BODY ADORNMENT

          Body adornment is a cultural universal. This is said because most cultures have attempted to change their body in order to fulfill their cultural and construct of beuty, religious or social obligations. Body adornment is indeed a very broad subject. The type of body adornment that I would like to focus here is body piercings. Now, I am sure most of us have seen people with piercings all over their body. Many of us tend to have various impressions when we see someone with piercings all over theif face or body.
           When I started college early this year, I met this very unique girl during my orientation. She had piercings all over her face. She had a piercing on her eyebrow, on her upper lip, in between her nose, she had a couple of piercings on both sides of her ears and many more. In short, I would say that her face was full of piercings. I did not know what to say or how to react when I first met her. I was so shocked to meet a person like this on my first day of college. Not only that, she had also applied thick eye liner underneath her eyes. The first thing that struct my mind was, "Oh my God, is this child crazy???" Let me be honest here, I was a bit scared of her because to me, she was completely weird. Although I have met people with piercings on their face, but this was the first time I actually met someone with too many piercings on her face!!!
My only impression on her was I assumed that she was an arrogant person. But, to my surprise, as time passed, she was such a nice person. My impression was totally wrong.

         Now, the reason why I wrote about this is just to say that the way you dress, the type of jewelry you use, body piercings and tattoos communicate messages about you. For example, if you wear large precious stones on your ring or bracelet, it shows that you are rich. On the other hand, if you have short hair, it shows that you do not like styling your hair and you are a very simple person. Body piercings also communicate a variety of messages. Although people wearing such jewelry may wish to communicate positive meanings, those interpreting it may take it in a negative way. But, in certain cultures, it is a must to have piercings. In addition, tattoos communicate to the wearers themselves. Some people would like to have a tattoo of their loved ones or some of the would like to have a tattoo just for the sake of having it. However, having tattos and too many body piercings may result in health problems too.

          The pictures show a few examples of different types of body adornments. To conclude, it is not right neither wrong to have body adornments. But, always remember, the way you dress, the type of jewelry you wear, the way you speak and carry yourself communicates various messages about you.

by : MITHRAH KURHANDRAN