The Marked Generation: Why Tattoos, Piercings, and Septum Rings Became Mainstream for American Women
During the past two decades, tattoos, facial piercings, and especially septum rings have traveled from recognizable subcultural markers toward ordinary features of American female appearance. The change tells us something larger about individuality, friendship, commerce, technology, and the manner in which a culture teaches people what to find beautiful. Body modification has moved steadily from the cultural margins into ordinary American life, appearing today across professions, social classes, and everyday settings. Photo: Brooke Cagle / Wikimedia Commons , CC0 1.0. During the past two decades, tattoos, facial piercings, and other forms of body modification have become increasingly familiar among American women. What once belonged, at least in the public imagination, to relatively narrow social worlds has entered ordinary life. Tattoos appear on teachers, nurses, clerks, mothers, students, office workers, artists, and professi...
