The Tattoo/Piercing Stigma?

[Colette von Strange]

Do you thing there is a stigma put on anyone with visible body art or piercings? Do people look at you differently? Do others find you more or less attractive? What do your friends and family say? How did they react when you first got it? How do employers see you? Do you see your body enhancements to be an advanyage of disadvantage? Is there a difference between how you see the world(as people who appreciate body art and piercings) and people that do not have them? Do you sometimes feel out of the loop? Do you push others out of the loop? Talk to me. I want to know how you feel!

Love,
Colette

[Rhinos Have More Fun]

It might be 2009, but I'm finding that much of society is as conservative as ever. I don't even think that the piercings that show (4 in one ear, one in the other) while I'm at work are a big deal, but I get questions everyday. Needless to say that I never wear my septum ring--or at least I hide it--when I'm on that white collar tip. And I don't even trip--this is a school context. The last thing I would want would be some parents complaining that the district hires "weirdos" to teach their kids.

But even some blue collar folks have been known to give me an impossible time. For example, my co-driver took one look at me and absolutely had a fit!!! Before I even got on the truck, he told me that if I wanted to do a job with him, I'd have to comply. So he MADE me (yes!) remove it when we were on the road. That's some shit I will never figure out: we're going cross country in a fucking 18-wheeler--who the shitfuckshit is going to care what I'm wearing? Better yet, who the fuckshitfuck is going to see it? If it'll make you feel better, I'll hide it when we meet the people at the delivery site. But no, he wasn't even having that...

I quickly figured out that it had extremely little to do with looking professional; the crux of the matter was that he didn't want to have to look at it. (Dude, I climbed out of my bunk one morning with the ring showing and he gave me a tough time--WTF???)

Ehh--I'll come back and finish this another time... I have some crank text messaging to take care of.

[V]

People stare at me all the time. No matter where I am I get stares. Small children, old people, everyone stares. I work at a tattoo shop, and sometimes customers are just very interested in the little additions I have. I kinda feel like a circus freak.

I'd say it'd be a huge disadvantage if I wanted to work in a business office, but since I don't I see it as a great advantage. People who think they can relate to me because of my piercings will approach me. It's nice making friends this way. I plan on having my own business one day, and I'll make sure I let my employees have whatever mods they want.

[Jess]

Definitely.I pretty much get asked about my piercing everyday of my life, sometime it bothers me that some people can't see pass them and pre-judge me! I'm in highschool, I'm definitely one of the few people with body mods so I get alot of "OMG DID THAT HURT?" or " WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" or "YOU WOULD LOOK BETTER WITHOUT THEM". I find it quite funny though because I'm a really quiet person around folks I don't know sometimes and I'm really a nice person , i refuse to hurt a fly but apparently there's people who think I'm more of an "angry,hard,ready to kick your ass" person...which sometimes works to my advantage cause people don't fuck with me but my friends just laugh cause they know I'm absoultely NOTHING but the opposite. Older people give me the worst looks though, they stare and question my parent's ability to raise me for allowing me to do this to MY BODY. My Dad doesn't mind my piercings at all he doesn't even ever ask me about them and he told me " I think you look you fine without them but if it what you want then do it". My mom's kinda a different story ,she's the one who signs the papers for me to get pierced twice as a minor but she was very very very not into the idea at all. Now she's definitely like them and thinks they "suit me" expect she hates my lobes and always tells me "not to go any bigger" (ear stretching). There's guys who told me that my piericing are "UGLY" but there's guys who say "Wow, those are hot" or something .

[T.E. Smith Perkins]

Yes, I believe that in spite of the growing popularity of body art and piercings most people are still opinionated about what sort of person makes it a choice to express themselves in such a way. I have quite a few piercings, ( nose, ears and labret) and just finished getting a full arm sleeve of tattoo work and will get the other arm done as well. I lived in SF for almost 10 years and the hype about tattoos and piercings there is totally true. What I find is that being a female with such elaborate and large work that I have, (and will continue to get) there is a big stigma about this because females are "not supposed" to get work like this, I even heard a male who had a full sleeve say, "I don't think women look right with full sleeves, that's my opinion". It's funny because in SF I actually was inspired to get full sleeves because of the many women that I saw with them, men too, not to leave the fellas out! The men I knew there thought it was no big deal and the community into which I go to get the work done, (the tattoo artists and my artist doing the work), were more than psyched to do and see the work getting done. At work, I try to cover most of it up, to avoid questions or occasional stares. Most are aware, look but say nothing and I work in an office. My reasons for getting the work is multi-faceted, it's artistic, spiritual, cultural and a way of expressing my individuality & I will continue with this evolution of the work. L, T