Showing posts with label tattoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tattoo. Show all posts
7/12/14
"Too Many" Piercings: A Short Rant Poem
hello my loves!
This is dedicated to all modified folk!
This is dedicated to all modified folk!
Does my septum ring bother you?
Are my stretched ears annoying you too?
Because your glares and stares are pretty pitiful.
Your excuse? It’s “too much” to be beautiful.
Too much metal, too much modification,
To fit in your perfect beauty ideation!
Funny, I was unaware of the information
That beauty is only beauty with your type of expression.
Take a glance from my perspective, through my eyes,
‘Cause in my head, beauty has no size.
Never too much, never too little,
Hence there’s no such thing as “too much” to be beautiful.
I know why you think incorrectly.
You believe the lie told by society
That a specific size of curves, a right amount of hair
Is the key to avoid judgmental glares.
So if my piercings make your skin crawl,
And my tattoos make you climb the walls,
I’m sorry to say that it’s your own difficulty!
‘Cause my metal is “just enough” for me.
5/12/14
The Dreamcatcher Tattoo: Cultural Appropriation?
Hello my angels,
If you look up "white girl" in the Fudge pPerfection dictionary of stereotypes, one of 3 things will pop up:
1) white iPhone
2) Starbucks
3) Dreamcatcher tattoo
However one of these is significantly more dangerous than the other.
No, it's not a Starbucks addiction, although that sh•t is real and should be treated.
Instead, it's the dreamcatcher tattoo, a staple of white teenage girlhood, according to tattoo artists, Tumblr, and yours truly. Why, you may ask, it seems so harmless?!
Well, not really.
Dreamcatcher tattoos are DEFCON5 enemies of the anti cultural appropriation movement.
I just threw a bunch of words at you, and for that I apologize. Let me back up a bit.
Cultural Appropriation: adoption of some specific element of one culture by a different cultural group.
Pretty straight-forward so far. Non-Native American folk getting a dreamcatcher tattoo.
These elements, once removed from their indigenous cultural contexts, can take on different meanings, or lose its meaning entirely (adapted from Wikipedia).
Here is where trouble lies. The website Native Appropriations explains the controversy:
When people buy the dream catchers because they’re “pretty” or to ward off bad dreams, and aren’t aware of the power and history behind the objects, it dilutes them to a commercial object disconnected from their origins and community.
White girl gets dreamcatcher tattoo.
White girl thinks it's pretty, or its meaning is rooted in warning off bad dreams.
White girl doesn't think much of it.
White girl doesn't think she's stealing anything.
Is white girl wrong?
Well, I guess you decide.
Body politics are never black and white.
On the one hand, it is technically CA. She takes for granted the Native heritage and history of the dreamcatcher.
Personally, do I agree with the tattoo? No, of course not. Native American culture is heavily caricatured, as many other minority groups, such as Latino and African-Americans. Think of the all "Mexican" Halloween costumes, minimizing a vast and diverse culture to a few stereotypes!
But here's my problem with this burn-the-witch theory: we cannot, or should not, regulate other people's bodies.
I don't agree with the principles of Nazism either, but I believe that if someone wants a Swastika tattoo, they may have one. It is their body, hence their (albeit stupid) decision.
So if she wants a big old dreamcatcher, it is her ribcage (let's face it, she totally got it on her ribcage).
Maybe it means the world to her, maybe it doesn't.
But I cannot ever imagine supporting a cause that tries to demean someone's decision to alter their own body. There's enough of that in the world already.
What do you think? What is CA to you?
xoxo
Gabby
If you look up "white girl" in the Fudge pPerfection dictionary of stereotypes, one of 3 things will pop up:
1) white iPhone
2) Starbucks
3) Dreamcatcher tattoo
However one of these is significantly more dangerous than the other.
No, it's not a Starbucks addiction, although that sh•t is real and should be treated.
Instead, it's the dreamcatcher tattoo, a staple of white teenage girlhood, according to tattoo artists, Tumblr, and yours truly. Why, you may ask, it seems so harmless?!
Well, not really.
Dreamcatcher tattoos are DEFCON5 enemies of the anti cultural appropriation movement.
I just threw a bunch of words at you, and for that I apologize. Let me back up a bit.
Cultural Appropriation: adoption of some specific element of one culture by a different cultural group.
Pretty straight-forward so far. Non-Native American folk getting a dreamcatcher tattoo.
