I met Melissa while she was out with some of her family the other day.
James,
Adding piercings to the body seems to me pretty drastic, but folk do it to both define their identity as different from folk at large, while at the same time, paradoxically pulling themselves into a world of gothic mutilation!
I am puzzled by it. At first I thought these were unredeeming and just destructive. Now I am more accepting, can conceive of the work as art and would love to know what it all means!
Asher