I have no idea ’bout modded people, but as a woman who had one set of standard issue ear peircings, now grown over: I don’t give a fart if you’ve modded yourself or not. Your point #5 has a subtext of hostility towards the unmodded community that UTTERLY contradicts your point.

“We are all unique and inclusive beautiful flowers. You are all haters.”

What does give me concerns is suggesting that hacking cartilage is something for the home user to do.

Just thinking out loud.

i just dont get this ‘body mod’ thing. i mean, do you think you are improving upon nature? or trying to ‘express your individuality’ (like everyone else thats doing it?). these things are rarely if ever an ‘improvement’. what an irreversible waste.

you are not a unique snowflake. no matter what they told you.

@2 – Sometimes that time when it seems good lasts quite awhile, like the rest of your life.

@3 I completely understand that as an honest gut reaction. Now here is my honest gut reaction to seeing your comment: ‘Grow Up’

So here is a brief selection of comments, in the vein of my above list, from which you may select the final bit of my comment. Since it’s the same shit, over and over and over, there and here and everywhere, it doesn’t really matter which you pick:
1. If you don’t like it, don’t do it; the end.
2. I have facial piercings and visible tattoos and a mohawk and I work for a Big Square Corporate Employer in sales, and they judge and reward my results, not my looks.
3. You can’t tell me what to do with my fucking personal meatbag.
4. The idea that we all share the same body ideal and the same internalised image of physical completion is false.
5. To paraphrase, the only difference between non-modded people and modded people is that modded people don’t care whether you’re modded or not.
6. Thank you for your opinion, for which I never asked.
7. Let’s all meet up here in 30 years, when I’m sixty, and I’ll tell you what I regret.

Personally, I see no need to “improve” on Nature,

i just dont get this ‘body mod’ thing. i mean, do you think you are improving upon nature?

Appeal to nature aka Naturallistic fallacy

Appeal to nature is a commonly seen fallacy of relevance consisting of a claim that something is good or right because it is natural, or that something is bad or wrong because it is unnatural. In this type of fallacy nature is often implied as an ideal or desired state of being, a state of how things were, should be, or are: in this sense an appeal to nature may resemble an appeal to tradition.

c.f. Is-ought problem, Open Question Argument

The picture didn’t bother me in the slightest – didn’t find it gross or offputting. Whatever a person wants to do with or to their own body is completely not my business. I may do a double-take, but that’s about it. Now if I saw someone sporting a working tail, I would be insanely, instantly jealous. No, the pictures of that guy with the skin tag above his tailbone doesn’t count.

This isn’t an argument at all, much less one of desperation.

I think this is awesome and beautiful (O brave new world that has such creatures in it, and all that). I’m just curious what the effects would be.

And yes, many mammals have pointy ears on top of their heads, and can point them in different directions to keep track of different sources of sound. Others have tiny round ones, and still others have floppy ones that are cutely expressive when they beg for pancakes. But humans come with one kind of ear, and the bits of their nervous system that process sound are made for that kind of ear; so I’m curious what would happen when you fit a different kind of ear to a human nervous system.

All the angst related to the subject of “modding” shown in this thread just reinforces my notion that we are all still tribal beasts at heart.

#81, Nora Rocket, “5. To paraphrase, the only difference between non-modded people and modded people is that modded people don’t care whether you’re modded or not.”

I agree with your assessment overall except for this point. There are assholes in every group, including the “modders.” Judgmental attitudes are alive and well across the board from what I’ve seen.

I like weird mods more than boob jobs/botox because I don’t feel any pressure from them. Boob jobs/botox feel like – aging isn’t cool so you need to ‘do something’ about your looks. Or only large chested women are beautiful so go out and buy a D cup. Pointy ears feel like – ‘hey wouldn’t it be fun to . . .’ It feels like they come from a place of security rather than insecurity.

I think the comparisons with boob jobs and other common plastic surgery is funny. Arguably boob jobs would help one’s employment opportunities … Just thinking out loud.

Here’s one woman’s personal story that runs the whole gamut of body modification issues discussed so far:

Anyway, I have 2020cc salines now but I’ll be downsizing and going with silicone next. I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails and questions about my situation and why I’m downsizing. So I thought I’d share my story here.

