[Detector]

Like tattoos, a person can go overboard. I've seen many tasteful tattoos but even though tattoos have been around for ages when a person goes to extremes they become an oddity. Personally, the only tasteful piercing I've seen are for earrings. And not the 10lb chunk of metal or the quarter sized cork in a hole.

I know some work places that require you to cover up all tattoos. I see some people wearing long sleeve shirts on 100+ degree days. Where should an employer draw the line between offending patrons and suppressing self-expression? As I said tattoos have been around for ages yet some people are still offended by them. You can imagine how long it will be before wearing a barbell in your nose becomes excepted.

Don't psychiatrist have a name for people who have a need for self-mutilation? j/k

***Time to turn up the heat***

I'm hip to this whole "I've got to express myself and be unique like everyone else" fad. Hell I was a rebel in high school. I can remember intentionally wearing blue jeans and a teeshirt thinking that'll teach d-man. Screw the system! And I can understand some tattooing. I see tattooing a bit different than piercing.

Basic Training was a life changing experience for me and since I was in Charlie Company, getting a tattoo of Charlie Brown, the mascot, would have made some sense. Now getting that tattoo on my forehead would have been leaning more toward a need for attention. Thats why the whole poking wholes in your head thing escapes me. Self expression? Someone needs to explain that one too me. I see those barbells in peoples tongues and just think what the hell were they thinking? Really good drugs would be my guess. I can't think of any other rational reason to poke holes in my tongue.

And I can understand some people have a need for self-expression and to be different, its just the whole self-mutilation thing I'm missing. If you want to express yourself and be different take one day out of the week and paint over the graffiti all over town. Go to the Mall and open the door for old people. Go pickup all the trash off the street in your neighborhood. Point is there are many many ways to "express ones self" and "be different" beside poking holes in yourself and a lot less potentially dangerous. For this reason I get the feeling this self-mutilation is less a way of self-expression and more a way of saying "Hey, look at me!"