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33 Responses to “Scared Kids?!?”

1. I have an industrial, a conch, and some gaged ear rings that my students see, and several they’ll never know about, they seem to think its pretty cool. I work with high school students and they are always asking me about them, of course they ask while I’m trying to teach! They ask if it hurt, how long it hurt, and many tell me they want to get piercings as well. They always tell me “Ms. G you are a beast!” when I talk about how long they took to heal. I think it gives you a little bit of street cred with the students but it definatly takes away from the way that parents and administrator look at you. But, hey your there for the kids right?

   In some ways I think its good because you can talk to the kids about piercing safety and the proper ways to take care of piercings.

   Ms. G on January 25th, 2009 at 12:10 am

2. I’m the same. All the kids I’ve ever been in contact with have all been curious about my piercings. Their parents always grab them and steer them away with frequent glances back over their shoulder, though!

   Dimruthien on January 25th, 2009 at 12:13 am

3. mostly kids like or dont care about mods but i startled a kid once he came up behind me and asked me for the time i turned around and had an african porcupine quill in my septum and he took a few steps back but after that didnt seem to care …now that i think about it i wonder where the parents were he was only like twelve-ish

   The Bob on January 25th, 2009 at 1:19 am

4. I’m an elementary education major and I’ve wondered the same thing. I live in South Carolina and teachers are required to cover up all tattoos and take out piercings. I spent a semester in Maine and, from what I’ve noticed, they are much so more relaxed when it comes to body mods. I think it’s not actually the students that they are worried about scaring, but the parents. I’ve also noticed that kids tend to be more inquisitive about body mods and I’ve had many small kids ask me what I have a hole in my nose or lip. I just hope that one day I will be able to teach without having to cover my tattoos.

   Fluffie on January 25th, 2009 at 1:22 am

5. the kids I tutor, aged 8 and 10, are mildly fascinated, curious, but not scared at all. ah. the innocence of childhood.

   Parents though… a totally different story. I haven’t revealed my mods yet (although, by BME’s standards, my mods are considered extremely “light.”)

   I do think though, in the next generation, mods will be openly accepted.

   Clara on January 25th, 2009 at 1:41 am

6. I seem to find that kids are more friendly to my mods then most adults.

   It actually seems that most parents will try to push there kids away from asking questions, more often then not.

   Unpopular Bird on January 25th, 2009 at 2:58 am

7. i was at target and a probably 3 year old boy walked by and i had my septum down and he just kept looking at me as he walked by with a huge smile on his face. then his dad looked up to see what he was checking out and immediately grabbed the kids hand and yanked him away. so yes. what shawn said essentially.

   allie on January 25th, 2009 at 7:23 am

8. i run a girl guide/scout group and most of them are pretty mod friendly.. they did think my neck microdermal was a bit strange at first but most of them dont seem to notice. i have streched ears too and they dont think its gross but i keep getting asked if they can stick things through the holes in my ears when i wear tunnels.

   Duckie on January 25th, 2009 at 10:37 am

9. The exact wording was that the kids “waould have nightmares,” I think if anyone is going to have nightmares it’s the parents.

   iamlarry on January 25th, 2009 at 11:35 am

10. I got all sorts of responses from my last job at a local gas station.
    I’ve had kids love my mods and others who did seem somewhat frightened.

    The one incident I clearly remember is having a child, maybe 5 or 6 years old ask his mother about my stretched lobes. When she explained it to her kid the little girl said “I don’t want those!” in a very nervous frightened voice, as though it was something she’d eventually have to do herself, she obviously wasn’t happy about it.

    SDietz on January 25th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

11. Children often run away screaming and crying when they see me.

    Amy on January 25th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

12. it’s been both sides for me…

    I’ve had kids just staring at me…I’ve also had kids ask me questions and/or just smile,etc…But at the same time I’ve also had kids scared to sit next to me on a busy bus/subway,etc. This one kid started to cry and hid behind his mother and refused to sit down next to me.

    for the most part though, the kids have been alright, its been the parents who stare, clutch their children,etc.

    Warren Hiller on January 25th, 2009 at 1:37 pm

13. I worked at a camp and the kids were always interested in them. I have mostly tattoos and they would sometimes pull up my shirt or something that might be covering them, I’d just have to remind them to be appropriate about it. The parents would sometimes have reactions, usually mild though (just looks, but they had to interact with me to pick up their children.) I have found that kids are more excepting and just curious about them.

    Erin Noah on January 25th, 2009 at 2:39 pm

14. I work at a summer camp every year, and the reactions are mixed. The kids sleep and live at this camp for a month so most of them will get to see me on a regular basis and most become desensitized to my mods (rather like seeing a teacher every day) but there are still children that are scared of me the first time they see me. Most are really curious or even think my mods are cool and will spout to me how they are going to get a tattoo too, but I have come across the reactions of “ew thats gross I dont like you” or they dont even talk to me because they are scared. I’m not a heavily modified person. My only facial piercing is my nose ring, my ears have 19 right now, and my back pieces cover most of my back. Yet these little things really can scare children.