So here goes…..

First my stats: I’m 5’8”, normal weight is anywhere from 145-152lbs, 32” ribcage, natural 36D.

Now on to my story….I’ve always loved the huge, round, fake look… the bigger and faker looking the better is the way I saw it.

So in 2005 I had my first BA, along with a Crescent Lift…. I got Inamed saline implants, round, smooth, overs, 800cc overfilled to 1000cc. I went from a natural 36D to a 36G. They looked great…big, round and fake looking – just how I like them. At that time though, I didn’t think they were big enough.

So in 2006, I had my second BA… enlarged my pockets and added more saline to my implants, all the way up to 2020cc! I went from a 36G to a 36H. I was huge!! In the beginning I was in love with them. They were amazing, beautiful, huge and fake looking. I totally loved them.

Then around 4-6 months post, I developed CC first in my right boob, then it spread to my left. As time went on, it got progressively worse in my right and a little bit worse in my left.

Fast forward to today….I’m almost 2 years post now…..the CC has gotten extremely bad on the right side and a little bit worse on the left side. At this point, the right side is very painful and both implants are ROCK HARD and just plain uncomfortable. I am miserable and extremely unhappy with my boobs. I am also getting really dissatisfied with the size as well. They are getting to be too cumbersome for me.

I still LOVE huge boobs (in the 2000cc range) but I have come to the conclusion that I love huge boobs on other women! I’d prefer to look at them, NOT live with them! While I still feel that this size looks good on me, it is just not practical living with such huge boobs on a day to day basis and leading a “normal, not-in-the-spotlight” life.

I’m not in the adult industry, I just got huge boobs for myself, not for anyone else or for a job or whatever. So literally going ANYWHERE…whether it be to the grocery store, mall, movies, out to dinner, the park, a club, the casino, walking around outside, ANYWHERE – guaranteed I will be gawked at, pointed at, laughed at, whispered about, stupid girls trying to fight me, sexual rude comments yelled out to me, guys purposely bumping into me in order to “cop a feel”…..seriously outrageous behavior like this I go through on a DAILY BASIS. I’m a very unique person (lots of piercings, tattoos, distinctive makeup, etc) so I’m used to being stared at and whispered about. But having huge boobs brings the attention to a whole different level. I’m the type of person who really doesn’t care about what other people think and who can ignore people for the most part, but after awhile if it becomes too ridiculous, it starts to eat at me and piss me off. Especially when I’m with kids, family or a friend and I get reactions like that – that’s when it’s totally crossing the line.

The only time I don’t get outrageous reactions is when I’m with my brother (who’s 6’4” and built) or I’m with my big bodybuilder male friends….then people will keep a lid on it. But when I’m by myself or with other girls, that’s when people act the worst.

I can deal with attention….like I said, I’ve been getting a lot of attention since I was a kid. But attention like this is unreal. I’ve been in so many scary, threatening situations with strange men before, I should seriously be walking around with a bodyguard every single day. Every day when I go out I feel like a celebrity who’s in the spotlight being trashed all the time….and not in a good spotlight, in a very bad spotlight. It’s not fun at all when it gets to be threatening. When I have children with me, I STILL get sexual comments thrown at me, which is outrageously inappropriate.

The way I dress is nowhere near over the top either…..I wear a lot of loose fitting t-shirts/layered polos/hooded sweatshirts, etc, and when I do wear tighter tops or tank tops, I always layer on 1 or 2 shirts and then usually I’ll even wear a cropped sweater/or cropped hoodie over the tight shirts so my boobs aren’t hanging out and exposed. From the crude reactions I get, you’d think I walk around naked or something, but I actually dress pretty conservative. I totally expect people to look because some people have never seen boobs my size before…..but looking is one thing, openly staring is another, and being downright stupid and nasty is beyond unacceptable.

Aside from the public’s ridiculous reactions….day to day living with 2020cc is a bit too much….they’re pretty heavy…and because they’re so firm and un-squishable, they’re uncomfortable to sleep with, intimate situations are a tad tricky, finding clothes that fit right is a nightmare, etc.

