Body Modding or what the hell is wrong with people?!

[ilspooner]

Ugh. That is just over the top. I am considering ear piercings, but this is really effing stupid. It is their bodies, but it seems they don't understand what it will do to them later. D:

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

Seen things can never be unseen. My eyeballs are forever saddened by such a display...that poor truck!

But seriously, whatever makes you happy I guess. *shrugs*

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

To each their own.

 

[Firia]

People are all different. These people must feel very strongly about what they are doing in order to change themselves this drastically. Don't judge. :/

solemn advice from the first responder. It's fair to remember that the world is full of vastly different people from a variety of different backgrounds. Once you accept that these differences range from minor to the shocking, you are well on your way to being a better person.

I myself posted a brow raiser of a post some time ago. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.127981-Poll-I-want-to-split-my-tongue#2733155] The subject was tongue splitting. I didn't get one (still on the to-do list) because of financial reasons, but the thread just shows the level of acceptance some people have for something they may not entirely understand, juxtaposed with people that don't understand at all, and react to that lack of understanding with hate and spite.

The short answer to body modding; if you get it, you get it. If you have to ask, you don't need to get it. If you really-really want to know, then you should saturate yourself in the community of body modders. Talk to them, and discuss their goals. Not the why's of modding, but what they hope to gain through their modifications. Why they come together in convention'esq gatherings once a year and mode the hell out of each other just for the weekend. Ask yourself even why you want a tattoo, or a pierced-whatever. If the answer to that personal question is "I wouldn't pierce or tattoo myself," then you'll never understand, and it would be a waste of time to try.

 

[Altorin]

....did that guy really install a giant window inside his lip?

that's the most fucked up thing I've ever seen contemplated a person could do to their face.

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

Probably to get this exact reaction out of people?

Anyway, i fully endorse and encourage alternative visions of the "body beautiful".

Conformity is bad mmmmkay?

im all for that, but when i just cant look at people who have gauged ears so stretched out i could fit half my hand through. also thinking about people who split their tongue or hang their body from hooks, for fun, just kinda makes my skin crawl. people are free to look however they want, but as long as i dont try to restrict them in any way, im free to not be attracted to certain changes to their appearance that they might make.

also, if your changing your body, purely for the sake of being non-conformist, thats just another kind of conformity. i knew a guy in high school who has a great quote, "not having a tattoo, is the new tattoo"

I agree with you totally on the first part, while i like body art in so far as tattoos go, the extreme piercings are f-ing weird. But if it makes you happy, do it.

As for the second part, well there is conforming to the social norm and there is conforming to a social minority, there is a distinction. I think.

 

[Griffolion]

It doesn't really bother me, they are free to do whatever they want, and the consequences of their actions are their own.

 

[Vault Citizen]

that they will never have decent employment

On one episode of Argumental they were debating tattoos, as an example they had a man on the floor with extensive tattooing all over his face, one of the comedians made the point you just made and the tattooed man revealed that he worked as a bank manager.

 

[keve4433]

It simply comes down to everyone has their own tastes, if it makes you happy then do it.

 

[tokae]

i wanna know how the first guy holds his breath under water.

he can buy (or possibly already have bought) plugs to put in there so that it isn't just a display of his cranium but of silicone plastics instead


On the topic: I have nothing against people who does this sort-of thing, tattoos, piercings, brandings... If they do it there is a chance they will look like retards and they are okay with that because they want to do it. There isn't much more to say about it really.
Yes, I find it gross in many ways but in some cases it's actually quite cool so...

 

[TheDist]

My stance on anything like this is very simple, if you as an adult in right mind decide you wish to do anything like that to your own body, then you have the right to do so. It is only if things are forced onto people, or done to them as kids that I flat out object to it.

 

[moretimethansense]

Oh sod off and let people do what they want to do with their own bodies.

Also is it just me or does that third one look like Peter Molyneux?

 

[Drakane]

I personally haven't gone as far as these people because I am just not a big fan of discs or sub-dermal modding (the dudes horns). I also keep most of my stuff hidden in an attempt to get my foot in the door of an accounting firm.. after that my ink might expand.

I do have 6 gauge nipple rings, 8 gauge prince albert (ring that goes through my pee hole and out the bottom of my penis), a partial jacob's later (straight barbells that run across the top of my penis like runs of a later), and a decent bit of ink on my back. why did I do it? The ink i thought long and hard about because it will be w/ me forever and it really means something to me. The steal? Cause I like it and I've not taken it to the extreme of being irreversible

 

[funguy2121]

I want someone to explain body modding to me.

