Tyler, who pierces at Tattoo Cultura in Moscow, Russia, did this smiley piercing on a customer, but sent it in because,
“Her teeth amazed me — there was no modification… It’s all natural!”
One of the things that I love about this community is acceptance, and even revelry, in the different ways people’s bodies turn out, both on purpose and by chance.
I’m reminded of a scene in one of my favorite movies, Harold and Maude, in which Maude has just told Harold that if she could be a flower, she’d like to be a sunflower, and asks him what kind he’d like to be. He gestures at an enormous field of daisies, and when asked why, says, “because they’re all the same.”
Maude assures him though that they’re not, showing him, and saying,
“See — some are smaller, some are fatter, some grow to the left, some to the right, some even have some petals missing — all kinds of observable differences. There is not a repeat in the bunch. Each person is different, never existed before and never to exist again. Just like this daisy — an individual.”
What Maude says next very much sums up one of the core philosophical/cultural statements that I try and make on BME…
“I believe much of the world’s sorrow comes from people who know they are this — (she holds the daisy) — yet let themselves be treated — (she looks out at the field) — as that.”
I never wanted to be different, I just wanted to be me.