These elements, once removed from their indigenous cultural contexts, can take on different meanings, or lose its meaning entirely (adapted from Wikipedia).
Here is where trouble lies. The website Native Appropriations explains the controversy:
When people buy the dream catchers because they’re “pretty” or to ward off bad dreams, and aren’t aware of the power and history behind the objects, it dilutes them to a commercial object disconnected from their origins and community.
White girl gets dreamcatcher tattoo.
White girl thinks it's pretty, or its meaning is rooted in warning off bad dreams.
White girl doesn't think much of it.
White girl doesn't think she's stealing anything.
Is white girl wrong?
Well, I guess you decide.
Body politics are never black and white.
On the one hand, it is technically CA. She takes for granted the Native heritage and history of the dreamcatcher.
Personally, do I agree with the tattoo? No, of course not. Native American culture is heavily caricatured, as many other minority groups, such as Latino and African-Americans. Think of the all "Mexican" Halloween costumes, minimizing a vast and diverse culture to a few stereotypes!
But here's my problem with this burn-the-witch theory: we cannot, or should not, regulate other people's bodies.
I don't agree with the principles of Nazism either, but I believe that if someone wants a Swastika tattoo, they may have one. It is their body, hence their (albeit stupid) decision.
So if she wants a big old dreamcatcher, it is her ribcage (let's face it, she totally got it on her ribcage).
Maybe it means the world to her, maybe it doesn't.
But I cannot ever imagine supporting a cause that tries to demean someone's decision to alter their own body. There's enough of that in the world already.
What do you think? What is CA to you?
xoxo
Gabby
3/14/14
Traditional Beauty Bulls**t: Body Modifications
Hello my beautiful dolls,
Fact: When my mom was growing up, there were 2 kinds of people in the world:
-people with tattoos and piercing and other body modifications
-people without
Modified folk found themselves in a very different social category.
In terms of employment, they could not access conservative professions such as medicine, law, business, etc.
Most people were under the impression that tattoos were gang symbols, or membership badges to organized crime groups, hence ostracized those who sported their ink in visible places.
But the times, they are a'changing.
Yes, there is still body mod discrimination, especially in the workplace, no doubt about that.
It's the reason I only have piercings in my ear, a less visible and easily concealable area.
However, we must not forget that the unmodified, sadly ignorant people mentioned above are still around; they hold the mid to high level positions, they make hiring decisions, they are still in charge of our body mods and how they will affect our future; no shit discrimination is still going strong.
Problem: my generation is incredibly tattooed, in visible places, surprisingly pierced, and overall much more liberal about bodily modifications.
It's not just Hell's Angels and high school dropouts who are inking their bodies nowadays; college students, studying in every major, from every background, of every race.
Excluding an enormous demographic of freshly graduated students from entering even conservative workplaces is becoming a Herculean task. Limiting the job pool to clean slate kids is no longer a viable, profitable option.
Consequence: Generational Clash
As the two generations intertwine, and the latter succeeds the former, an inevitable confrontation about
body mods and their place in professional fields looms in the air.
And I am freaking pumped.
Why you ask? Because this is about more than just a silly infinity sign on your dainty white girl wrist, this is the reason I wrote this piece in the first place:
Accepting Body Mods Is Accepting New Definitions of Beauty
In order to understand why tattoos and piercings are body positive causes worth fighting for, I invite you to think about why they are so taboo in the first place. My interpretation is this:
Body mods are not considered traditionally, conventionally beautiful.
I may be wrong, but lemme explain myself:
Tattoos are decorations, to enhance and express identity and style.
Working with that definitions, why is jewellery, or nail polish, or makeup, or any superfluous fashion piece, accessories or decorations to enhance beauty and express style, not banned?
Because it is considered to be beautiful in the mainstream.
By slowly integrating a more diverse community of workers in all walks of life who happen to be tattooed or pierced, the definition of these mods change.
No more: tattoo=bum or gangster
Simply: person with tattoo=person who can work in any field who just happens to be wearing a decoration
-------
Changing the mainstream definitions of beauty is obviously a cause near and dear to my heart, but change such as this one doesn't happen over night.
Not everyone will wake up one morning finding a tattoo sleeve beautiful like I do.
But the eradication of hiring discrimination and the integration of body modified people into an engineering firm or a sales department as Dunder Mifflin teaches society an even more important lesson than beauty. It teaches tolerance.
