During an artshow recently, a young, rather nice looking guy was strolling around, striking up conversations. He considered himself a piece of art-the reality was he was destroying himself one mod at a time. His cheeks, brows, nose, chin, tongue, lips and whatever else one could think of to be visible, was pierced with multiple rods and rings. He spoke of getting his tongue split and more piercings. His quest? To get in the Guiness book.....
Cultural body-altering rituals are based in hundreds of years of history, in turn based on some superstitions. As traditional or cultural body modification dies for a number of reasons, it seems that modern civilization thinks it'd be 'cool' to bring some of it back. But every time I see some kid with huge-gauged rings through his/her ears or a barbell through their tongue, I can't help but think "they're gonna regret that in 10-20 years"(of course I have no way of knowing that for sure, but the vision of my cousin's old mother-in-law with earlobes hanging to her shoulders with holes I could put 3 fingers through pops up).
Interesting essay about just this topic:
Link
A new and disturbing tourist attraction has appeared on the troubled border between Burma and Thailand. Ma Nang has been winding brass rings onto the necks of young Padaung women for 34 years. Mostly she has worked in Burma, but for the last five years she has lived in one of two ‘tourist villages’ in Mae Hong Son province, Thailand.
There are many refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border. Since 1962 an estimated 1.5 million people have fled the oppression of Burma’s military dictatorship. The Thai Government has been a reluctant host to many of them.
But the Padaung were actively encouraged to cross the border. The Thais benefit from the extra income generated by the influx of tourists to the region. At the ‘tourist villages’ there is an entrance fee. The Padaung women receive some of the revenue but most is taken by Karens, of whom the Padaung are a sub-group. The money helps pay for the struggle against the Burmese Government.
Traditionally the Padaung women wear brass neck-rings which give the appearance of elongating the wearer’s neck (in fact they depress the collarbone). The neck-rings can be removed, but the weakened neck muscles are unable to support the weight of the head – to do so without help would result in the windpipe being crushed.
Inside Burma the tradition has been dying. Women would even cross into Thailand to have the rings removed in hospital, where they would need to wait months for their necks to recover. Now, due to the ‘tourist villages’, the practice has been given an extended lease of life.
Ma Nang explained a significant change in the application of the rings since her arrival in Thailand. In Burma a girl child wears her first rings, weighing one kilo, at the age of five. Two more rings are added at 10 and 15 and another two before the age of 20, to make a total of five.
This process takes too long to sustain the main attraction to the ‘tourist villages’. So the process has been speeded up – the first ring worn at the age of five, the second at eight, the third at 13 and the final two by the time the girl is 15.
Inside the camps the women sit at the front of their wooden huts making bracelets, woven bags and dolls to sell to tourists, stopping to pose for the cameras. When asked about the tedium of her life Ma Nang says: ‘What do you do? I’m sure your work too must be boring sometimes. This is just the same – a job to earn money.’
Even so, other Padaung women have opted to live in the harsher conditions of the regular Karen refugee camps rather than submit to this practice.