Body Art & Modifications

My conversation with JohnJ (the new guy in our WOD game) was really interesting and hit on a subject fairly near to my heart- body modification.

It started innocently enough- I saw a tat on his arm and asked to see his ink. I'm fascinated with what people put on their bodies and why. He was almost reserved about showing me- he warned me he had 10 pieces kind of to make sure I wouldn't be bored, I think. He showed me his work and talked about where he got it, who did the work, etc. It lead into a discussion of the art of modifying your body and the mentality you need to have for it.

I'm not actively tattooing, piercing or otherwise modifying my body at the moment. The main reason is money, but the other is my mental state. I have been fairly accepting that any piece or work I do has to be approved by my Dude and I haven't settled on anything I like enough I could defend it to him.

Another reason has been that I want to find someone *I* trust to do the work. I have a style of work in mind, but the artist has to get ME and what *I* want before I get anything done. I don't really do flash- my pieces are intended to be extensions of myself and thus mean something and are not just to be pretty. Although pretty is very important to me. I had a few chances at cheap work, but the artist was for crap and could not do any kind of clarity or detail- both requirements in my book.

The personality of the person doing your work is almost as important as what you are doing and why in my book. If you're looking for something fun and light-hearted, a guy that specializes in grey scale might not be for you, etc. I have been hunting for a design that comes close to what I want, and have not had a lot of luck. I'll be checking out the local studios online to see if I can come closer. A lot of the work online is flash, and ugly flash at that. Not for me.


I do want to get back into it. I would almost have to start over. I no longer have the 14+ piercings I had when I was a teen/young adult. I had a son with sticky fingers and I can tell you that a cartilage HURTS when it is ripped. I now work on the phone all day, and even with foam around the headset, multiple earrings do cause a lot of pain over the course of 7-8 hours of pressure on them. (And not the kind of pain I enjoy.) Facial piercings (tongue, lip, cheek, eye) are also out for me at the moment due to the VERY conservative nature of my work environment. So a tattoo or more might be the best way to go.

It was just really cool to open that door to a part of myself that had been on hold for a long time, and reawaken thoughts and processes that had been dormant and are now bringing about some interesting perspectives.