I am considered a “modified” individual. I have snakebites, my earlobes are stretched, my tongue is split, and I have a magnet in my finger. There is a grim reaper and a Fascist eagle on my right arm, a symbol from the “Spawn” comic book with my last name on my left arm and a Detroit Red Wings logo on my hip. These piercings and tattoos are among the many modifications I made to my body that have altered the way the world sees me.
There is a misconception that people with tattoos or piercings must be criminals or drug addicts, but there are millions of different reasons why people decide to get body art. Sometimes it is a deeply seeded piece of art that represents a huge event in their lives. Sometime it is a great piece of artwork that they want to wear everyday. For me, almost all of my tattoos have a deeper meaning.
My game controller tattoo, for example, tells about the period of time in which I wanted to design games and work on character development, and gaming was a huge part of my life. My “horns up” tattoo shows that I relate to the raw intensity of rock ’n’ roll, more than any other genre of music. It is a privilege to wear a tattoo, a piercing or any other type of body modification and it is a privilege I don’t think those who judge others will ever deserve.
The so-called “modified” have to deal with biases on a constant basis. Many professional jobs will not allow visible tattoos of any kind, because it is considered unprofessional by employers and clients. But these people have never met a tattooed guy like me; I’m 22 years old, a responsible home owner, the owner of three businesses, and a double major in college.
The judgments are unfair, because tattooing and piercing are some of the world’s oldest and most respected body modification practices, only rivaling scarification and branding. They are traditions passed down for thousands of years and are art forms that can be worn by every type of person. Warriors during the Roman Empire wore tattoos proudly to display their pride in their empire. Roughly 1,950 years later, tattoos were still going strong; President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a large tattoo of his family crest on his chest.
In modern society, tattoos and piercings carry many different meanings. While two people may have identical pieces of body art, the story behind each piece might be very different. In prison, inmates might get tattoos to represent their gang. In a standard tattoo shop, artists do coverups,flash art, and mainstream or custom tattoos and piercings. In the gallery where I work, the artists have prestigious reputations, and every tattoo or piercing we do carries its own meaning.
Joe Casal, on of my co-workers at the gallery where I work, is an accomplished tattoo artist who also acknowledges that non-modified individuals definitely judge the modified. He tells me that people will always judge people who look different from them, not just because of tattoos and piercings, but also because of race, religion and nationality.
When it comes to non-modified people passing judgment, most modified individuals are able to turn the other cheek. We are a subculture that simply choses to adorn our bodies with artwork and jewelry, and we understand that not everyone feels the need to do the same.
The only difference between those who choose to decorate their skin and those who don’t is that the tattooed don’t care if a person has a lot of body art; those people are still fellow human beings who deserve respect.
