Piercings

I was born in Woodside, in Queens, New York, and raised in Brooklyn. My family background, however,  is from Mexico, where the Aztec and Mayan civilizations once stood. My father and uncle have showed me a lot about my native culture; their world, concerts, celebrations, tattoos, and the one I love most, piercings!

            I got involved with piercings once I saw my uncle get one in his ear. Seeing my uncle from that perspective, it did not look painful, so I decided to get one for my own. I was wrong about the pain, thought—I never would have thought it would hurt that much.

             It was then where my journey began. My uncle took me to his concerts. I met with a whole new type of piercings; body, tongue, lip, eyebrow, nose piercings, and the one that caught my eyes the most—gauges. Just looking at it, I didn't understand the process of getting a gauge. I asked my uncle, and he explained how our civilization, the Aztecs, performed those type of piercings. At that moment, under the influence of my Aztec bloodlines, I went to go get these so-called "gauges".

            I met up with a store full of these people who also had ridiculously big gauges. I knew nothing on how the whole process would go it until I saw a big needle. I was told how they had to expand my ear in order to fit the size of the gauge. I was recommended to start out little by little and to work my way up on expanding it, but I had no intention to do that. I automatically went to a big size. In a gauge form it is 0, in millimeters it is  8.251mm, the size of a Sharpie cap. I felt so much pain in my ears as the process was going on, but I took it on. After so long of being tortured I saw my ears and they were awesome! I totally loved my ears on how they looked even though they were bloody.

            The plugs I had were so incredible. I felt the connection of the Aztec World. I feel very proud representing my Aztec cultural. After those gauges I did, I went on in getting more body piercing. In total, I have had 21 piercings. I only wear 3 these days, one of which still happens to be my gauges. However, now my gauges have been expanded to a 5/16, the size I think will stick with for now. Having these gauges indicates my feelings towards my ancestors, and is much more than just for looks.

Tattoos

People get tattoos for many different reasons. Some just like the artwork and others have meaningful tattoos. Most people I know get tattoos for the fun of it, but I have a couple friends that have tattoos because it means something to them. It’s interesting how tattoo artists draw these tattoos with just needles. Most people I know get their tattoos on their arms or legs. There are a couple weird places to get tattoos, such as the eye and ears, but I haven’t seen anybody in person with theses tattoos, only I’ve seen them in pictures. Those look very painful and I wouldn’t want to get any of those. If I was to get another tattoo it needs to mean something. I don’t like just going for the design.

I got my first tattoo at the age of 17. You can say it was a good experience trying something new. The design I chose was a cross with a rosary wrapped around it and my grandfather's initials around it. My grandfather recently passed away. I loved him for many reasons. He raised me and took care of me when my parents weren't around. As I grew older I looked up to him and always said to myself that I wanted to be just like him because of the support he gave me. He dedicated his life to working to support the family and especially my grandmother, who was sick. My tattoo is a symbol of him being with me at all times and knowing that he's around.

In my family my brother also has a tattoo. He got his first tattoo at age 20. He got married at the early age of 19 and decided to tattoo his wife's name on his forearm. He tells me he's happy to have that tattoo of his wife who he loves very much. If anything was to happen between them that he will to a cover up and add a different design over it.

I have a friend named Emely who has a couple tattoos but only decided to show one specific tattoo. She has little stars leading to bigger stars. She got this tattoo at age 16 because she says she loves stars of this kind. Stars are special to her for some reason that she doesn't even know.

Another friend I found is named Vanessa. She has a tattoo of a heart with a crown and some design in the sides. She told she got this tattoo for her 18th birthday. She says she fell in love as soon as she saw it and wanted it ASAP. She really doesn't have a good reason for getting the tattoo because she just says she liked it and wanted it for fun. It was also her first tattoo and she said it hurt a lot. She doesn't plan on getting another tattoo (supposedly). These 2 people were the only people who had time to explain to me about their experience with tattoos and what it meant to them. There were more people who also wanted to be interviewed but didn't want to take a picture of where their tattoo was located.