Body Modification

It's culture.

Some would say that body mod/manip, or however else people would like to label it as, is nothing more then people doing disgusting things with their body. 

The bible thumper would say that we're desecrating our; ahem, excuse me, the LORDS temple.

The business oriented cooperate climbers would give us a glance and then assure us we'd never get a job worth anything

While the common everyday passerby would find themselves glancing our way with out a seconds thought. That is until, that thought caught up with them and they realized exactly what it was they were seeing.

Society dictates that to be acceptable is to be clean shaven, clean skinned and with as little unnatural holes and scars as possible. 

That's why to see someone walking down the street with two inch holes in their ears, creates the immediate sympathy twinge. Because of course, that HAD to hurt. And after the sympathy comes the annoyance. 'What was the POINT of that?' 'Must people always work so hard to be different?' 'Don't they realize that by their very modified nature they now create unrest wherever they go?' 'Don't they realize that anything out of the accepted social norms for our society is a threat?'

Of course not. And why would we? When it's perfectly acceptable to pierce your infants ears, why is not then acceptable for that infant to grow up and take it a step further?

When we live in a society that actually finds grounds to debate whether woman have a right to do what they will with their body, it should come as no surprise that people can't help the disgust they feel when looking at our modified bodies.

They look at us and see vehicles for unrest. People that defy social norms for no other reason, than because they can. And of course, in every culture there are those that turn it into a 'scene' a fad, if you will. 

But that over simplified view of things completely ignores the dedication, pain and money involved. 

Often times you hear stories of the kid in High School that got shit from his follow students for looking different. And upon taking it to the principle, got dressed down for bringing it upon himself by being different, before being told to take out the piercing/cover up that tattoo/hide those scars.

Does it matter that it took you 8 months and however much money, to get to where you are? Does it matter that that tattoo was painstakingly designed by hand before an artist of the craft painted it on your skin?

No. Because society will resist change for as long as it exists. However, as long as it exists, there will be change. 

Because the two are mutually exclusive. One can not exist with out the other.