i started to gauge my ears in 8th grade, but then i figured it would be smarter to wait until i was a senior in highschool and legally an adult and if i still wanted them i would do it

 

i am sooo glad i waited and i recomend anyone who starts to think about stretching their ears to wait a while and see if it is really what they want to do rather than just going out and doing it.

leeanananana:

-_- ugh it's because kids like her that make the rest of us look stupid

I agree with you. :( When people see my ears, they immediately assume they're bleeding and awful. When in reality they're soft and lovely and have never bled on me. A lot of youngins who stretch are uninformed, and that means we get stuck with the image too. Not cool.

That's part of life. Everyone makes assumptions about everyone else, especially when they don't know the person.

 

Just look what's happening to the industry now with Moonshin. Not that there weren't Hep outbreaks before,  but another one isn't helping.

miss elaineous:

Lana:

I'm honoured.

On the "things that bug me" front, here's a good one: when kids either a) aren't allowed to get a piercing or b) just don't want to pay $70 for it, they go and get 'a friend' to pierce them. I actually know a girl like this. Upon learning I have my hips pierced, she told me she wanted them, but they were so expensive so she thought she'd get her friend to do it because "she has the proper needles and everything!" This scares me - the thought of paying a 14-year-old to stab you willingly?! Not smart. Plus - if you really want the piercing, you definitely have the time to save for it.

Ohgosh... this reminds me of my hair stylist friend.  She's 19, been into mods for quite a while, and has 5/8" lobes, spiderbites, septum, and a couple tattoos.  She has an ear piercing gun that she often uses on people's ears in her shop!  You'd think someone who has been into mods for so long should know that guns are bad!

Anyway, this isn't the sad part.  We were hanging out one day, and I mentioned how I'd love to have my tragus done.  She says, "If you go to Wal-Mart and get some studs, I can gun it for ya." I was like, "WTF MAN!?"  Then, I found out that one of her lip piercings was done using this gun, and that she had gunned her 14-year-old sister's lip, as well as her best friend's.  So nooo, not letting this chick anywhere near my precious tragus.  Not even sure I'll let her do my hair...

 We were all young once, and I remember girls piercing one another's ears in the bathroom at school and at slumber parties.  Yeah, it seemed innocent enough at the time and we laugh about it now.  But letting a friend give you hip piercings?  That's a surface piercing, which can easily get screwed up even when a pro does it and does it right!  This I find sad.

Ugh.. a girl I know got her tragus gunned over the holidays. It sits at an awful angle and is clearly angry as it's red and inflamed most of the time. It almost looks as if it's rejecting. It's horrid. Then she asks me what I'm doing to myself! I find it kind of amusing but so sad.
And another girl got a nape piercing.. with a straight bar.. that totally scares me. You could see the bar through the skin and feel it.
But gunning a lip?! How on earth do you comfortably walk around with a stud backing inside your mouth? That sounds so uncomfortable. And it can't be good for gum erosion either.

As for the hip thing, yeah.. I'd say "proper jewellery" for this girl means curved bars. I've seen quite a few hip surfaces done with that kind of jewellery.. they look horrid from the word go. I think some 'myspace celebrities' or something have them, because suddenly there are way more kids wanting them than there used to be.

I have a few cousins who are/were underage when they got their piercings/tattoos. This is very annoying since they will come to me first to talk about this stuff then go off a few weeks later and let some tweaker tattoo them in a kitchen and crap like that. My mom called me a while back to ask if I could mail her a labret piece for a cuz who had shoved a stud through her lip like a monroe piercing and the post was eating the crap out of her gums. :(  I told her no. Maybe that was mean of me, but she needed to take it out and have it redone with better placement anyway... she left it in and from what they tell me she still has it. :/ Another cousin I saw over my vacation 2 weeks ago had gotten a 'tramp stamp' tattoo of her nick name (poorly done in someone's kitchen) and she was unhappy with it... she went off and let her boyfriend talk her in to getting a HUGE tattoo on her ribs of the H-town skyline in a heart shape. (and was trying to convince her to get his name too, uugh) It was still scabby and was just part of the outline when I saw it. She was very upset, it looked like crap and she felt really shitty for letting a boy talk her into that. She is just 17 but she really does know better... these kids used to ask me if I knew any shops that would tattoo minors and they would get the extended lecture. I really hope she will take my/my boy's advice about waiting till she turns 18 and letting someone better finish it. I hate it that she is stuck with that now... it could be a really sweet piece, but she most likely will let the scratcher finish it.

