A New Era of Body Decoration: What Are Kids Doing to their Bodies?

Alabama Nurse, Sep-Nov 2003 by Selekman, Janice

Every year, pediatric nurses are amazed by the latest craze adopted by children and adolescents. We know not to be judgmental, lest our communication with the young people be compromised. However, we also must keep updated on how the new trends impact on health care. The past two decades have seen a significant increase in the number of youth who have had their bodies pierced or tattooed. As these procedures become more commonplace, some teens are going to extremes. There are already some very informative articles in the nursing literature that describe how piercings and tattoos are performed and the teaching and care that should be done before and after the procedure. This article will explore the spectrum of body decoration with a focus on the latest fads, The spectrum of body decoration incorporates body painting, body adornment, and body modification. All of these categories have been practiced for thousands of years in all cultures. Some are temporary and others are permanent. They fall into a continuum from temporary innocuous activities that are now considered part of play in our culture to procedures that many of us would consider body mutilation, with the potential for psychopathology.

Body Painting

Body Painting lies at one end or the continuum, This is a temporary process of coloring parts or the body. Face painting is a common form of entertainment for children at parties and street fairs; football fans, especially the college age group, may paint their faces and chests in their team's colors. The American Indians painted their faces to express the activity in which they were engaging. Football players put black face paint under their eyes to deflect the sunlight, although one high school football player stated that he used it like "war paint." Temporary tattoos are sold for children of all ages to apply to their bodies. While some of these products can be washed off immediately, others wear off over a week's time.

New to the body-painting arena is the airbrushing of makeup using a process called pointillism, a form of art borrowed from the French impressionists. In this process, tiny dots of color are applied by a makeup artist to produce the final product. This procedure is costly and is used more by adults for weddings and special engagements, but it may certainly end up being used by teens during prom season. The makeup lasts up to 12 hours.

Also increasing in popularity in the United States is body painting with henna. This paint is made from the crushed leaves of the henna plant. For 5000 years, the orange to dark reddish-brown henna was used in Asia and Africa to protect, to bring luck, to ensure happiness, and as a rite of passage; American women are more familiar with it as a hair coloring. The intricately painted designs on the skin are safe and painless and last 1-3 weeks. Frequently, it is painted onto the fingers, hands, wrists, and feet; the face and chest are not usually used because the skin is thinner and exfoliates quickly (Fabius, 1998).

Body Adornment

Body Adornment moves slightly on the continuum. This is also a temporary process and all of us have engaged in this. This is what we do to make ourselves "more attractive." Look at all the activities we do to our hair, we cut, shape, curl, perm, color, mousse, and spray it. These processes are not limited to middle-aged men and women in beauty salons, but rather to teens of all types, from the prom queen to the punk rocker. We may also put ornaments in our hair. We cut, clip, shape, and color our nails. Some tweeze, wax, or shave hairs they don't care to haye, whether they are in the axillary area, the legs, or on the face. We also add jewelry, from rings and bracelets to pins and neckwear.

Earrings have always been included in the category of body adornment. When pierced ears became more popular in the 1970s, it became acceptable to have one's ears pierced for a single set or earrings. While 80%-90% of females have at least one piercing in each ear, this trend is now becoming more popular in males.

The localized injection of Botox to eliminate- lines and wrinkles might also be considered in this category, since it changes the way the body looks by paralyzing the muscle. This is a temporary procedure lasting about 3 months.

Body Modification

Body Modification used to be considered the far.end of the continuum, however, it now extends from "mild" body modification to severe and mutilating forms. These processes are considered permanent, although more and more methods are being developed to reverse some of the modifications.

Piercings are usually less permanent than tattoos, since the piercing can be removed and the hole resolved in most of the cases, although scarring remains a possibility. Piercings have been made on every part of the body. However, more risque piercings are now being seen. One such piercing involves placing grommets (round metal eyelets) or stretching tapers into already pierced and healed tissues (usually the earlobe) for the purpose of enlarging the hole to approximately 1/2 to 1 cm or more. Once these heal, the individual can either wear a curved barbell piece of jewelry in the grommet or attach chains through the grommet to ones placed in other parts of the body.