‘Innocence’ to deviance
“You had a sweet innocent face before but now the piercing has given it a quirky, badass demeanor.’’Is this really a compliment? The speaker might have meant it as a compliment but what it really represents are the deep-seated social norms about the body. The ‘sweet innocent face’ implies a virtuous, good-hearted, and relatively passive personality in the dictionary of social bodies whereas the ‘quirky badass’ is associated with deviance, anti-socialism, and intimidation. Body art in the form of tattoos and piercings has been ubiquitous since the 70s and yet carries with it a negative connotation. How can a person with something so small as this metal be stigmatized as having negative personality traits? It could be that these modifications violate the puritanical ideas of impeccable bodies and that vexes the social police embedded in all of us. The second most asked question was ‘how did your parents react?’ It was disappointing..for questioners because they assumed exaggerated reactions from an Indian family and mine was absolutely fine with it. Their eyes were wide on the video call at first, however, it was because they didn’t know I was getting it done but that was all. They did joke about me becoming a ‘gypsy’ soon but I took it all with good humor. It was surprising for me too when my grandmother’s first reaction was “You should wear a ring instead of a curved barbell”