    The difference I find is adults aren’t willing to change thier opinion and will label you and shut you out, where as with the kids at camp, I can get to know the child and while they were afraid of me once they see that I’m a fun councelor they stop equating mods with bad things.

    That being said for younger children, as an older student in highschool there were a few teachers with mods and they never bothered any of the students.

    But ignoring the kids, I think you’re going to be hard pressed to find a school that teachers younger grades that would allow a modified teacher to work there if thier mods were visible.

    Rachel on January 25th, 2009 at 3:20 pm

15. I often times get looks of amazement from young children about my lobes - nothing too big, just 7/8″. Many kids seem to ignore my tattoos entirely though.
    Two houses over from me I do have a family with a young (4-5 year old range) girl. I’ve overheard her commenting that “she wants colored pictures on her too” after seeing me outside.

    dirtyhartland on January 25th, 2009 at 5:16 pm

16. When I was a kid, my first introduction to body mods was my cousins who had tattoos and piercings. My cousin Pat had like 1 inch stretched lobes or something like that, and I remember thinking they were so weird… But now my ears are stretched and he’s shrinking his, hah.

    I work at a pizza place and obviously my hair is up all the time, so my ear piercings are clearly visible, but I never really get reactions from kids or adults. The only time I ever recall is right after I got my conch pierced, a 16 year old and her mom came in, and the mom was fascinated, while the teenager was kind of embarassed by her mom asking me about it.

    Kelly on January 25th, 2009 at 8:58 pm

17. It’s not quite the same thing, but little kids *love* my weird hair colours. The weirder the better. I’ve had some at my workplace even get upset when I change back to my natural shade!

    Aara on January 25th, 2009 at 9:16 pm

18. I work at Target where they are completely mod-friendly as part of their diversity policy. While working a cash register, I noticed customers often looking at my sternum surface piercing, but only one (a man in his 30’s or 40’s) ever asked a question about it. (”Is that a piercing?” “Yes.” “Oh, I’ve never seen that before.”) I never got any negative comments or even dirty looks that I can remember.
    Any attention my mods have ever gotten from kids has always been either stares or just honest questions. Most often it goes like this: “What is that?” “It’s a piercing, kind of like when people get their ears pierced.” “Oh. Why do you have that?” “Because I like it.” “Oh.” End of conversation. If only it were that simple with adults.
    I think if this society would loosen up and realize that people with mods are not hurting anyone, allow teachers to show mods, etc… We could eventually eliminate mod-intollerance completely. People have to stop acting like it’s something we have to be ashamed of and protect our children from. There are so many more important things out there to be wary of.

    Porkchop on January 25th, 2009 at 10:06 pm

19. #17 - I agree! Whenever I have had weird and wonderful hair colours/styles I always get kids staring in wonder lol I kinda feel bad cos once a little boy ran straight into a door because he was looking over his shoulder at my bright orange hair ;p Parents always seem to get so embarassed when their kids stare or say something, like I’m going to get angry or something (unlikely!)

    As for my piercings and tattoos, young kids don’t really seem to notice or care as much, particularly in London where I guess they see a lot of it. When I was visiting my little god daughter in Sydney once she was fascinated with my sleeve, she kept rubbing it and looking at her fingers to see if it came off, haha. By the time I left she was sticking stickers on her arm and saying she was going to get tattoos lol When I saw her recently (she is 6 now) with my septum piercing, she didn’t seem concerned, and didn’t bat an eyelid at my blue hair, just called me ’silly’ haha but then I think she is just a result of very cool parents.

    I think kids that react in fear have led very sheltered lives and have possibly been misguided by parents who think we are all criminals. The child and the parents could probably do with diverse teachers to open their eyes to what exists in the ‘real world’!

    Almaxaquotal on January 26th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

20. I was babysitting this young child and when there parent came home (it was the first time I was over) he ran up to them holding my hand and exclaimed, “Look I can stick my hand through her ear!” It wasn’t all the way, but it was close. Thank God the parents were good sports about it. I’ve been babysitting there regularly since.

    katy prost on January 26th, 2009 at 9:42 pm

21. #12: How could any child be scared of you, Wozza?!

    Dimruthien on January 26th, 2009 at 10:56 pm

22. I think, honestly, that deep down it’s the very opposite of “You will scare the kids”. I think that the reason is really more like “You WON’T scare the kids, but you’ll expose them to new things that we don’t like, and then they’ll think this sort of thing is OK!!!”

    VeganZombie on January 27th, 2009 at 1:27 pm

23. when my cousins were much younger they used to press my mums tattoos, expecting them to make noises like their books.
    eventually she had to start making noises!

