The Mycenaean

Do you have your ear’s pierced? Belly button? Lip? Why did you do it? Because you had the urge? How about because your friend did? Or maybe its just the typical teenage rebellion against the parentals? According to some sources, 25-35% of students ages (18-25) have piercings somewhere on their body excluding their earlobes.

When asked his opinion about why people get piercings, a Rock-n-Roll Tattoo employee said, “It is almost unethical to ask why. Our job is to just to do a good job and not ask questions.”

But when prodded to take a guess, he said, “The aesthetic value. People see it on someone else, and they realize they want to get it.”

That was the case with Meaghan Doyle, a Leesville senior and holder of 11 piercings, one of which is on the back of her neck. Doyle said, “At first I was nervous to even get my ears pierced, but once I got that I just kept having to urge to get more. I got my neck one after I saw it on a photograph and decided it looked really cool.”

Another motive for piercings: peer pressure. Branco Theis, a senior male with his ear pierced, said, “I was influenced by my cousin who is an MMA fighter. But I think that’s why a lot of people get something pierced, because they were influenced by someone else.”

Many student seem to be lacking motives, though. Numerous kids, when asked the simple question: Why did you do it? Many responded with, “I don’t know.” They were at a loss for reasons, just saying it was something to do.

Brielle Pittman, a junior and holder of pierced ears and belly button, said, “One day I was bored, and I just decided to pierce my own belly button. My dad got mad though and made me go get it done professionally.”

As it is, many students claimed that their body enhancements were born just out of a fit of boredom.

Not all parents are as open to it as Pittman’s father was though. When told of the prices of getting your cartilage pierced, a Leesville parent said, “Pretty cheap. Only 40 dollars to get a hole in your body that you might have for the rest of your life.”

Going to tattoo and piercings places would give a lot of parents a scare. Rock-n-Roll Tattoo and Piercings definitely feeds right into the typical sketchy stereotype of a tattoo parlour. With its metal bars on the windows, explicit music, tattooed employees, and limited color scheme of black, black, and…black.  Although, it was clean, the bad attitude aura given off from the store adds to the bias that some parents have.

Virginia Reed, a non-pierced senior, said, “By the time I was older, I just didn’t feel the need. It came from a slight fear of needles combined with a slight want to be different.” The act of being different is, yet another, motive. Daniel Floyd, a too-be-pierced junior, wants to get his ear pierced to be different.

Many view the act of getting your body studded with metal in different ways. Everyone has their personal reasons, but in the end, it seems to be another way that students can express themselves.