"Body Piercing, A Popular Trend Amongst UB Students"

Needles of all sizes have punctured the noses, septum, tongues, navels, eyebrows, nipples and even the genitals of college students across the country. Body piercing has become not only a trend, but also a means of self-expression for many UB students.

As body piercing has increased in popularity over the years, so has the intensity, moving from different styles and types of piercings into literal body modification.

"Every generation has a different style to define themselves and make themselves different from other generations," said Professor Michael Farrell a sociology professor. "Body piercing has become a unique trend that illustrates differences in trends amongst current college students and past generations."

Many times, getting pierced starts as an effort to make a statement. Other piercing newbies choose to get poked in the heat of the moment.

Ariana Angel, a senior political science and sociology major, said rebelling against herself was the inspiration for her tongue piercing.

"I was turning 19 and wanted to do something new and out of my character, so I went and got my tongue pierced," she said. "The healing process is what hurt the most, I wasn't able to eat anything except applesauce for a good month."

Simple desires or impulses to do something out of character, simply for a change, are often reasons why students like Angel pierce random parts of their body. Kendra Kramer, a senior exercise science major, is one student who never had the intention of getting a piercing.

"One of my friends was going to get her ears pierced for the first time and she said that I should get something pierced to, so I randomly decided to get my tongue pierced," said Kramer.

Kramer said that she never thought about the pain associated with the piercing until she saw the large metal clamp holding her tongue out of her mouth and the large needle about to be pushed through her tongue.

"It was all worth it because I like having a tongue piercing," said Kramer. "The funny thing is I randomly had it done one day just for the hell of it."

Cowp?\0xA6k, a popular Buffalo piercing parlor located at 117 Elmwood Ave., has seen UB's piercing trend grow firsthand.

"I can honestly say that there isn't a day that goes by without a student from UB coming in and getting a piercing," said Chris Jennings, a piercing artist for Cowp?\0xA6k.

He said that the nose is the most popular body piercing at the moment for their customers.

"Piercings vary a lot from student to student because everyone has their own style or desire. At Cowp?\0xA6k we pierce everything from nose, lips and industrial piercings in the ear, to the nipples and genitals," Jennings said. "Piercings serve as markers in life for a new beginning or an end to a time in someone's life."

For many students getting pierced is a way to get noticed, and college is the perfect place to manipulate one's image. Cecilia Szczur, a senior English and sociology major, said that she had the majority of her piercings done during her time in school.

"When I am at school, I have more freedom and don't have to be bothered by my parents," said Szczur. "I have my lip, nose, eyebrow, Monroe, a facial piercing mimicking Marilyn Monroe's beauty mark, cartilage and both nipples pierced along with a lot of ear piercings. Having my nipples pierced was the most painful."

Jennings said that more intense body modifications, such as the stretching of the ear lobes, has become popular over the years.

"Other body modifications, such as scaring the body with scalpels to make designs, branding and implants both under and through the skin have also become popular," said Jennings. "Everybody wants to be different, and a simple bell bar form doesn't do it anymore."

For students like Szczur, piercing has segued into more intense body modification.

"I have just begun the process of gauging, stretching of the earlobe holes with different gauge sizes," she said. "Gauging is a continuing process because each different gauge size takes time to heal, sometimes weeks before people are able to move on to a new gauge size."

Gregory Dimitriadis, an associate professor of UB's educational leadership and policy department commented on the popularity of body piercing amongst college students.

"In a general sense, body piercing is one more way for young people to turn their everyday creativity into body artwork," he said. "People are creative in so many different ways such as fashion, the type of music they listen to, and through the poetry they write."

With body modifications and piercings becoming increasingly common, it is left to the imagination of students as to what will come next.

"Body piercing is an expression of self," said Szczur. "I can accept the pain of each piercing because in the end I have something that helps me express myself."