I’m a product of the alternative movement of modern times. I have blue hair (and green hair, and usually pink hair). I have a tattoo. I have a very cynical attitude sometimes—an attitude common among teenagers today (and literally every other era in history). As of recently, I also have a septum piercing.
I’ve always been fascinated by this culture. I’ve been dreaming of tattoos and piercings since the day I discovered the tattoos on my uncle. To me, it was art…on one’s skin. What you decide to put on your own skin is indicative of who you are, but it also represents something else: the freedom to make your own decisions.
Certain unnamed people in my life have always had certain opinions on this kind of expression—they often make the same old tired reference to the Bible about the body being the temple or they tell me the age-old idea that I’ll never get any job worth talking about with tattoos. Even worse, some go so far as to allude that my character must be bad if I have colored hair or tattoos or piercings. Frankly, I’m tired of it.
However, there’s nothing that bothers me more than when I see parents disowning their children well into their late teens and early twenties for choosing to exercise their own free will and to get piercings, to get tattoos, to color their hair. I feel that parents might actually be concerned for their children and their children’s futures, but I also feel that these worries are based on a worldview where everyone else's opinions matter over one’s sense of self-awareness and self worth.
To do this is to instill that one’s life is not solely one’s own. This leads to a certain anxiety; one cannot walk into a room or approach a group of people without wondering what everyone else is thinking. As long as we keep perpetuating these ideas that our happiness should take the backseat to the way that others (unknown and known to you) perceive you, we are going to see a largely unhappy populous.
That is not to say I’m not affected by what others think, but I think that when I first cut my hair short, I felt free. Many people loved my short hair, but more importantly, I loved my short hair. Every other choice I’ve made since then concerning my appearance has been positive and solely made for me. I notice that I’m happier, and not necessarily because of my appearance. It’s because I realized my body is mine and mine alone.
This means that if you don’t find alternative culture appealing, that’s great—don’t force yourself to fit a mold. Find a look that works for you. Exercise your right to choose. Let your child, let your friends, let your family express themselves. By doing so, you are truly taking society’s standards and throwing them away. What’s more fun than disregarding opinions, am I right?
