It has been drilled into me that two of my greatest passions cannot coexist. When I search myself for things that I love I am only ever certain of two things. The first is obvious, the reason that I am here writing this blog. I love words and want to be a journalist more than anything. I am even prepared to compromise, as I am told is necessary, my second passion. My love of body modifications.
I really can't explain this love any more than I could explain why I prefer skinny jeans to summer dresses but it just the same is a fact of who I am. This is a part of me that I love to express and it is something that I enjoy for myself and not for the approval of any other. However currently in our culture there is still a great deal of stigma around modified people, one that I (and many others I know) enjoy disproving. While we are doing our best to reduce prejudice towards modified people I know that it won't happen overnight and I tend to wonder if we will ever reach a time at which we will be able to have professional journalists, teachers and lawyers with tattoos, piercings and stretched ears.
My desire to be a journalist is stronger than my desire to be modified so I am prepared to remove my piercings the day I graduate or get an internship but I am inclined to wonder if one day myself, and other like me, won't have to make that choice.
It is a bizarre thing, our cultures hostility towards decorated people. I know that it stems back to times before my birth when body art was affiliated with gangs, violence and rebellion. This is the most common explanation that I have heard and it seems to be one that is rapidly evaporating as body body modification becomes more common amongst the wider parts of the younger demographic. One day today's youth will become the CEOs and nation leaders, will this cause a cultural shift? It would seem logical but let's not forget the trend to veer towards conservatism that frequently happens as people age. It only takes a look at the our current world status and an acknowledgement that many of the people ruling our world in suits and ties were the same protesting against the same principles that they now abide. Maybe this cultural shift that I dream of will happen, even if it takes decades. I can only hope, any progress is good progress in my eyes.
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