So because I have to get this CC fixed now, which will require another surgery, I want to switch to silicone and downsize. So for my third BA, I’ll be getting the CC fixed, getting a full lift, and switching these totally overfilled 2020cc salines out with Natrelle silicone gels Style 10, round, smooth, overs, 800cc.

That won’t be the end for me though….800cc is not my final desired size….that’s just the biggest size in silicone (off the shelf) that I can get right now. Eventually, I will be getting custom made silicone gels 1200-1400cc….which will give me the round, fake busty look that I love, but won’t take me too huge to where I can’t dress them down. I’m pretty tall and very curvy, so I need a lot of cc’s to make me busty…..not super huge….just nice and busty.

So, while this huge size didn’t personally work for me, I’m very happy that I got to try this size out and experience it for myself. If I had never went this big, I would’ve always wondered what it felt like. It just really sucks that I got CC so bad, because that’s what made the experience a lot worse as well.

Sorry this is so long, I just wanted to share my experience. For people who aren’t into the huge sizes and are just curious about women who go huge, then I hope my story helped some. And for women who are into the huge sizes, I’m definitely not trying to scare you away from going huge….that’s the last thing I’m trying to do actually…..I’m just sharing MY personal experience that *I’m* personally going through.

I still *LOVE* huge boobs most definitely, I think they are so damn gorgeous and sexy…. it just didn’t work out *for me* having huge boobs and trying to live a “regular” life. If I was in my risky, troublesome teen years and I was going through all of the BS that I’m going through now with my huge boobs, I’d be getting a total kick out of everything and there’s no way I’d be going smaller. But where I’m at in life now, and the more laid back, reserved and serious I’ve gotten since my teen years, I have a totally different mindset now and my safety is more important to me now. All women who go huge *I assume* aren’t going through everything I am…my situation is pretty extreme….so it may be way less drama that other women are going through….my case is just totally crazy/drama filled. I have stories that I could tell! Thinking about all of the situations and altercations that I’ve been going through…and all centering around my huge boobs….I could write a book, seriously.

So having boobs that aren’t too small (for me) but that are smaller than 2020cc will work out best for me! If you have any questions for me, just let me know. Thanks for reading all of this!

Nope – per Disney’s “The Disney Look” dress code:

” Body Alteration or Modification

Intentional body alteration or modification for the purpose of achieving a visible, physical effect that disfigures, deforms or similarly detracts from a professional image is prohibited. Examples include, but are not limited to, visible tattoos, brands, body piercing (other than traditional ear piercing for women), tongue piercing or splitting, tooth filing, earlobe expansion, and acquiring visible, disfiguring skin implants.

Methods to conceal an unacceptable piercing or tattoo, such as using a bandage, are not permitted. For tattoo coverage, opaque makeup will be permitted if it completely conceals the tattoo. Spacers or retainers are not permitted in any visible body piercing while working. Jewelry worn in non-visible piercings that may pose a safety risk because of costume design and/or job responsibilities will not be permitted.”

I’m covered in ink (working on a left arm sleeve, back covered, right arm beginning to have coherence) and a few metal-ly bits. I’m also teaching. I suppose arguing from example is not the best argument, but it’s equally bad as ‘no one will ever employ you, ever’ or ‘if you get a tattoo it will be bad ink and it means you’re immature’.

@58 – ?? there is no math involved my post there, do you think there should be?

As far as everything goes with all the opinions etc. (apart from those directed solely towards the aesthetic outcome of the mod, method etc.) are just the same as every other instance of verbal manifestation of a very strong aspect of human nature and interaction. There’s nothing to analyze :p

As far as jobs go, I’m gonna agree with all who say it doesn’t necessarily close doors everywhere. Maybe some places, because you can never escape prejudism or (perhaps unfairly, open to interpretation) application of conservative notions of beauty and nature (coz, then again, the very fact that there are people who think of modifying their bodies, and eventually do, is only a happening sprung from nature ;p).

As far as it being ‘gross’, ‘retarded’, ‘dumb’ etc., go ahead and say what you will, just like those who will praise it. I’m just glad to know the person with the modification doesn’t care about what people say ;) (I didn’t assume she would in the first place.)

http://marklisanti.tumblr.com/post/44834468