Originally Posted by Glaive  It's rather shortsighted to say that he's "destroying himself." Plenty of people say that about individuals with any piercings or tattoos at all. You can also find people who'd react exactly like you just did to people who've had plastic surgery (particularly anything facial), bodybuilders, gymnasts, professional fighters, etc.
The common denominator is that someone obviously has a different perspective than you, a different set of priorities in life, and a different set of things they value.
It's silly to assume that someone is "just wanting attention" simply because that's the only reason you could imagine ever doing something like that. Yes, there are people out there who get body mods just for attention. They are not representative of the entire modded community, and at least in terms of people with heavy body modification (be it piercings, tattoos, implants, whatever) they are most certainly not the majority.
Also keep in mind that body mods like that guy and others posted in this thread are for the most part pretty old in terms of their practice. Virtually every tribal human culture that has ever existed practice some form of body modification, be it tattooing, piercing, branding, scarification, or something else. In fact, the oldest human skin ever found has over 40 tattoos.
For a great many of these cultures, body modification is either something of deeply spiritual significance or in many cases some sort of rite of passage. There are a great many groups in which those without tattoos are treated as cowards and weaklings, and at least one tribe I know of actually believes that there is separate, shittier hell reserved for people who aren't brave or strong enough to go through the process of getting tattooed (and keep in mind we're talking about old-school handwork, not machines).
So yeah, it's entirely possible this guy just wants to be like "LOOK AT ME I'M DIFFERENT LIVEJOURNALLIVEJOURNALLIVEJOURNAL!!!!!", or it could be that he's doing this because it's important for him and his own personal growth/journey, and that he simply doesn't give a shit about what you or I think.
You've got to remember that being heavily modded seriously limits your opportunities, especially in relation to jobs, so those that do so aren't necessarily stupid or shortsighted like a lot of the posters here choose to portray them, they've just made the decision that being who they are is more important than being able to fit in with the plain folks when they want to. |