 Well, that is my rant for the month. Kids, just wait for it. It makes it that much better when you get it.

 Well there's no shortage of idiots in the world thats for sure 

Lana:

But gunning a lip?! How on earth do you comfortably walk around with a stud backing inside your mouth? That sounds so uncomfortable. And it can't be good for gum erosion either.

Well, the girl and her friends with gunned lips, a couple days after gunning, they took out the studs and shoved 16g CBRs through them.  I remember when one of the girls did it [the friend in question's sister]... her myspace status was like "OMFG my lip is sooooo sore... I'm holding popsicles on it!".  She posted pics and it looked terrible.

At least they did sea salt soaks.  That's about all I can give 'em credit for.

i completely agree:  you cannot put an age to body mods (well, besides like a 4 year old with stretched ears or something).  i began stretching when i was about 13 (i'm 18 now) or so.  once i reached about a 0 i'd say my parents sat me down and explained that my ears won't go back to normal after this, but if it makes me happy and if i really want my lobes larger for the rest of my life, then they'd still love me but don't come crying begging for surgery (my man says the same thing, haha).  i'm at 5/8 now, take care of my ears like they're my children, and my mother even compliments me when i wear pretty glass plugs (she still refuses to buy them for me, haha).  i also have my septum pierced now, but i waited a while after i turned 18 to get it done to make sure it wasn't just a "oh hell yeah, i'm 18 let me put a hole somewhere on my face so that i can be awesome!!!!1one!!".  so when i look at myself i think that if i have kids that have the mentality about body mods that i have, i'm completely down for them to go for it (as long as it isn't outrageous like getting their cheeks pierced at 17 or something.  that's not a little scar you can hide like a nose piercing or something).  however, when i look at the kids with purple ears from stretching so rapidly or the pussing piercing in the halls of my school and lurking in malls, i cringe and hope that i never have children with such a lack of common sense.  so, in shorter terms, it depends on the kids AND THE PARENTS (if you see pus coming out of your child, say something!  if you see your kid's ear falling off, do something!  people should take tests before having children). 

myhiroshima:

i completely agree:  you cannot put an age to body mods

(as long as it isn't outrageous like getting their cheeks pierced at 17 or something.

Contradicting...?

catastrophic:

myhiroshima:

i completely agree:  you cannot put an age to body mods

(as long as it isn't outrageous like getting their cheeks pierced at 17 or something.

Contradicting...?

 

 

I guess you can put an age on mods 

The first comment, I think, was just in general.  The second comment was directed toward how she would handle her kids getting mods.

i dont think its really a matter of age.

i think its more about education. The reason why stretching gets a bad rep is because there are so many young people who arent educated about stretching. the effects, how to do it properly, understanding its permanent. If half of the kids knew what they were doing and knew what would happen, it would prevent them from stretching or make them go about it the right way. Alot of kids look up to the hot topic kids with stretched ears and ask for advice. the only problem is that the hot topic kid's info is way off because they never learned the proper way.

But the idea of permanence doesnt really stick, even if you feel it does. I dont think most young people truly understand how permanent permanent is. And people tend to be totally different people by the time they're in their mid 20's then they were in their mid teens... Thats the one thing that I always cringe about when I see most kids with piercing/stretched lobes/tattoos, I dont think most understand how permanent some of these things are. Thats why I respect a lot of professionals in the mod industry who dont do more extreme things to people until they are 21+, it gives those people more time to understand what they are getting themselves into. I think its important for people to stay low-key so speak until they know where they are going in their lives, and most dont know that at even my age (22). If I had been allowed to get pierced at 13-14, Id be so full of scars and holes I would hate. Luckily my parents stood firm about not letting me do things, and as much as I hated them before, Im glad they did that now. 

 That's why I'm glad I don't really want many piercings. I've only got 3 visible facial piercings, and just want 2 more. I've never really wanted more facial stuff, and I feel like that's a good thing. Another thing I'm lucky about is that I'm a minimalist. :) haha. Small amounts. :p

miss elaineous:

The first comment, I think, was just in general.  The second comment was directed toward how she would handle her kids getting mods.

 

exactly, thank you.