Taylor's Essay

Body Modifications: Piercings

       For decades, body piercings have been seen as expressions of religion, lifestyle, culture, and personality. Body modifications such as these date back to the ancient tribal times of South Africa and Indonesia. In times like those, piercings were used as a sort of symbols, some times to distinguish the royal people from the common people and other times just for self expression. In the early 1970's when the idea of piercings fully hit America, and the rest of the world for that matter, they started with simple piercings of the ear lobe, but have since then taken on a life of their own.

            Types of body piercings range from the traditional and most-accepted earlobe piercing to the much less common genital rings. Piercings range from small and unnoticed to large and almost impossible to miss. The basic kinds of piercings are ear, nose, tongue, eyebrow, nipple, navel, and genital. Some piercings, however, do step outside of those boundaries. Nose piercings are more common in women than in men, usually placing it on either side of the nostrils, but in some cases people do pierce the bridge of their nose, which is the cartilage area between the eyes. Tongue piercings are usually done at the tip of the tongue, from top to bottom, but are prone to infection because the mouth carries an extended amount of bacteria. Nipple and navel piercings are mostly self explanatory.

            Body piercings have become very common in the younger generation because in a way it helps them express themselves. But what these teens fail to realize is that every thing they do has a consequence, whether it is positive or negative. A positive result of this could be more self-confidence and popularity for a person. On the other hand, several diseases and dangerous sicknesses can be contracted if a piercing is not properly performed or cared for. First of all, if the piercing equipment has not been properly sterilized it could be carrying diseases. the most common of these diseases are hepatitis B, and C, tuberculosis, syphilis and even HIV. Piercings inside the mouth can lead to infection of the mouth and lips which can later result in speech, chewing, swallowing and swelling issues that can block the airway of the throat. Infection of a nipple piercing can result in scarring of breast tissue and limit a woman's ability to breast feed later. The skin can also become split or torn in the piercing process which can lead to severe infection and formation of scar tissue. the flesh can also reject or have an allergic reaction to the type of jewelry used. Damage can also be done to nerves. These are some of the negative outcomes of irresponsible body modifications.

            In conclusion, piercings are used in many ways. they can help one express themselves as well as be used for religious purposes. Piercings are not fully safe and can result in fatal disease or life-changing experience.