I feel genuine true emotions, I feel empathy for those around me. I feel the need to reach out and try to make a positive change in whatever capacity possible in this world. The writers of the television show have done an excellent job (in no small part thanks to the actor that plays Dexter) of making this conflicted "good" bad guy seem understandable, approachable, worthy of our empathy. This is the power that the entertainment industry has over us.
It wasn't so long ago that people who chose to pierce or tattoo themselves were thought of as dirty sailors, outlaw bikers, whores, convicts, gang members, etc. We had a pretty bad rap for a while, and there was not just one single cause for this. Part of it was because the unsavory characters in society were quite often the ones that were getting visible tattoos and piercings. Part of it was because various religious beliefs viewed body adornment as body desecration. Part of it was because there were not many positive role models coming out to speak on behalf of the tattooed and pierced people of the world. Why should they, afterall it is your right to keep your body adornments private. Isn't that the beauty, you can choose who you share that special part of your life with, whether it is everyone or no one.
As time passes and our society sways towards a more liberal viewpoint, it became somewhat more acceptable for some figures to emerge and publicly display their accentuated skin. Sports figures and rock stars especially took a great lead in this movement. As our idols revealed themselves and their modifications, it not only made them more human and understandable to their audiences but it made those with more conservative views feel ok about relaxing some of their ideas. Movies like Dee Snyder's Strangeland, A Man Called Horse, The Cell, Ichi The Killer, and many others usually depicted body modifications as a form of torture and those choosing to get them as being deranged. These movies were important though to breaking through the barrier of disbelief and introducing the public to acts they may have never consciously acknowledged. Sure there were publications (National Geographic being one of the most well known) but movies seemed to appeal to the American mass at such a greater rate. There of course is also the burden of misinformation, realizing fictional movies cannot be taken completely at face value. Nevertheless our minds and perceptions are expanded, and we are free to ponder what such a thing would be like, and perhaps come to terms with some instinctual ancestral calling we couldn't quite pinpoint before.
Enter reality TV, now the freaks and the deranged become human to the viewer. We see their back stories, interviews with their family. We understand they aren't so different from us. We learn about all the good they are contributing to this world and we learn about how hard their lives have been. We feel a sympathy for them that we never thought we would have for someone so... unique. Movies begin depicting tattoos as a humorous right of passage (Dude, Where's My Car, etc.) and we start accepting those with piercings and tattoos into our lives. Shows like Inked, Miami Ink, LA Ink, and the like teach us that every tattoo has to have a back story. It has to have some deep meaning that is personal for the individual receiving it. And perhaps now we think we are ready to try it ourselves. Movies like Apocalyptica cast heavily modified characters (whether real or prosthetic doesn't matter) into the role of hero and lead. Everyone wants a tattoo or piercing....
Granted these are generalizations and opinions, but the thing we keep overlooking by viewing everything as a society of spectators instead of a society of participants, is that we are still adding a level of novelty to these acts. These modernized forms of ancient medicine, these important rites of passage. We fail to see the beauty in the inspiration and instead try to impose our own limited beliefs onto the bearer. We don't feel the years of anguish the victim of sexual assault/abuse went through before finally becoming comfortable enough with their genitalia to reclaim ownership and adorn it the way they felt inside that they needed to. We don't understand the heartache and confusion one may try to break through when those hooks are inserted into their back and they defy gravity for their first suspension. We don't completely see the beauty they might capture in that portrait tattoo, perhaps it is a lost relative or an important influential person in their life. We don't always realize that sometimes a cartoon of a penis with wings tattooed on someone chest has exactly the effect it should. It makes us laugh, it makes us relax, it makes us contemplate our lot in life and juxtapose it against all those others - brothers and sisters indeed - around the world. We need these acts, these adornments, these accents to get us through life. We need them to reaffirm who we are and what we believe, not because without them we are nothing... but because they have always been a part of us.
Cultures have lived for generations with supposedly little to no contact between them, yet some piercings and tattoos are found in indigenous people all over the world. What is it that drives us to do these things to our bodies, it is indeed different for each modification enthusiast, but one constant is for sure: "It Cannot Be Explained, It Must Be Experienced."
-Brett Perkins
ANOMALY
