mandb

So I had a few quick thoughts on what I felt the ideals were behind body modification. I mean why do we cover ourselves with ink, poke holes in various body parts, and in some cases amputate or commit serious physical changes to our bodies? Some might say, "it's my body, I only get one, I'm gonna decorate it". I prefer to say it's much like how we own a car, or a house. You are given this body without any real say in how you look. No one asked you if you wanted to be black, white, latino, asian. No one asked you what color hair or eyes you wanted. Being conceived did not require a questionaire. You simply existed, your body a mix of genetic information blended from your parents and a few recent generations of your extended family.

So what do you do with your body? Again, much in the same way we decorate a house, or modify a car, our body is our vessel, the most important one we own. I don't want to sound all "feng shui", but in order to be comfortable with ourselves as an individual we have to feel "complete". This word "complete" in my opinion means our inner selves matches our outer selves. Thus you choose to change yourself to match the person you are on the inside. This can be a conscious decision like working out, getting a tattoo or piercing. It can also be an subconscious decision, like how you might eat, or how much sun you get. These things affect how you look, and therefore matching your inner self.

Reading certain articles on BME I have seen people saying things like they didn't feel right with that one finger, or toe. They didn't feel right with their ears in that particular shape. Amputation, though extremely uncommon, fits perfectly into this. If you as a person feel incomplete because your body doesn't feel right, you take whatever actions to fix/change this "deficiency". Some choose to simply cut it off.

I don't know why I chose to go off on this subject, other than I was showing a few pictures of genital mods to someone else, and they couldn't for the life of them figure out why someone could do what they chose to do. I had my thoughts, and here they are.