Body Modification: An Excuse for Emotional and Psychological Distress?

Societal beauty expectations

There are 4 groups of people, in respect to how they react to societal beauty expectations:

• Those who fit societal beauty expectations and oppose it
• Those who fit societal beauty expectations and attempt to overreach standards
• Those who do not fit societal beauty expectations and attempt to reach it
• Those who do not fit societal beauty expectations and further reject these standards

These expectations have an impact on how we are perceived in society. Also, they influence our moods and behavior. Unfortunately people pay more attention to the psychological effects of those who do not fit the standard. They forget to think about the emotional and psychological distress of those who others perceive as physically attractive and appealing.

First, there are those who were lucky enough to fit societal beauty standards. Most of these individuals are either accepting of their blessings. Others further enhance their features because they of their fears. Maybe they aren’t getting as many compliments as they use to. Or others take the compliments as a need to live up to an expectation. This is an example of body modification influences from psychological distress. Others may be the ones instigated by these negative thoughts, or negative thinking is derived from fear. More specifically, a beautiful person can be unaccepting in the changes that the human body naturally goes through, such as the aging process. As a result, these groups of people may have already fit society’s beauty standards but further turned to body modification due to emotional or psychological distress. They feel a need to prevent, maintain or alter their appearance despite already being attractive to most people. Some celebrity examples include Kim Kardashian, Megan Fox, Michael Jackson and Nicki Minaj. All is these celebrities were attractive before all the cosmetic operations.

What defines a celebrity?

A celebrity is just someone who is known for what they do, such as a career or how they are viewed by the public or particular groups of people. There are different status levels of celebrities. Some are well known to the public, while others are can be underground, micro or lesser known. However, they may be known by other important people or they can be known within their field of interest. Usually mainstream celebrities or those who are famous are the ones that feel more compelled to undergoing many body modification procedures, especially tattooing and cosmetic surgeries.

Those that did not fit the standard

Most that feel like they don’t fit society’s beauty expectations are accepting of their appearance, because they understand that there is much more to life than just your physical appearance. Others may use fashion, makeup or their outstanding personalities to appeal to society instead. But then there are those that use more extreme measures to further oppose these beauty standards, or to better appeal to the beauty expectations of our society today.

More so often, these are celebrities because we hold higher expectations for people glamorized in the public eye. The truth is that celebrities undergo more psychological and emotional stress than most people. Mental and emotional distress is a result of needing to relate to the pain and suffering of people like themselves, which are other celebrities. Other stress is related to the expectations that their fans and the entertainment industry has for them.

There are also many people outside of celebrity status who undergo body modifications. Likely influenced by celebrities or particular cultural and social groups, such as hip hop culture, punk rock and gothic cultures. These people are likely to turn to these cultural aesthetics as means to collectively transform psychological stress. Years ago, we would see gothic cliques, hippies and extreme punk rock fans covered in tattoos and piercings. Today, we see a lot of different people with this art style permanently covering their bodies.

What is body modification?

Body modification is an intentional alteration to the human body or appearance. Although this is a broad concept, most body modification today involves, tattooing and piercing and plastic and cosmetic surgery. What makes these body modifications popular is the fact that they are socially acceptable. Even tattoos and piercing today are less challenged and frowned upon in the workplace and professional settings. Years ago, having tattoos and piercings made you more unique. Now it’s just something that people may have, especially younger generations.

Many people undergo body modification as means to attempt some beauty standard. Others do it as a way to escape some emotional and psychological distress. For most people, it’s a combination of both, psychological stress and a expectation of beauty or trendiness.

Tattoos and piercings

Tattoos and piercings have been an aesthetic and fashion statement since forever in history. Our society is compelled to believe that pain and beauty are a connected force. But we also know, just like beauty, this is only in the eyes of the beholder, as many people are repulsed and disinterested in tattoos and piercings despite its popularity in the media and mainstream society. However, mot people do not get tattoos for just an ideal of art and aesthetic expression. Most people are influenced by a belief or culture and often this belief is associated with some sort of emotional or psychological distress. Other people get tattoos to represent a loved one that may have passed away. Then there are the tattoo and piercings addicts, that actually become addicted to this painful expression of art.

Cosmetic tattoos are less about artistic expression and more about trying to improve an appearance. Instead of having to apply makeup, you can have it permanently tattooed. Many people have their eyebrows tattooed to a particular shape. Or maybe eyeliner or lip liner. There are plenty of cosmetic tattoo options. This eliminates time and emotional distress prior to the application of makeup.

Are people trying to hard to have control over their bodies?

It’s natural for our bodies to undergo pleasure, pain and stress. While it’s somewhat normal for people to want to have some control over these cycles, we may have been taking it too far. I believe that there are healthier ways to have some control over our psychological and emotional distress.

• Exercise
• Meditation
• Practicing self-acceptance
• Journaling

Exercising

Many people that are addicted to getting tattoos and piercings are trying to achieve what is achieved from a good workout session. Exercising is a great way to work and heal the body in a healthy ways. It is also a natural way for our bodies to release endorphins, which is the hormone that relieves pain.

Meditation and Yoga

Practicing meditation and yoga are great ways to reduce or balance our stress levels. We tend to forget that stress is not necessarily bad. Just like mostly everything in life, too much of it leads to problems. Both meditation and yoga helps in clearing negative thoughts by learning to silencing and calming the mind. This can be beneficial for reducing stress, clearing out unwanted and intrusive thoughts and adding more discipline to our thought patterns.

Journaling

Sometimes writing in a journal is just as effective, or even more effective than venting to a friend. We always have the opportunity to free our thoughts through painless forms of art, like drawing, painting, journaling, etc. This is a healthy form of internal communication and checking in with one’s self.

Practicing self-acceptance

Eventually we have to accept who we are, from a physical and personal standpoint. We have similar and unique qualities and if everyone looked exactly the same, life and people would be boring and too predictable. So we should accept ourselves and try not to be too hard on ourselves. Instead positively affirm ourselves with self-acceptance. Regardless of accomplishments and compliments, you are who you are and you’re accepting of that. This can eliminate the need to compare ourselves to others, which prevents unnecessary stress. We must remind ourselves about our good qualities. If we receive a compliment from another person, appreciate it but do not depend on positive affirmations or compliments from others.