    Deadly Poison on January 27th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

24. Kids have never reacted negatively to my mods, often i get younger kids who want to stick their fingers through my lobes. I have noticed that more kids are freaked out (not scared just a little freaked) by my stretched conches. I get a lot of questions when i go out about my conches (did it hurt, will they heal).

    I’ve also noticed that reactions vary depending on where I am. On the west coast, I rarely get a second look unless they are asking questions, where as when I worked on the east coast, older people (40+) would stare at my ears while I talked to them.

    Scott on January 27th, 2009 at 5:12 pm

25. I work at a pizza place in Northern Maine (basically in Canada) and one of my boss’s has a young daughter, she’s around 8 or 9, I think. anyway, she saw my newest tattoo and asked how many I had.. my newest one puts me at 6 tattoos, and she said that’s too many, especially at my age (I’m 20.) she also so my industrial and asked why I didn’t have it on the other side, after saying it was weird. she’s been the only small child who’s really noticed my tattoos/piercings. and she just thinks I’m a little weird cause of them.

    Sammah on January 27th, 2009 at 6:46 pm

26. I have a nice face full of piercings, and only once have I ever had a child directly tell me, “I don’t like those. Take them out” He also asked a couple of other women to remove their earrings. I explained to him that I liked them, and if he didn’t he didn’t have to look at me. He didn’t have much to say after that.

    Mira on January 29th, 2009 at 6:16 pm

27. My cousin and her two kids (aged around 5 and 3, I think) came round a few weeks ago. They kept poking at my face, and the girl (who was the older one) was absolutely fascinated by my tongue piercing when I was pulling faces at her. Her brother asked if it was a sweet, and when I said ‘no’ he just looked confused! Then later on, he turned round to me and just went ‘You look DISGUSTING with those things in your face!’. It was quite funny, and I don’t think he really ‘knew’ what he was saying, but that’s the worst kind of reaction I’ve had. Usually kids just want to touch the shiny things, or just pull on them which is less pleasant.

    Nia on January 30th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

28. I find kids love my pircings and tattoos. I work at a fish market and we sometimes get kids come in with their parents buying dinner. I love kids, so I usally go play with them and to make them laugh I stick my tounge pirceing out. It usally works, but I make sure the parents can’t see it! I also have a 6 year old brother and he loves to touch my tattoos. Mind you, our mother has more tattoos then I do, so he’s used to it

    Charlie on February 1st, 2009 at 2:54 pm

29. I’ve worked at summer camps for years, and I’ve never (knowingly!) scared a child. However, I have had one or two who told me that it was gross, icky, etc. All I did was tell them that it was not very nice to say those things and they realized pretty quickly that they were being rude.

    Sarah on February 16th, 2009 at 12:04 am

30. In my opinion the earlier children are exposed to body mods, the more comfortable and tolerant of individual differences they will be in the future. One of my art teachers in high school had a half sleeve, and I noticed that she could connect with teens better.

    Tyler Hall on March 11th, 2009 at 11:36 am

31. I have no visible piercings but when I had my hair in dreadlocks I would get kids pulling at them on the bus and stuff. One of the best reactions I ever got was from a tiny girl whose face lit up as she exclaimed ‘Mummy, I want hair like that!’ Mummy wasn’t pleased…

    Zoe on April 9th, 2009 at 6:20 am

32. I think there are more adults that have been afraid of my mods than children. I’m a 17 year old girl and kids usually just stare, My boss’ daughter is 12 and she thought it was so cool when I got my ears scalpelled, she has probably 3 or 4 cartilage piercings, as does her mom. But yea, most kids usually just break their neck staring, sometimes I see them tugging at their lobes in a curious way. I went to the aquarium with my boyfriend once, we both have stretched lobes over an inch and I have my cheeks pierced, and a little boy looked at us and said “why do you do that?” before either one of us could say a thing the mother pulled him away and started whispering to him, who knows what she said.
    The most rude reaction I’ve ever got was actually from a manager at a restaurant. I’m pretty thin and I usually get looked up and down often because I wear shorts, but I walked in with my mom and we were waiting to get seated and the manager saw me from far away and started trying to hit on me, from far away. As soon as he got closer he straight up said “what the fuck is that” and walked away. I was really upset by it because I have anxiety issues in the first place but while we were eating my mom made him apologize to me, which actually made it worse to me but I really appreciate her defending me. Some people should just be more accepting of the fact that most of us modified people are extremely polite when people ask us questions about our piercings and tattoos and such and aren’t as scary as we look!

    Angie on September 27th, 2009 at 11:58 pm

33. haha i love this question because i want to become an art teacher and i have my ears streched, my septum pierced, and i plan for more.
    one of my high school art teachers had every piercing in his ear u could imagine and tattoos (hes a good man)
    students barely aknowledge his mods
    i say its because their are far more students w. piercings than teachers. we’re more than used to it :]

    munsternat on September 30th, 2009 at 9:53 am

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