Piercings and tattoos are body decorations that are rapidly gaining popularity among teenagers. Piercings are holes made in a person’s skin, so that jewelry can be worn. Tattoos are puncture wounds filled with ink that create designs deep in a person’s skin.

Tommy, a tattoo artist at Bullett’s Ink in Mt. Airy, describes tattoos as “a form of permanent art.”

Some teens will get pierced and tattooed because they’re thought of as cool among their friends, while others will get them because they have significant meaning or they grew up around people with tattoos and piercings.

LHS graduate Alyson Barnhart, who is studying cosmetology, got the first of her five tattoos at the age of 18. She says, “each tattoo has a different meaning behind it. Each thing tells a little story about myself, my life, and what I’ve experienced.”

Tommy says, “they usually have lots of meaning, like little memories.”

It’s hard to tell who will and won’t regret the tattoos or piercings that they get as teenagers. Tyler Fafuri, age 17, has had gauges for two years and doesn’t regret getting them, yet.

KC Mallory, age 27, has 16 tattoos and regrets only one of them because her relationship changed. Kenneth Barnhart, age 80, has one tattoo that he got at 19 and regrets it.

Actress Angelina Jolie, who currently has 13 known tattoos, has also had tattoos from her prior relationships. The most well-known of her past tattoos is one that she got while married to Billy Bob Thornton. After separating, Jolie got the tattoo removed by getting laser surgery. It took 5 trips to the removal clinic to get it erased, but it’s still a bit visible.

Kenneth Barnhart says, “body art is not to be in my opinion. It covers up what was given to you.” He believes that getting his tattoo was one of the many mistakes he made in his life.

Permanent body modification, as well as everything else in the world, has its positives and negatives. Tattoos can be looked back on and be a reminder of the events of one’s life, but as time goes on, those tattoos that were once colorful and perfect could become faded and misshapen. Also, gauges may look cool at first, but there could be problems when trying to achieve the size wanted, and once that size is achieved, it requires surgery to reverse it if the outcome isn’t what was intended.

“I almost had a blowout when trying to get my gauges. I was going up sizes too fast, and my body couldn’t handle it,” says Alyson Barnhart. Tommy views his tattoos, however, as “little memories that make up a timeline on the body.”

Tattoo and piercing parlors like Bullett’s Ink give teens and adults the ability to personalize themselves more than they are naturally. The age range of clients and the cost of the designs at the parlors vary. Parlors can also do custom designs created from clients’ ideas or the clients can come in with a design already chosen.

“We charge hourly here, but the cost of designs can be decided by the size of the design or the amount of time it takes,” says Tommy. “The average age range of my clients is 18-28.”

Many stereotypes have been created since body modifications started to arise. A popular stereotype for people with modifications is that those people are bad people, and that they are “gross” or “inappropriate.” However, as body modifications have become more common among teens and young adults, some people are more lenient about it.

“People with tattoos are just people,” says Alyson Barnhart. Mallory, on the other hand, says, “stereotypes really bother me. The assumptions that people make are stupid. They don’t know what those tattoos mean to the people who have them.”

People have become more lenient about tattoos and piercings, but there are still certain policies that different professions have put into effect regarding them. Each military branch has its own policy of how much ink is permitted, what the tattoos are of, and where they’re located. The EMS tattoo policy allows personnel to have tattoos as long as they are covered at all times.

The Navy Recruitment Manual’s tattoo policy states, “Individual tattoos/body art/brands exposed by wearing a short sleeve uniform shirt shall be no larger in size than the wearer’s hand with fingers extended and joined with the thumb touching the base of the index finger.”

The Army is awaiting a final signature to update a regulation for the new recruits with tattoos. They want to update Regulation 670-1, the current regulation for body art, grooming, and uniforms, to ban tattoos that are visible below the elbow and knee and above the neckline. They plan for the changes to become policy by December 1st.

Although people have different views on body modifications, tattoos and piercings are still popular among teens. They provide them with the ability to express themselves in a way that is different than the “social norm.”