On Tattoos and Piercings September 17, 2008
Posted by esthertanc in CheckIn, Studies.2 comments
September 17th, 2008
Tattoos and Piercings are decoratives that are fast gaining in popularity all around the world. The younger generations of our world feel that they are not in vogue if they are not the possessor of some form of piercing or tattoo about their persons.
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I wondered what people think about the two things, and so decided to ask those who were close at hand.
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Grandma, who was 90 at her last birthday, did not say much about the topics. She just looked directly at me, and I saw her tattooed eyebrows and jade earrings. That kinda tells me that she is not averse to tattoos, at least.
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Mom was a different story entirely. She hails from the Pentecostal movement of the 70’s. The kind that believes that going to the movies was a sin. Thus, her reply to tattooing was a big, firm NO! Her reasoning was that the Bible says that we are not supposed to mark ourselves. “And why do you want to do a tattoo for anyway?” she ranted. “Aren’t those people that do it normally those who are in a club or group or something? The groups that 
are usually of the disreputable, unwholesome, gangster type? And they do it as an identity to the colony they belong to, don’t they? And lemme ask you: where do they tattoo themselves? At their rear ends! And for what reason??” She went on to say that as a Christian, one’s identity is in Christ. (EuT asked then why the need to wear the cross? To which question she was stumped, poor thing).
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As for piercing, mom feels that piercing for devotional/divinity reasons is wrong. Even the nose, she says, is Indian cultural to a certain extent (Oh crap! And here I was seriously contemplating the nose-prick. Lookslike I’d have to scrap that for the time being). If the piercing is done for the beautification of the person, then mom rather thinks that it is OK. Like earrings. They are OK. Because they are done not as a worship but as a mark of beauty. Even the OT people do it, she added. About extreme piercings (other than ears), she says only abnormal people do it. She feels that some people think that it is erotic to have it, but she would not like to comment further about that. The crux of the matter, she says, is really the reason for doing such a thing. Extreme piercing to her is Indecency to a certain extent. So, she’s not for it.
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Dad, like his mother, had little to say about piercing. Tattoos, however, have his stamp of disapproval. It is not good, he says. He questions the reason for tattoos and asserts that one’s natural body is already beautiful enough, and so there really isn’t a need to change the look.
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EuT, when questioned, was like a deer caught in the headlights. She suddenly lost all forms of opinions, save the fact that tattoos and piercings are only done today for beauty’s sake. That was all I was able to extricate from her about the topics at hand.
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En, who’s eight-going-on-nine, on the other hand, thinks that one should tattoo only during the holidays. Her reasoning? Because if it is done during the weekends, it would be hard to be scrubbed off before Monday starts – it is not allowed in schools. She was immediately corrected (by my mom) about the temporariness of tattoos.
When asked what if the school allows it, she immediately uttered an enthusiastic, fervent yes! She would like one because she thinks it is shiny and it looks good. And it makes her feel good to look good. Specifically, she went on to say, she would like to have one on her left arm. In the picture of a flower which is pink and purple and gold.
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About piercing, she says that the ears are a good place to be pierced, but not the eyes, nose, lips or anywhere 
else, because they would feel too uncomfortable and unnatural. When asked if she would like a second pair of earrings on her ears, she said that because her school does not allow even studs for earrings, she would look silly with two juts of sticks in each ear. She also maintained that she is quite satisfied with her looks right now, and has no wish for any changes to her person for the moment.
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What do YOU think?
Ugly Stick - The Only Allowable Earring In School
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