Body Modifications

Body modification is all to do with altering our bodies to get closer to reaching our ideal self. People of all ages have an idea of what they aspire to be and what their ideal self looks like, meaning that we all go through various procedures to reach our goal of being our version of 'perfect'. It is especially important to teenagers and young adults as this seems to be the time when most people get a clear idea of who they want to be and what they are willing to go through. I think with younger people body modifications (such as makeup for girls) are a way for them to try and be in control of ourselves. This is because at a young age we abide by our parents beliefs so once we have reached the age where we develop our own we want to break away from our parents and show independence. Each person has their own ideologies but as teenagers there are usually more generalised groups that we want to fit in to and theses all have specific styles. There are aspects of independence associated with body modifications as well as aspects of fitting in and being accepted.
I think a lot of teenagers modify their bodies for themselves to raise their self-esteem and make them feel more confident within themselves, but the ideal self they have created usually stems from our subconscious need to fit in with others. I personally tell myself the way my style is all for personal reasons and I'm doing it for myself not others, but there is also an aspect of society giving me ideas about how 'perfect' women should be which influences my choices subconsciously. I take a lot of my inspiration about how I want to look from people around me and the opinions of my peers rather than media. For me personally, I value my figure as one of the things that I want to become 'perfect' so working on reaching my ideal body is one my more important forms of body modification.
For others piercings and tattoos are a more obvious form of body modification. It is generally suggested, especially by older people, that people only get these as a sign of rebellion but I think it is more personal to each person rather than a way of rebelling. Teenagers can form groups because of these modifications as there are some subcultures that are more likely to get tattoos or piercings, but nowadays they're more popular with everybody so I think it is a personal decision. I personally would like to get tattoos as they are a way of representing different aspects of myself and showing off my identity, but someone like my mum hates them and doesn't see the reason people would get them so I think it all comes down to personal choice. I don't want to get tattoos to rebel against my mum's beliefs so the idea that they're all for rebellion is wrong in my opinion. I think they are more about representation as tattoos are specific to each person who gets them and they usually have meaning behind them.