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Sunday, August 19, 2001
Piercing looks
Parents may hate the trend, but even the girl next door is getting a piercing
By Dan Parker
Caller-Times

Michelle Christenson/Caller-Times

John Schubert is none too fond of the eyebrow piercing sported by his 15-year-old daughter, Rachel Schubert. After Rachel pierced her own brow with a safety pin, her mother took her to a business where it was done professionally.

   Audra Moore is a 15-year-old Ray High School cheerleader who makes As and Bs and wants to eventually become a lawyer. She also has something that such an all-American teen-ager wouldn't have possessed just 10 years ago: a navel pierced by a stainless-steel ring.
   "Basically, I like the way they look," Audra said. "If you can pierce your ears, I don't see why it's wrong to pierce your belly button."
   Once practiced mainly by society's fringe dwellers, body piercing - putting decorative rings through the nose, navel, eyebrow and other body parts - has become so increasingly mainstream that teen-agers all over Corpus Christi and the rest of the United States are bugging their parents relentlessly for new holes in their bodies.
   Even the most squeaky-clean teen-agers want titanium belly button rings, while many others beg their parents for gold eyebrow rings and diamond-studded nostril piercings.
   "Before, it was largely the goth kids," said Jerry Brooks, a body piercer at 3-D Body Art Emporium in Corpus Christi, who sports a single piercing in his left ear. "Today, you have cheerleaders."
   Touch of rebellion
   Under state law, a piercing business cannot legally pierce a minor without seeing notarized documents with a parent's or guardian's written consent. But local piercing businesses say the legal paperwork isn't a deterrent. They report a steady stream of parents, children and notarized documents passing through their doors.
   Piercing has gotten big among teen-agers partly because celebrities like singer Britney Spears and former pro basketball player Dennis Rodman have made piercing so visible, said Clinton Sanders, author of the book, "Customizing the Body - The Art and Culture of Tattooing."

Dan Parker/Caller-Times

Erica Loredo (left), 17, displays her pierced tongue, while her mother, Ida Salazar, shows off her pierced eyebrow.

   For the teen-ager who is not deeply disaffected but wants to show a touch of rebellion, piercing is attractive, because some of it, like tongue piercing and navel piercing, can be hidden, said Sanders, a professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut.
   "Piercing is a great way to be outrageous in certain circles when you choose to be and be normal in other circumstances," Sanders said.
   Not always accepted
   Despite the growing normality of it all, not everyone is convinced that teen-agers need another hole in the head or navel. Most high schools in the Corpus Christi Independent School District prohibit visible piercings for boys and girls, except for earrings.
   John Schubert, a Corpus Christi respiratory therapist, said he doesn't like his 15-year-old daughter Rachel's eyebrow piercing.
   "Part of it has to do with my church. I'm a Latter Day Saint, and it's kind of like degradation of your body to me," said Schubert, 50. "I'm not down on people that do that, but to me, it's kind of foreign. ... It's kind of offensive to me."
   But when Rachel saw all of her friends doing it, she thought otherwise."It's just kind of a fun thing," she said. "You can change the jewelry, and sometimes you can get stuff that glows."
   Rachel started asking to have her nose pierced when she was 12 or 13. When her parents refused, she poked an earring through her nostril and a safety pin through her eyebrow without anesthetic. Seeing that Rachel was going to make sure she was pierced one way or another, her mother then brought her to a piercing shop to get it done safely, by professionals.
   No right or wrong
   Should parents allow their teen-agers to have piercings? The answer to that depends on a parent's values, so there is no absolute right or wrong about it, said Richard Heyman, author of the book "How to Say it to Teens."
   "What's important is for parents is the health and happiness of the teen," said Heyman, a professor of communication and education at the University of Calgary in Canada. "So, if you go ahead and say, 'Do it,' make sure it is done right and the teen understands all the circumstances involved. And if you say no, then you want to make sure the teen understands that you know the consequences of this better than they do."
   Parents should take the time to explain all the potential consequences of piercings, including the possibility that some people will instantly dislike them for their piercings and the possibility that it could be harder to land a job, Heyman said.
   But piercing is not a source of controversy in Ida Salazar's Corpus Christi household. Salazar has an eyebrow piercing, and her 17-year-old daughter, Erica Loredo, has a pierced tongue.
   "I don't think there's anything wrong with body piercing or tattooing," said Salazar, a homemaker. "It's art. It's a creation. It's awesome."


Contact Dan Parker at 886-3753 or _parkerd@caller.com

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