//SMALL
purpose S
Pierced with
BY MEREDITH BROYLES
meredithbroyles@csdecatur.net
ophomore Tiffany Tomas waited as the needle crept towards her face. A feeling of excitement washed over her,
and then suddenly, it was done. “I looked up and saw a needle sticking out of my eyebrow,” Tomas said. Getting her eyebrow pierced brought her total number of piercings up to nine – she already had eight ear piercings. Thomas recently added a belly button ring, which brings her to ten piercings. Her best friend, sophomore Summer
O’Neill, has 16 piercings altogether. She has a lip and nose piercing, 12 ear piercings and two gauged ear lobes. “It all started when I discovered you could pierce more than your ear[lobe],” O’Neill said. Te two girls met when they moved in eighth grade – O’Neill from Florida and Tomas from Douglasville, Georgia. “It’s our own expression from where we’ve come from and where we’ve been,” Tomas said. Teir piercings make them feel unique and provide a bond that brings them closer together. “Piercings make [me] feel attractive the
way cute clothes or a good hair day make other people feel attractive,” O’Neill said. Because people love to ask questions about them, she calls them “conversation starters.” Not everyone reacts positively to her
piercings. Her extended family and her mom have shown their dislike of them, saying she’s gone “overboard.” When O’Neill first called her mom to tell her she was going to gauge her ears, she didn’t get the response she was hoping for. “She said I was ruining my future
and hung up on me,” O’Neill said. Tomas had a similar experience when dealing with criticism from her family. She remembers her grandfather voicing his opin- ion without hesitation. “If God wanted you to have those holes in your body he would have put them there,” he said. Tomas didn’t originally plan on getting
ten piercings but became fascinated with the idea after her third lobe piercing. After that, she got six done in a year. As expected, this took some convincing with her parents. “I think they’re just surprised [O’Neill and I] are still going,” Tomas said. Because of their common interest, the two decided to buy their own piercing gun with the help of Tomas’s 18-year-old neighbor. Tis gave them a lot more freedom to try new things. One night, the girls put the gun to good use. Tomas pierced O’Neill’s left ear five times in one sitting. “My ear was purple for a week,” O’Neill said. She doesn’t have a number of piercings she’s aiming for, but she would like to have ten piercings all the way up her right ear. For piercings such as face and belly but-
ton, both girls go to Kolo – a piercings shop in Atlanta. Buying a piercing gun was cost effective, so now the girls only have to buy the earrings for the piercings. Together, O’Neill has spent about $240 with the cost of professional piercings, jewelry and the split cost of the piercing guns (the girls lost the first one). Tomas has spent over $200 for her piercings. Paying for the piercings is all worth it for the girls. “You pay $60 for [an eyebrow piercing] that you will have forever,” Tomas said.
Tomas’s piercings are not only a way to
express herself – she enjoys the responsibil- ity of having them. O’Neill described the experience of a new piercings as something that she learned to deal with. For example, she quickly adjusted to talking and chewing with her lip pierced. Going through these inconveniences doesn’t get in the way of the bigger picture – these piercings will last a lifetime. O’Neill loves her piercings because they make her feel unique and comfortable in her own skin. “It sets me apart from the major- ity,” O’Neill said. “I really don’t care if people like them or not – it’s for myself.” To the girls, their piercings are more than
just a style or trend to follow – it’s about expressing their style and personality. Tey dislike the stereotypes that go along with teenagers who have piercings and hope to go against these misconceptions. Both are good students and feel that their piercings should not be the only thing that defines them. “You can not judge someone by the amount of metal on their face,” Tomas said. n
Gauge Cartilage Lobe
Industrial
OCTOBER 2011 • CARPE DIEM
17
Photo by Meredith Broyles
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