EmeralC
Navel piercings have become popular with a variety of people.
Body art ‘pierces’ through
cultures, demographics
As body piercing has become more
mainstream in the last few years its
styles have become more varied
Jacquelyn Lewis and Ryan Borheimer
Pulse writers
It’s not a question of whether body
piercings have gone mainstream. Even
60-year-old Harrison Ford showed up on
Entertainment Tonight sporting an ear
ring, suggesting the stereotypes associat
ed with piercings are on the decline. In
recent years, this form of body art has
evolved into a culture all its own, with in
tricacies warranting analysis.
Primal Body Piercing owner Justin
Smith agreed.
“It’s not a question of increased popu
larity. It’s more about what types people
are asking for more often,” Smith said.
High Priestess Piercing head piercer
Lisa Blue said the business, located at
675 Lincoln St., pierces between 20 and
30 customers per day, and the demo
graphies vary widely.
“We pierce a lot of older people, too,”
said the seven-year piercing veteran. “It’s
spread pretty equally among all age
groups. Everybody’s getting pierced.”
Ear, navel and tongue piercings have
become commonplace. With this in
creased popularity comes the challenge
posed to those seeking to emerge from
the fray of piercing conformists. And
when it comes to modem trends, all bets
are off. Among the more obscure loca
tions are the torso, hands and temples —
sometimes all of the above.
Smith, who has been piercing since
1995, has owned Primal Body Piercing,
located at 509 E. 13th Ave., for three
years. He said nostril piercings are very
popular right now. Labrets, a lower lip
piercing, and inner ear work have also
been on the rise. And most recently,
Smith said he’s noticed more and more
interest in general body surface pierc
ings, such as the back of the neck.
Blue said High Priestess has seen an
increase in demand for earlobe stretch
ing procedures.
“Stretching ears has become a lot bigger
now than it was five years ago,” she said.
For the more adventurous spirit, there’s
“pocketing,” a style of body art involving
adornments resembling giant staples that
are imbedded atop the surface of the skin
— most commonly on the arm.
Although both Smith and Blue acknowl
edged that some people get these types of
piercings for simple body adornment, they
said other motivation extends far beyond
simple physical decoration.
“I think, for many people, it’s a sign of
moving on — a way to take their mind off
things,” Smith said.
Blue pointed to healing as another
explanation.
Turn to Pierce, page 7
Dreadlocks
continued from page 5
Van Pelt has had dreads for close to two-and
a-half years. She visited Ghana, a West
African country, and said dreads are socially
frowned upon in the country, associated with
poverty and insanity.
Dreads can be manufactured in a myriad
of ways. One method involves sectioning hair
(after washing and drying it) into small
amounts, using rubber bands to hold it back,
then removing the rubber bands and “back
combing” the different sections. Finally,
adding a small amount of wax to each section
and rolling it should solidify each lock. There
are other methods similar to this, using twist
ing, or a combination of twisting and pinning,
instead of back-combing. And of course,
there’s the aforementioned method of neg
lect, which simply involves waiting for dread
locks to form.
Wax is one of the many available products
that can naturally aid in the creation of
dreads. Hair salons can also create dread
locks professionally, but it’s a costly endeav
or and often involves using chemicals.
Whether or not the method of creating
dreads connects to the method of choice for
their creation is a question that each person
must answer for himself or herself. Van Pelt
said she cultivated her dreads through patience
and a mixture of ingredients provided by her
friends. It was only about a year ago that the
dreads “started getting firm, or in their prime,”
she said. Van Pelt added that the formation of
her locks brought on a loss of vanity and less
emphasis on hair maintenance.
“That was a humbling experience — hav
ing really ugly hair. It was kind of like, I’m not
going to care,” she said.
Self-described “professional bum” photog
rapher and Eugene resident Nelson Kittler
had dreadlocks for six years. He said he start
ed them by accident after spending time at a
Florida beach.
Kittler said dreadlocks represented incred
ible amounts of energy “locked” into each
strand of his hair. He finally got rid of them in
1998, among political controversy during a
visit to Vail, Colo., when an Oct. 19 Earth
Liberation Front arson attack on a ski resort
prompted their removal.
“I was tired of being associated with people
I wasn’t associated with,” he said. “It’s adver
tising, and I think people should choose their
battles wisely.”
Kittler said that because of the numerous
stereotypes and preconceptions associated
with the hairstyle, the mere subject is a
touchy issue.
Anyone looking to further their knowledge
of dreadlock culture can pick up a copy of
the book “Dreads” by Francesco Mastalia and
Alfonse Pagano. Yahoo! also hosts an Internet
group on dreadlocks. Manifold sources of in
formation can be explored by directing a Web
browser to a search engine.
Contact the Pulse reporter
at aaronshakra@dailyemerald.com.
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TOTAL STUDENT DISCRIMINATION GRIEVANCES FILED WITH THE OFFICE
OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
January 1- December 31, 2002
Two claims of sexual harassment; one claim of disability discrimination. One claim of age discrimination. All claims
resolved after investigation. *_
STUDENT SEXUAL HARASSMENT GRIEVANCES FILED WITH THE OFFICE
OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
January 1- December 31, 2002
Twoclaims of harassment. Both claims resolved after investigation,
One claim of sexual harassment. Resolved after conversation with respondent.
Number of claims does not correspond to totals column because some cases contain multiple claims.