So. There was this young woman sitting in front of me on the bus this afternoon with her boyfriend/husband. Note: I say possible husband because these aren't teenagers we're talking about. I'd say they were in their mid to late twenties. The woman was very nicely groomed and dressed, if a bit hipsterish. But art gallery hipster, rather than rock band or tattoo artist hipster, if you perceive the difference. She had short hair in a kind of pixie-ish cut, but she was wearing a winter coat and a scarf so--how should I put this?--the lower part of her head/neck/face was obscured from my vantage point. Until she at one point turned completely sideways to speak to her male companion.
Dear sweet Mary, holy mother of god. You know how some people into body mods stretch their piercings, going up gauge by gauge by gauge until they can put those plug thingies into their earlobes? Well, this chick must have done that. Except today? Today she wasn't wearing jewelry. She had a hole in her earlobe I could have stuck my pinky into up to the first knuckle. Readers, you know I am not squeamish. Neither am I opposed to tattoos or piercings or, fer crissakes, scarification--do what you do--but when I saw that ear, my stomach turned.
Why? Why would anyone do that? I don't mean "why would you stretch a piercing?" Honestly, I understand that body-as-a-science-project impulse, that curiosity about, "hey, I wonder how big I could get these if I really worked at it." I have my own body-as-a-science-project impulses, if not directed in that particular direction. But why would you groom yourself perfectly, hair done, makeup tastefully applied, dressed in stylish and not inexpensive clothes, and go out with ears that look like they have been attacked with a hole puncher? Do you not perceive that huge missing piece of tissue in your lobe is going to ick people out? Or is that the point? I do not get it.
Also, get offa my lawn.
xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment