The Cranky Professor

Dentists are apparently already reeling in the bounty of tongue piercings, so why not spread the financial goodness around the medical establishment?

Why does rebellion and self-expression always seem to involve doing what millions of other people are doing? You can be as transgressive as you like, but only in ways officially approved by your generational peers.

Ah, the wallets are open but the brains are out to lunch...

Ah, you gotta love all those individualists who "self-express" in the exact same way. Funny how that happens.

I continue to be perplexed by the latest preferred forms of "self-expression" though.

Piercings seem uncomfortable and are hard to look at (I simply can't look a young lady in the face when she's got a hoop through one of her lips, for instance); and a tattoo on the body of a beautiful woman seems like vandalism plain and simple to me.

But I am no longer in the youngest cohort, and was always a young fogey anyway. So what do I know.

Now Theodore Dalrymple, he does seem to think he knows. He regards the mania for tattoos and piercings as a sign of an incipient reversion to barbarism, or at the very least a flirtation with romanticized savagery as a fashion statement. I'd be enthusiastically on board with that if someone could supply some analytical heft to it.

As a practicing physician I see a lot of World War II and Korean War veterans with tatoos, mainly on their arms. They always laugh about them when I express interest in the story behind them, and say "Oh, I was young and just in the Army/Navy/Marines, trying to impress the girls."

The difference between a veteran and a "Please-please-notice-me!" young dingaling is that the veteran will never consider having his tatoo removed.

Heh ... I used to teach teens on weekends.

They'd tell me they wanted to get pierced. I'd reply, "why, so you can be different like everyone else?"

Me, I'm less ambitious - as one of my goals in life is to leave this Earth with the same number of holes I came in with.

Am I the only one who sees the contradiction here:

"Body piercing, Mutnick said, is "a fashion statement -- something for the here and now -- not when I'm 30.""

When she's 30 she'll find out just how permanent that "fashion statement" is.

Before anyone gets a piercing or tattoo they should take a long hard look at their closet and all the clothes they don't/won't wear anymore.

I believe there actually are some forms of tattoo removal already..say via laser...

Tongue piercings are right up there with candy apples among dentist faves.

I am a plastic surgeon and fixing these holes is very difficult, as is tattoo removal. Remember, Hollywood stars who have tattoos removed have highly paid makeup artists.

Metesky: No contradiction. Most piercing holes heal over just fine once the jewelery is removed. You can stretch the holes over 1/4" (approx) if you want them permanent, but your basic 10ga. wire lasts no longer than you want it to.

I should clarify: some piercings are just dumb. Earlobes, nipples, and many places on the genitals are fine if done by someone experienced and competent. Belly buttons and other surface-to-surface piercings are slow to heal, prone to infection, tend to scar badly, &c, even when done by experts.

I do not understand this. Our kids are doing the same stuff that our generation did during our punk rock days. So, as I told my son who was thinking about piercings, I guess it's cool to be like Mom, Dad and some of their friends. I showed him articles about CBGB and Mudd Club in NYC and the 930 Club in DC during the 1970's and early 1980's. He didn't get the piercings.

chsw

I think we should encourage our children and young people to get as many piercings and tattoos as possible. Once compelled to mutilate themselves, they will rebel against the barbarity and stupidity of the whole thing and end up dressing like Donna Reed and Gregory Peck.
I have a friend who got loaded on vacation and got tattoo of a cartoon character on her shoulder. Now I like Tweety as much as the next guy, but who the hell wants a 60 year reminder of a hangover? At least she remember where she got the hepatitis.

I've recently been attending a lot of 12-step meetings and frankly one could make a lot of money removing ill-advised tattoos from the formerly impaired.

Me, I like a barbarian princess look with lots of tattoos and piercings, yum.

I think the initiation ritual (bit of pain, etc.) aspect of it is what many young people find good about it. And of course, it's that age when you want to distinguish yourself from the sensible old fogey world around you.

Let 'em have their fun I say, some will regret it, true, but some will always treasure their body art, and will enjoy having the story of their lives inscribed in their flesh for contemplation.

Horses for courses.

There are several classes of people who specialize in helping others rectify their mistakes. This is not altruism on their part, they do it for a living and expect to be paid for their trouble.

The ones that are the best at what they do will expect to be paid, and paid a lot. The ones that are less able and consequently charge less for their services are much more expensive in terms of time, pain, and trouble.

Four examples:

Surgeon
Banker
Lawyer
Undertaker

If you possibly can, it's best to avoid doing anything that might lead you to need these people's help.

The connection to this body piercing thread is left as an exercise to the wise student.

otpu

I had a woman once compare tatoos to Barney (the purple dinosaur character in the kid's show). She said "Eventually you grow up and outgrow Barney."

Blog Goliard asks for some "analytical heft" in regard to tattooing as a reversion to barbarism.
Arnold Toynbee noted that fashions often arise in dominant populations from the adoption by the young of cultural practices of what he called the
internal and external proletariats (a.k.a. barbarians). The tattoong and piercing crazes fit the pattern well, and are merely the latest
instances of a process going back to at least the 1950s (and some would argue much earlier).

Narr

Here's where someone tried to document the removal of a tattoo process.

http://www.cockeyed.com/science/tattoo/tattoo.html

It really doesn't look like much fun. This is about 3 years old, so I suppose the process has improved somewhat.

.....Gosh - let's hope! --MCT

Not a whole lot different than all those Harley-Davidson bikers whose idea of free expression is to dress and look the same as every other HD owner. I always find it funny that, no matter how big people are on "doing their own thing", they always need to find others they can exercise that free expression with. People are funny.

I've seen a removed tattoo. It looked like they tattooed over the old tattoo with bleach. The guy's skin was paler there, and there were still traces of the color, but you couldn't really tell what the tattoo was anymore.

It was on a construction superintendent.

Pain you say? I watched a teenage kid getting his ears pierced. HE cried! The girls who were egging him on said it wouldn't hurt. Haha

If it's bravery to withstand pain they should get a tooth pulled without sedation of any kind,now that's PAINFUL! I had that recently because there was no one to drive me home following sedation -- just braved it. Ouch!

Here's an example from the "what were they thinking?" department. You KNOW that tattoo removal will be a big business when you see tattoos like this (slightly NSFW):

http://img296.imageshack.us/my.php?image=obezalnb0.jpg

I got turned off tattoos forever in med school when I what they looked like on a 70-something cadaver. Tattoos may be permanent, but they don't age well.

23 posts when I post now. What are you doing right? You should be this hot topic from now to get this kind of response. (Then again we would be at Shea's place or elsewhere if so.)

.....Nah, I don't need to change my focus - this entry got a link from Instapundit. The fun part is that people are staying and looking around! --MCT