Bodymods and Self Destruction?

by Schnauzevoll

Hey there, Internet!

On a serious thought, does anyone else feel the desire to get a new piercing or bodymod in general when they are in some kind of bad mood? When I look back at the different amounts of piercings I’ve had over the past years (talking about 12 years with my belly button being the first piercing for me and years when I had up to 21 piercings, see recent piercing post) usually the decision for something new was made when I was not feeling too well.

1603 piercing jewelry self destruction discussion

Happy so far I didn’t regret them afterwards, not even the forever-under-construction Pokémon sleeve tattoo, as annoying as this sometimes gets. Of course, been eye-ing particular bodymods for a while before getting them, but talking about that ‘NOW!’ moment in the end, right before heading to the studio. And yes, so far they always somehow did help to feel better.

That did remind me of some topic we were talking about during my apprenticeship, coping strategies, how different people react when something happens in their lives, how they process tragedies, stress in general. Some do think about it, learn from it, include the new knowledge / experience into their lives, into the way they will behave. Some others might try to ignore or to cover their inner struggles. Some break or turn those moments into some kind of (self-) destructing behaviour or thoughts.

Which actually feels strange to me, is this (Bodymods) some kind of self destructing behaviour / self harm that makes us feel better because of the pain? Or do we simply enjoy the changes with our body? On the other hand, there are a lot of different things we could talk about here that might, same as the bodymods feel ok, be ok to some, be bad to others. (Just think about when was the last time you were in a bad mood and because of that mood you went shopping, or did some extra hours of sports or maybe bought some sugary treat you would not have bought if it was a nice day for you? Or how about that new book you just added to your ever growing to-read-pile?)

So, if this really was some kind of coping strategy, would it be a good one or a bad one? I mean, when someone does feel better for a long time, it can’t be a bad thing? But what when you start to regret getting them done? Sure, piercings can easily be removed, will turn into tiny, nearly invisible scars and other bodymods would be more expensive so people think about them a bit more – I hope.

Or is all of the bad mood thing something we make up as excuses, to treaten our addictions? Because a lot of the things, not just the point of feeling better, happiness, that one might enjoy with piercings / tattoos / scars / whatever bodymod could as well be found in every article about addictons and their bakgrounds. The subculture, people with same interest, community, attention. If this is the case I hope, despite how beautiful they are, that noone of us reaches that point when you can only feel good WHEN you get a new one done because that definitely is something bad, no matter what addiction or semi-addiction we have, that would be the point when they are not good anymore.

What do you think? Have a nice evening!

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