How can a Tattoo change how you are perceived?

     I read the article titled "Mark my words, maybe." For most of this article I was trying to figure out what the artists main argument was. She started out by saying that she needed to get a tattoo so that she could break away from mainstream society. She kept saying how she felt held down by the happenings of other peoples lives, and hence wanted to get a tattoo to help her break free. I became confused when she started to counteract her beginning argument by saying that she thought that her tattoo wasn't accomplishing what she had first wanted it to.
     The author wanted her tattoo to help her break free from that which was holding her down in life and make her different, but instead it made her something that she wasn't comfortable with. She describes her tattoo experience as fun at first. It was a conversation starter and people were interested to hear why she wanted to get that specific tattoo. After a while though she began to feel drained of answering people over and over. She compares herself to being pregnant and everyone notices and asks you about it. Except in her case she says that the joy of being pregnant is gone, and she feels empty every time someone asks her about her tattoo.
     This made me very interested, because it made me start to think about the effects that body modification might have on some people in a negative way. When I usually think about body modification I think of tattoos and piercings, which people are usually very excited to share with others and talk about why they got them and how it defines them. But what happens if you undergo a body modification like a tattoo and you don't like it, and you have to live with it. That's what seems to be happening in the author's case, because she isn't enjoying her tattoo anymore. It's a burden to her now and it didn't give her the outcome that she was hoping for.
     This shows how body modifications, whether they are meant to be for good purposes, can sometimes not end up being what you thought they would be. A body modification can change the whole of what people think of you when they first see you. You may not have intended for that to happen when you got your body modification, but now you are paying the price. Everyone makes assumptions about people, whether it is a conscious decision or not. So before you get a tattoo or a piercing, think about how it is going to effect you. Are you gonna be ok with the new way that you are treated?
-Brandon Reilly