Piercings and Stretching

Similarly to the crocodile cutting which I showed in the previous post, tribes use types of body modification such as facial piercings and using discs to stretch the skin. "African body art changes the wearer into an object shaped by color, movement, textures, patterns and designs."

African Tribes believe that stretching and puncturing the skin creates character, strength and creates your character. This is very different to our reasons for having piercings and tattoos. I got my tattoo because I decided that everywhere I live in my life, in parts of the world where I have learnt and experienced, I want to get a symbol on my body to represent that.

  It's interesting to see the different cultural views on tattoos and piercing and what the represent. My dad sees tattoos as "tramp stamps" whereas in the tribal culture, your body modification sculptures the way in which you are preceived by others...

http://www.ehow.com/info_8698969_different-african-tribal-piercings.html#ixzz29Y5Z0r2q

Piercings and ear stretching had most recently become popular within the 'emo', 'goth' and 'scene' looks. When I was at school loads of the boys and girls started stretching their ears and wanting tattoos and shaving one side of their head. When I was about 16 I shaved one side of my head and kept the other one long and pierced my ear. I liked the raw look and also there were many fashion influences such as Rihanna and when a trend sets off... Well it would have been rude not to try it.

When I was about 14 all of my friends (a bad group of friends at that) were all tattooed, pierced and they were a few years older than me, so I looked up to them. They had that edge to them that I hadn't experienced before and it's purely because of the way they acted and how they dressed. So naturally they influenced me and I pierced MY OWN lip on both sides with a needle... looking back now I think WHAT THE HELL WAS I DOING?! But my Dad hated it and I was having a rebelious stage in my life.. It's interesting how piercings and ear stretches can change the way in which you are percieved and in itself, how you act when you have them.

 

 

I found some images on google to show the piercing which are popular at the moment, and there are LOADSSSSSS.

Ear stretching... I went up to 3mm and I chickened out and took it out. Ew ew! Esspecially on me, I just didn't look or feel right when I had it done although my boyfriend and most of my friends have ear stretches and they look really good. But will they look good when the fashion trend moves on and they have saggy ears?

People forgot where piercings, tattoos and body stretching comes from. Most people see their peers such as rock band members or celebrities such as Rihanna with all their body modification BUT they forget where it originally comes from and what the spiritual and tribal meanings behind them are.