Of Tattoos And Body Piercing

I never know I will ever be so unlucky. My parents brought us out for dinner today. The restaurant happened to be in the neighbourhood shopping mall where my second ex is staying in. And the moment I stepped into the restaurant, I saw he and his girlfriend sitting at the next table. Talk about enemies crossing paths.

The worst thing was that I was simply dressed as it was just a cosy family dinner. Yet the two of them were dressed as if they were going to some formal ball (in a small neighbourhood mall?!). Compared to what I wore (an old T-shirt with exercise pants, some moisturiser with a touch of lipgloss), I looked like a market fishmonger whereas they were the high-class debutantes.

It was embarrassing enough bumping into them, but bumping into them when they were dressed to the nines and I was dressed down?! Now she has more things to gloat over. They did not even talk to me (which was alright since I never wanted to talk to them as well), but the moment they saw me, the girl just summoned the waitress and demanded to change their tables, half-eaten food and all. So they only seemed high-class in the way they dress since their behaviours indicated something else.

Lately I have seen more and more people with multiple tattoos and piercings. What is it about tattoos or multiple piercings? Are they chic and cool fashion statements or just a downright abuse of body parts? How do people know which tattoo design to choose from or what will suit them? If they picked a wrong design, how are they ever going to get rid of it? And what if the skin gets infected after the tattooing or piercing? What will happen?

My mum always disapproved of tattoos and multiple piercings as she is always of the opinion that those are for gangsters. But then, my mum thinks everything is bad, only what she says is good, so I grew up shutting my ears to what she said a lot of times.

Personally, I have nothing against tattoos. No doubt some of them look cool – provided they are of the right design on the right part of the body on the right person. Some people look good with tattoos on their hips, others on their arms, yet some others on their ankles. I guess it really depends on the overall image of the person. Multiple piercings, on the other hand, may be a bit hard to swallow for me. It is each individual’s choice, but I will not like to end up with so many holes on my body.

My third ex and I used to argue over tattooing my body and piercing my nose. I kept telling him that if he likes tattoos and body piercings so much why does he not try it out on himself, instead of making me go for it? Definitely his parents will disapprove much less than my parents. His mum once saw a girl with a tattoo on her ankle and she remarked it was really cool.

My ex took this opportunity to rub it in by saying that girls with tattoos are sexy, girls without tattoos are not. I was really hopping mad, being put down in front of his parents, plus the fact that his mum later said that she should bring me to make a tattoo, with my ex’s thunderous applause of approval. Luckily his parents were around, otherwise I would have lashed out at him for embarrassing me and trying to get me into trouble. All hell will break lose if my mum ever sees me with a tattoo. I can get thrown out of the family.

He told me I could tattoo a covered part of my body where no one will ever see. But I expose certain parts of my body at times. Nowhere is feasible. I cannot do it on my hip as I wear hipsters and midriff sometimes, nor can I do it on my arm as I wear sleeveless at times, even worse my ankles as I wear mules and thongs (the sophisticated pair of slippers, not the underwear) and expose them (my feet) all the time. And what is the use of tattooing if one is not going to show the tattoo off?

He is the only one that is so crazy over tattoos, yet for some reason, refuse to have one himself. My previous two boyfriends were very against tattoos and multiple piercings, especially for girls. My first one claimed it was against religion, that somewhere in the Bible there was something on how doing things to one’s body is going against what God gave you. (I have not been able to find that part.) My second guy felt that tattoos and multiple piercings are a way of abusing one’s body, and only sluts would want to have tattoos.

Besides incurring my mum’s wrath, there are two other reasons why I cannot have a tattoo. One is my fear of needles. I cannot bear the thought of things poking into my body. And the pain I have to bear! Plus it cannot be removed once it is there, so if I ever regret, it is like a life decision already.

My ex used to tell me that I could take my ears being pierced yet not able to bear tattooing or nose-piercing. That was different. My mum brought me to have my ears pierced when I was still quite young. I could not even remember when I pierced my ears, nor recall whether I felt pain or screamed out loud. But I have never gone for another ear-piercing, nor will I go for anymore body piercing, thus I only have one hole per ear, not like some others who can have six holes per ear and more on other parts of their bodies.

The second reason is that I have sensitive skin. Not so sensitive that I can only use certain products or eat certain types of food, but I am allergic to costume jewellery, ie anything made of plain metal or nickel.

In other words, I am not able to wear cheap jewellery, only expensive ones that are made of pure gold or pure silver, with no trace of nickel. I also cannot wear watches with leather bands, only plastic or pure metal, nor glasses without titanium. I used to develop rashes all over, then later realised the rashes were only from the parts where I wore my necklace, glasses, earrings and watch.

So I went for an allergy test and that was what the doctor told me. He said I have to lay off all cheap metals. Actually I sort of suspected that also because the rashes developed only after I wore my costume jewellery, but not when I wore the more expensive, allergy-free ones.

My ex used to tease me for having “princess” skin, but did he think I like this also? How I hope I was born with better skin then I can wear all the cheap yet cute jewellery and accessories. It is so hard for me to accessorise because I can only wear expensive stuff, and those are too classy to be worn just anytime. The only jewellery I can wear all the time are the different earrings I have, and even then I do not have that many, considering my options are so limited.

I used to wear a small gold cross around my neck, then the chain broke, so now I am trying to find another cross which is equally nice and durable. I also like cheaper things over expensive things, just like my glasses that cost me almost S$300 as they have to be rimless with titanium metal, but I do not wear them unless I am at home or absolutely necessary. I find that such a waste of money since I do not utilise them.

Thus I cannot go for a tattoo as I am most likely going to get a big skin infection after that. If I can, I will want a little rose tattoo, probably around my hip area. Or else I can have a heart entwined with my name and my future partner’s name (whoever he may be). But that depends if he will like it. Do guys like tattoos or multiple piercings on girls?