As many students and teachers may know, many students in high school have gotten body modifications or are almost to that age where body modifications are easy for them to get.
Many students see body modifications as something cool or as body art where most adults see opposite. To them body modifications are just a “fad” and something they believe teens don’t think about and just get for the sake of being cool or “fitting in”.
There are many students over eighteen who attend high school that get body mods, but there are also younger students who just have open minded parents that let them get modifications.
Dwayne Patterson (’13) said, “I got my first tattoo on my 16th birthday and I’m 18 now and it’s still something that I love and means a lot to me and something that I don’t regret. Many people see piercings and tattoos as a bad thing when most of the time you’re doing nothing but expressing yourself.”
Patterson added, “As for school, most teachers don’t treat me any differently but there are always the ones that asked me why I decided to be modified so young and don’t necessarily agree with it. As for outside of school, it’s really annoying because of the job scene. Most jobs don’t really care unless it’s covered but at the same I feel like it’s discrimination that it has to be covered…but that’s just the society we live in.”
Many modified students feel the same way when it comes to modifications.
Juliet Conner (’15) said, “Being so young most of the time I get a lot of awkward stares and looks for having piercings. Tattoos have never really been my thing, but I’ve always loved piercings. They are how I express myself and something I have grown to love.”
Conner also stated, “I used to get a lot of hate for my colored hair but that quickly died down because it became the trend, just like tattoos and piercings. I feel like they will eventually get really trendy and people, especially jobs, will become more accepting to the modified community.”
As many people know being modified is not something students can take back; it’s a decision they shouldn’t just make overnight. But if they do decide to get a piercing or tattoo, it’s something they can really use to express themselves.
