Ah, body modification.
To be more specific, the kinds that are traditionally not so 'the norm'. So we're thinking tattoos and piercings, cosmetic surgery, and less getting your hair cut.
You may spot a pattern to my posts, in that i appear to sit on the fence when discussing the 'badness' of an activity. I tend to, when talking about activities which either never hurt other people (say masturbating... assuming you're not in church), or if done in a certain way won't either (smoking, assuming your not blowing it at babies), leave the individual to decide whether something is bad or not. So as ever reader (that sounds a touch pretentious now doesn't it?), the choice is yours on body modification.
While this kind of behaviour can be damaging to your health, mostly, and if done properly, that is not a problem. There are exceptions of course - I still can't wrap my head 'round collagen (so that's actual poison? and you're going to actually inject it into my face? what could possibly go wrong...?).
I do however think there are issues with this kind of behaviour, especially cosmetic surgery. Is it harmless, or does it hint at deep rooted phsycological problems? This is true of tattoos and piercings as well, though perhaps to a lesser extent. What is it about yourself that drives you to permanently alter your appearance? I'll admit to having piercings, and most of my friends have them or tattoos, and i think I'm not doing too bad. I just like them. Or at least i think i just like them. So maybe it's like violent movies - do the people who go out and commit murder and watch them do the deed because they watch them? Or do they watch and enjoy them because they're already predisposed to killing people? More on that question in another blog i feel. But i do think that in some people body modification can be an external sign of internal struggle, although I'm not sure that makes it bad.
Another major criticism of body modification, especially tattoos, is that when your old your going to look like a twat. Which may or may not be true, but it hardly makes them bad - just, if you do have that opinion, a little bit daft.
Overall I don't think that body modification is in itself a bad thing. For instance having an 'offensive' tattoo might be bad, but that would be the message rather than the medium. I can't see how it could damage someone else, and as I've said, that's the key for me.
Did i just get off the fence... i feel a touch giddy.
Oh, and if anyone is interested, here is a lovely website with some examples of tattoo art.
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