Many students embrace their personality by getting piercings and tattoos.
Most say the pain doesn’t bother them.
“I have a high pain tolerance, so it didn’t hurt too bad,” Anaysia Redd, senior, said. “[For piercings] I have eight lower lobe, a cartilage, nose, and tragus piercing. I love them and don’t regret them. I really want to get a face dermal (facial cheekbone piercing) eventually or my tongue pierced. These don’t really have a meaning to me, I just really like how they look. My first ear piercing was when I was about six months old when my mom got them for me. I got my piercings done somewhere in the mall.”
“My piercings were painless; just a bit of pressure,” Jaiden Lipford, senior, said. “I have four top helixes on both ears, five bottom lobes, a bottom belly button, nose, and a smiley ( lip frenulum piercing). I love them and plan to get more. I want my top belly button, back dermals (lower back piercings above hip bones), horizontal eyebrow, snake eyes (double tongue tip piercing), regular tongue, a rook (inner ear piercing), a conch (inner ear piercing), and a vertical industrial (also an inner ear piercing). They don’t have any certain meaning to me, I am just really interested in piercings. My first piercing was my nose when I was 16 years old. I got my nose done at Blue Moon Tattoo shop, and I did the rest myself.”
Others say the pain was bad, but worth it.
“I have a forearm tattoo that hurt a lot, but I would never regret it,” Jacob Thompson, junior, said. “I want to get two more on my left forearm, one more on my right forearm, and one on my back. My tattoo means a lot to me because it represents my family. I got it on my seventeenth birthday by a man named Brick.”
Some students have both tattoos and piercings.
“I have a tattoo on my forearm and a belly button piercing,” Caylee Taylor, junior, said. “My arm didn’t hurt because it went numb, and my belly didn’t hurt because it went by really quick. I want to get more tattoos and get a sleeve and for piercings; I want a septum piercing. My tattoo means a lot to me because it’s my mom’s name. I got my tattoo somewhere on Riverside, and I pierced my belly button myself.”
