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Every teen wants to make them self stand out of the crowd in one way or another. However, some teens want to express themselves in a more visual way. They may want to dye their hair in multiple colors, cut their hair in a unique way, get piercings, fairly painless ways to express themselves.

What some parents don’t understand is that its just a phase in most situations. If you let your teen dye their hair, its a simple reversible process. You can got to a salon when they are falling out of the phase and get it striped or re-dyed to a more normal color. Or you can even dye it yourself. And if it is a hair cut that they express themselves with, its hair. It grows back.

Piercing, that is a bit more touchy. I am a teen myself, and I understand that you don’t want your child walking around with metal hanging from every inch of their face. But piercing going up the ear, a tiny stud in the nose, a tasteful barbell through the eyebrow will not kill you to let them have. If you give them a bit of leash and just tell them their limits, they will respect you far more. So if your son or daughter asks you to pierce their eyebrow, just say if they really want to go ahead, just have the piercing be small and tasteful. Piercing heal if they are ever taken out.

I am not into the gauged ears either. If your teen is into that then that’s their opinion, but me, I cannot imagine having my ear ripped open just to place a piece of plastic, metal, or glass in. Some of the plugs they put in look fascinating, but its just the concept. Plus, once the skin is stretched so far it won’t reverse.

Either way, I am not saying let your teen do whatever they want, just give them some leash because they won’t go against you so much. They are just testing their boundaries. When they realize that they have a lot more leeway, they tend to back off a bit about being outrageous.

I love having my own tattoo. I want to mark on my skin the most unforgettable and most important chapters of my struggles in life. It has been years since I thought of this but until now I still could not erase my doubts due to the myths of having a tattoo. I believe other skeptical people like have also heard of these. Here are 7 of them:

1.      You can’t go abroad if you have a tattoo. I used to believe this is true. Seeing so many people going in and out of the country, it proves that having a tattoo is no longer a big deal in airports and traveling agencies. Perhaps it is also true in acquiring passports and visas.

2.      You can’t get an X-ray if you have a tattoo. It was once believed that tattoos hinder some medical procedures such as X-Ray. Any mark on the external part of the skin as long as it’s not metallic has no effect on the X-ray reading.

3.      You can’t donate blood if you have a tattoo. This is somehow true. The ink marked on the skin has a little effect on the blood. It is just for temporary though. Doctors allow donating blood after a year of having tattoo.

4.      Having a tattoo changes your life. Not necessarily. Your life as much as your image is independent to whatever we put on your skin. Somehow, it changes other people’s perception on you especially if your tattoos are very vivid to the public eyes. Speaking of other people’s perception, it is not what determines who you are. What makes who you are, depends on how you see yourself.

5.      Tattoos bleed a lot. This depends on the kind of tattoo you want to put on. And that only happens during the session. It is normal that in the process, you will see blood. It is like your skin has been carved at the moment so you should expect some blood. Anyways, bleeding will just stop afterwards.

6.      You narrow you chances of having a job if you have a tattoo. It depends on what kind of job you are applying for and also for the visibility of your tattoo. For example you want to be a teacher. Perhaps some schools would prefer a clean-looking teacher. In this case, if you really want to have a tattoo, then you might consider having it on areas not easily seen by other people.

7.      Tattoo artists are mean and rude. This is definitely not true. It is just like any other professions. Perhaps we think all priests are kind but in reality some are not. That is simply because they are humans. The same reason applies to the tattoo artists.

1. You did not swim in the creek or attend crowded places such as movie theaters during the dog days of August for fear of contracting polio, a disease mostly under control today. I can still recall seeing two classmates, beautiful teenage sisters, spending their final days in the confines of an iron lung.
2. If you received a spanking at school for misbehaving you got another one when you got home, corporal punishment not yet considered child abuse.
3. Most young boys smoked but the product was not that which would send them to Juvenile Hall, just an early grave. Snorting was something you did to indicate disapproval. Shooting up meant you had flushed a covey of quail. Uppers were part of Grandma’s dentures.
4. Most girls were advised by their wise and suspicious fathers that if it was cold enough to wear a sweater it was too cold for shorts.
5. Unprotected sex might possibly produce something new in pink or blue and a shotgun wedding but it would not infect you with the HIV virus. It would not kill you–just make you wish you were dead.
6. A “mixed marriage” was the matrimonial union between a Protestant and a Catholic. I had heard of such but never personally knew of an instance until I married a Catholic girl. That’s exactly why Thomas Wolfe wrote “You Can’t Go Home Again.”
7. Sex education in the schools was limited to how a hen sets for 21 days on a clutch of eggs and chicks would hatch. There was never any mention of Mr. Rooster.
8. Tattoos were limited to World War II sailors back from shore leave in Hong Kong and long since sobered up. Kids’ tatttoos, obtained from inside bubble gum wrappers, washed off.
9. Body piercing was the result of carelessness on a summer afternoon when threading a wriggly nightcrawler onto a fishhook.
10. A wave was a gesture indicating hello or goodbye, assuming you used all your fingers. The single finger wave has retained its significance throughout the decades.
11. There were more than seven words you could not say on the radio.
12. Cats lived in the barn or woodshed. Some dogs had their own houses; others slept under the porch. Hunting dogs were not to be petted except after a successful day in the field or night in the woods.
13. Any telephone calls that needed to be made were done so prior to leaving for the grocery store. If you were not home when someone called you, that party would call back. (Applied to those who had phones.)
14. Castor oil and a soapy warm-water enema were medicinal treatments but were also used as threats of punishment for bad behavior.
15. Lastly, a goodnight kiss was something a nosy parent peeking out from behind the drapes would not find objectionable. I’m told the new goodnight kiss would make their eyes bug out.

I wonder if this guy rattles when he walks.

This gives a new meaning to the phrase “wearing a corset”. It is kind of sexy looking but looks very painful. I bet she can’t sleep on her back.

This guy looks as if he could get TV loud and clear on all that metal. The piercings under his chin must be really uncomfortable as there isn’t much soft skin there to get hold off.

The red and pink make-up really sets this off. This lady is a true work of art.

It doesn’t look as though this guy has a single available space for any more piercings on his face. He certainly looks pleased with the effect.

“Ouch!” What more can I say?

This lady holds the record for the most pierced lady in the world with 3920 piercings. She is literally a walking work of art.