Body art must change the way people are seen

This archived article was written by: Cj Jelsma

The world of body art is a vast and incredible world.
I recently learned this was true when my brother (a local and talented piercer and tattoo artist) pierced my nose for my 19th birthday.
I headed to Salt Lake right after for a weekend full of birthday magic. Or whatever it really is when you’re 19 and your birthday really is not all that special anymore.
Stopping at the mall in Orem to visit my favorite store for jewelry and clothing: Hot Topic. Many of the students at CEU are probably aware of this awesome store. Many might shop there, while others may avoid it like the plague.
I seem to be getting ahead of myself; I should probably fill you in on my popularity before telling you of my experience at my favorite store.
All through high school and college, I have had a difficult time making friends. This is probably because I’m not really like many youth of Price; I was uprooted and forced to move to this small town from Salt Lake when I started middle school. I was fairly popular before moving, but when I hit the halls of Price schooling, I turned into kind of a hermit, shrinking away from social situations.
As my parents say, I started to bloom finally several years later and made friends, but will always be shy. I am also not exactly the most attractive, so I have not really had much experience in the dating department and usually am not hit on often.
The nose piercing was not my first stroll into the world of this new generation of the pierced and tattooed. When I was 16, I got my first tattoo, by my brother. I got another when I turned 18. Both were in fairly hidden places, so I never got much attention for them. This was not my intention anyway; I got my tattoos for me, just me and no one else. They symbolize things in my life and, not to be rude, I really do not care what anyone thinks anyway.
Now that most of my limited amount of readers are filled in, I will continue my mall story where I left off.
I hit the mall and stopped at Hot Topic. The walls were, as usual, covered in black clothing, makeup and other unusual decorations. Right up my alley.
While I was preparing to check out with some new lime-green nail polish, perfect color for my favorite shirt, I stopped to look at the vast array of band and other ridiculous stickers in a glass case. While scouting a new sticker with yet another ridiculous saying on it for my collection, one of the guys working there stopped and started talking to me.
This really does not happen often, but this guy, incredibly cute and funny with dyed hair and a lip ring, just my type, started talking to me! And he was not just trying to make a sale, either. Things progressed, and when checking out, he gave me his e-mail. Not exactly a phone number but he knew I was from out of town, so it was pretty cool. I felt awesome.
From my first flirting experience since turning 19, things continued. I would get glances from older guys in restaurants, stores and other places. Yep that’s right, older guys.
I have figured out from my recent experience that older guys are the ones that are most intrigued by piercings. This is incredible. Most of these guys I would never date but it still felt incredible to be flirted with the first time in my life.
I do not believe that my nose piercing or whatever made me more attractive. It made me more interesting than all the rest of the incredibly normal females out there.
Because of my interesting piercing results, I decided to start researching how many other students have piercings and tattoos.
Through a vast amount of research, I discovered that there really is not any statistics on how many people get tattoos and piercings. If anyone can find any, I would love to see, but as far as I could tell, there was not any information on the subject.
People might ask, what is the point to this editorial? The point is how people react differently to those with body art. Whatever this story became, my point is still that no matter what anyone says, people are judged differently for piercings, tattoos and many other reasons. It is a terrible reality to think that something as trivial as body art can impact a person’s status, but what can one woman do about yet another problem with humanity.