Discussion»Questions»Beauty» We tattoo our bodies with weird pictures as a sign of beauty and dye our hair orange, yellow. red green purple and blue. What is next?
No tats here. And I have never died my hair a color that was not a version of natural hair color...black, brown, brown with reddish highlights (not auburn though) My ears are pierced that is it. But in high school I did wear a fake nose ring with a chain to my ear. Lol. So glad, my parents forbid a real piercing.
I'm not sure that tattoos are about beauty. I have none - so I'm ignorant on this one. I've asked tattooed people about it. They say it's painful, that there's an element of self-abuse in it - almost a mild version of the impulse to self-cut or harm. They say it's often about declaring an identity, or an attachment to an idea, experience, loved one or memory.
For the Maories, tattoos on one side of the face represented the mother's family clan, the other side, the father's. But the number of tattoos had to be earned through initiations and achievements. In Maori culture, people could read who they were meeting at first glance.
I've always suspected that weird hair colours are more about rebellion or attracting attention rather than beauty. Often it's a kind of social-clan identity - "we bohemians are all in this together" - a way to recognise each other.