No, I don't mean this:

Spoiler

I mean crap like this:

Spoiler

What the hell drives people to do this to themselves? Do they think it looks good or cool? Do they realize that shit like this will forever fuck up their lives, that they will never have decent employment, and that things done to this extreme cannot by undone?

I mean hell, I've seen a picture of a guy who tattooed his entire penis, and then cut it in half lengthwise so that it forked. WHY?! Why would someone do this?

Is there anyone here who can help me understand why anyone could possibly think that this is a good idea?

I think some of your pics may be photoshopped, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised to find out I'm wrong.

I take it you're not against tats and piercings when they're not done to such an extreme.

I met a woman when living in Denton, TX. She was one of what we called "Fry rats," couch surfers who would hang outside of the local coffee shop and pizzaria and beg for change and cigarettes. Most of them were fairly young and able to afford manic panic. This one in particular had a tattoo of a Chinese character on her forehead. She said that it was the symbol for joy. We always joked that it was the Chinese symbol for "I don't want to work, ever."

Most of these people are already living in alternative culture, and don't have many ambitions outside of working at the local record store.

 

[dex-dex]

so my piercings are wrong?
my soon to be tattoo is wrong?
I am hurt!

I will say that the photos that you do have are in the over the top category but there are people who do it and do not go nuts with it. I mean I have 12 piercings and a soon to be tattoo but I don't look terrifying!

 

[eatenbyagrue]

Personally, the only body mods I'd be into are all somewhere in the "cybernetic limb/appendage" department.

 

[Fudj]

Personal choice, some mods look good some bad, but its not upto anyone to justify this to anyone else, if it makes the person happy or more complete then thats a good thing for them.

You could say the same thing about gender re-assignment surgery (the ultimate body mod) but if it makes that person happy then its a good thing, you dont have to like it or understand it, its not your body or your life, its theirs to do with as they want.

 

[PurplePlatypus]

I?m sorry, are you trying to suggest people as far into body moding as the people in the photos, don?t understand what they are doing? You know the guy in the last photos, you see them horns he has? They were put there by surgery, surgery that probably wasn?t cheap, which implies he has some form of income which is probably from a job. Not to mention to get to that point takes years of modifications, so he probably has plenty of experience dealing with people while he looks like that.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Spoiler

HIs little green star is funny. Did he kill some one or did he honestly think that was cool, because it does not match the rest of his face. He looks like (and I mean this without any offense intended) a homosexual gangbanger that killed someone and wanted to show it off but look fabulous while doing it.

Also:
I mean hell, I've seen a picture of a guy who tattooed his entire penis, and then cut it in half lengthwise so that it forked. WHY?! Why would someone do this?[/quote]

I want to meet this man, because he is surely the most interesting man in the world. Also, what were YOU looking at when you found said man? o.0

OT: What drives anyone to do anything? This is no worse then people who design their own clothes to reflect their geek fashion, or when they tattoo geek imagry on them (I guarantee if anyone of those pics were a hot chick that cut her ears to look like an elf, or a man who wanted to look like Darth Maul, or Ganondorf, we'd be praising them as awesome).

Its something they like, they shouldnt be told their wrong for it. They know they cant get "normal" jobs, and odds are dont plan on getting "normal" jobs or dont already have "normal" jobs, and in fact are probably employed doing this to other people. I dont see anything wrong with it.

Besides, thats not really extreme. I used to work with a kid whose brother used to do this stuff, and actually found a girl who did too. The brother had those little ring things that put on your skin, 30 on each for arm (3 rows of ten), and 50 on each leg (5 rows of 10), and a stud pericing, as well as piercings up his ear and a gauge in the lobes so big you could probably snap the skin yourself and it wouldnt matter. His girlfriend had two bars going horizontally across her vagina which (the way he described it) pretty much closed it off completely. And she had a straight up metal rod just going htrough her leg, through the bone.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I personally haven't gone as far as these people because I am just not a big fan of discs or sub-dermal modding (the dudes horns). I also keep most of my stuff hidden in an attempt to get my foot in the door of an accounting firm.. after that my ink might expand.

You can be released if you continue and dont have a professional look about yourself. Just cause you're there doesnt mean that once you are, you're there forever. It can also keep you down in promotional times because you wouldnt look profession when big wigs or other employees from different places come and get together.

Just takes a few people to say they dont feel comfortable working with someone like that, or customers to not want to work with you (and to a further extent the company) to get you let go because "its just not working out".

And its perfectly Legal too.