Some old grumps won't change their minds about you and your eyebrow piercing, okay.
But, as you are the most competent applicant for the job, said old grump must work along side you.
And he must learn to be tolerant:
tolerance: not necessarily loving, but simply living, without protest or insult, with the reality of the situation.
Beauty and tolerance, I notice, go hand and hand.
By not closing the door, shutting yourself into a darkness of judgement, you open yourself up to new ideas.
When faced with bright lights, the eyes must first blink a few times, let the retinas adjust, before opening their eyelids to the bright glory of the sun.
You don't love that those "fat chicks" pose sexily on the covers of Vogue, but by not excluding the possibility entirely and looking at their beautiful curves a little while longer each day, you find yourself mesmerized.
You fall into beauty like you fall asleep: As John Green best wrote:
Fact: When my mom was growing up, there were 2 kinds of people in the world:
-people with tattoos and piercing and other body modifications
-people without
Modified folk found themselves in a very different social category.
In terms of employment, they could not access conservative professions such as medicine, law, business, etc.
Most people were under the impression that tattoos were gang symbols, or membership badges to organized crime groups, hence ostracized those who sported their ink in visible places.
But the times, they are a'changing.
Yes, there is still body mod discrimination, especially in the workplace, no doubt about that.
It's the reason I only have piercings in my ear, a less visible and easily concealable area.
However, we must not forget that the unmodified, sadly ignorant people mentioned above are still around; they hold the mid to high level positions, they make hiring decisions, they are still in charge of our body mods and how they will affect our future; no shit discrimination is still going strong.
 |
It's not just Hell's Angels and high school dropouts who are inking their bodies nowadays; college students, studying in every major, from every background, of every race.
Excluding an enormous demographic of freshly graduated students from entering even conservative workplaces is becoming a Herculean task. Limiting the job pool to clean slate kids is no longer a viable, profitable option.
Consequence: Generational Clash
As the two generations intertwine, and the latter succeeds the former, an inevitable confrontation about
body mods and their place in professional fields looms in the air.
And I am freaking pumped.
Why you ask? Because this is about more than just a silly infinity sign on your dainty white girl wrist, this is the reason I wrote this piece in the first place:
Accepting Body Mods Is Accepting New Definitions of Beauty
In order to understand why tattoos and piercings are body positive causes worth fighting for, I invite you to think about why they are so taboo in the first place. My interpretation is this:
Body mods are not considered traditionally, conventionally beautiful.
I may be wrong, but lemme explain myself:
Tattoos are decorations, to enhance and express identity and style.
Working with that definitions, why is jewellery, or nail polish, or makeup, or any superfluous fashion piece, accessories or decorations to enhance beauty and express style, not banned?
Because it is considered to be beautiful in the mainstream.
By slowly integrating a more diverse community of workers in all walks of life who happen to be tattooed or pierced, the definition of these mods change.
No more: tattoo=bum or gangster
Simply: person with tattoo=person who can work in any field who just happens to be wearing a decoration
-------
Changing the mainstream definitions of beauty is obviously a cause near and dear to my heart, but change such as this one doesn't happen over night.
Not everyone will wake up one morning finding a tattoo sleeve beautiful like I do.
But the eradication of hiring discrimination and the integration of body modified people into an engineering firm or a sales department as Dunder Mifflin teaches society an even more important lesson than beauty. It teaches tolerance.
Some old grumps won't change their minds about you and your eyebrow piercing, okay.
But, as you are the most competent applicant for the job, said old grump must work along side you.
And he must learn to be tolerant:
tolerance: not necessarily loving, but simply living, without protest or insult, with the reality of the situation.
Beauty and tolerance, I notice, go hand and hand.
By not closing the door, shutting yourself into a darkness of judgement, you open yourself up to new ideas.
When faced with bright lights, the eyes must first blink a few times, let the retinas adjust, before opening their eyelids to the bright glory of the sun.
You don't love that those "fat chicks" pose sexily on the covers of Vogue, but by not excluding the possibility entirely and looking at their beautiful curves a little while longer each day, you find yourself mesmerized.
You fall into beauty like you fall asleep: As John Green best wrote:
"I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once"
Here's the truth: I won't have to struggle through this myself as a midly, secretly modified human.
But I'll be an ally, rallying the troops, screaming at the top of my lungs, and you can bet your tattooed little ass that I will hire the most competent of employees, regardless of their skin status.
Gabby out.
xoxo
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