred years ago, tattoos were pretty much reserved for certain servicemen -not women- and an earring in the right lobe (or was it the left?) indicated to others a certain sexual orientation. I remember someone who was refused a well-paid job that he was more than qualified to do because he had a tiny tattoo just visible under the cuff of his shirt – discriminatory perhaps, but the job involved meeting the public. Would you like to be served by someone looking like him above?
These days, boys and grown men wear earrings in either or both ears, on their eyebrows, in their tongues, lips and genitals. The thought of it hurts – excuse me while I curl up for a second…
Is this fashion, depressingly on the increase, not a clear indication of youth with too little to do and too much money with which to do it? It’s not cheap by any means.
(c) Alexander Bewick 2008
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