The harm of body alterations is not a common theme today. I dislike tattoos and plastic surgery, but unlike other aspects of my life, I never completely understood why until recently. I thought it shouldn’t concern me, yet it did. Strange to be bothered by something and have little idea why.
It might sound trivial or curmudgeonly, but I believe tattoos, plastic surgery, and body alterations are harmful and symptomatic of larger issues in our society. Why? You are perfect just the way you are. If you do not understand that, then you are getting information from the wrong sources.
One might object that, with everything going on in the world, why bother with this? To begin, we should always question why we do what we do. Second, I’ve discovered that it’s often the overlooked aspects of life that hold the secrets and truths of society and culture. Many times, it is the mundane that reveals the larger picture of life. This is what we’ll look at in this article.
The Harm of Tattoos, Plastic Surgery, and Body Alterations
When I joined the military I felt obliged to get a tattoo. Seems like every military guy I saw had something which reminded me of the college guys (who I thought were so cool) in my hometown. I thought I would mark my adulthood with a tattoo. I went to a shop with a friend who got a blazing deck of cards on his chest. It looked ridiculous! As do all tattoos…;) I went in expecting to get ideas for my own but after seeing that, I was converted in the opposite direction. Over time the desire faded away completely and I am grateful.
That is the personal side to note that I am not immune to the allure. There were experiences I had in childhood that played a factor. The only people who had visible tattoos were bikers, musicians, people who had been to prison, and those who were in the military. Even then, very few people would have the kinds of tattoos we see commonly today. Since none of these people represented the picture of “Success” or “professional”, my view was possibly tainted. Regardless, from that day at a tattoo parlor in Florida until the present, I have been more and more against tattoos. I have grown to lump them in with other alterations of the body, such as plastic surgery.
You cannot improve nature
For starters, you can’t possible improve nature. Whether you believe in a supreme deity whose infinite power and intellect specifically created our species. Whether you believe humans are the product of billions of years of evolution. A process involving the trial and error of innumerable selections of everything form hair, DNA, to genes. Humans are the result of something complex and beyond ourselves which makes us, our bodies included, special.
However you look at it, we are engineered by something requiring a long time and effort, and as a result, people evolved to appear a specific way. A way that is still mysterious in the sense that our bodies, as much as we know, hold many secrets. This cannot be improved through human ingenuity. Just like humans always appear to leave a blemish on the world’s natural scenery and ecosystems.
Motivations to alter our bodies
What are the motivations to alter our bodies? I know there many objections and people who would say they just thought it looked cool, improvement on our current body, to mark something that has meaning. The question is must we change our bodies to provide satisfaction for the reasons above?
Aside from this few themes emerge: cure for boredom by spending time researching, planning, finding, scouting, and getting whatever done. Boredom in the form of chasing the next high. You see this with much plastic surgery or tattoos, for example, where it is on to the next and the next and the next. An idea, conscious or unconscious, of looking for that next to fill a void.
Dislike of Self/Fear others will not like us either
Many people do not like their bodies or themselves or try to cover something up. I have seen so many tattoos on the wrists of people indicative of suicidal impulses. Again, body alterations cannot ever provide anything but a temporary salve to a much deeper problem.
Sometimes we are often in denial about our motivations. However, it is similar to how people disguise themselves with various masks out of fear that no one will accept the genuine person warts and all. Perhaps this is why people like Nietzsche wore massive mustaches.
The need to hide our bodies
There is an overwhelming sense that we lack something or need that mask to hide who we are. A thing that can be satisfied if only we did X or got Y done. There is a sensation that we are missing something that can be satisfied if we just perform X or have Y done. If this operation is carried out, we will feel better about ourselves. We will be finished if this one thing is addressed or improved. A strong sensation of inadequacy combined with our cultural standard.
Another factor is imitation and going with the crowd. Many books cover how humans are prone to imitation. Once a person does something or does not do something, it sets off a chain reaction. We see a celebrity or our friend doing something, whether consciously or unconsciously, it sends a signal down, and we follow. The number one reason is perhaps a desperate desire to be unique. To stand apart. We believe these things will make us unique and apart.
You are already unique
What I would impress upon you is that you are already special. You cannot possibly be any more unique. So many sequences and series of events had to happen and take place in order to bring you to your present state. Of all humans, think of the chance coincidences that had to happen to make you, wonderful, beautiful, you. There is no improving that. You can’t make it better through physical alteration. You can only make it better by improving your mind and gaining comfort with yourself. It’s all internal.
This is, perhaps, the top reason I am put off when I see an alteration. I want people to be happy with themselves, however they came into existence in this world. If you are big, small, whatever your skin looks like, and however your hair happens to be. What I see when I observe all these changes is a people utterly dissatisfied with themselves. Whether it’s a famous model or people I know, I cannot think of any of them who looked better after getting surgery or a tattoo. Your natural beauty will always win.
No alteration will fix your self-image
You are amazing in your present form. If you cannot appreciate that, no amount of tattoos, plastic surgery, or other body alteration will ever change that. Your happiness comes from within. This brings me to the main reason why I experience a natural revulsion to any alteration. Because it is symptomatic of modernity to constantly seek answers in the wrong places. Trying to satisfy innate desires with alterations but finding, after getting them, a requirement for one more thing, always one more thing. One more tat, alter this, alter that, then… but then it never comes for any sustainable length of time.
A constant desire to fill a void with the wrong things because you are filling it with the superficial. As a result, you are never complete. You never fill it. It’s never done, and it continues in one infinite loop until death if you do not deal with the source, which cannot be found through alterations to the body.
We must accept ourselves
The harm of body alterations is that they prevent us from accepting ourselves as we are. We must accept our size, our hair, our eyes, our nose, our strength, whatever the shape of our head is, to our ability in athletics or mathematics and beyond. It doesn’t matter, you are who you are, and you have to accept and embrace that. We all must do a thorough search of our mind, body, and soul. Only through introspection can we truly achieve our full potential, I see so many people who are dissatisfied with themselves, thinking they have to do all these things to cover up who they are. Instead, embrace whatever series of events led you to your present state. You might not have something else, but that doesn’t matter.
A false image presented by companies
Our world is defined by the advertising and entertainment industries with false and superficial sales pitches that are out of step with reality. We are presented with a lifestyle and told what it means to live a good life. We never question this depiction. Occasionally, we get mad at a company, but we never stop to question if the context within which this is taking place.
Your life improves when you stop focusing on the lives of celebrities, models, and the wealthy. Not that mediocrity should be aspired to, but it is not a source of happiness. Happiness does not come from having the perfect figure or whatever the world presents to us. You will never get happiness through those companies, and it’s not their fault. It is our fault because we accepted that paradigm. As a result, we are all aiming for this ideal and frustrated because it does not exist. Furthermore, we should define our own ideal. Our own version of what it means to be happy, to be good, and yes, to look good.
Individuality comes from internal not external
Individual uniqueness is determined mentally, not some physical alteration. If you happen to be in the first wave of a novelty, then you may gain an appearance of uniqueness. It will eventually be copied and then copied again and again. You are the only thing that cannot be duplicated; you are the most unique thing in existence. All of the biometric data represents one single human, never occurring before or again. Your hair, eyes, fingerprints, and more will not appear again in nature. You are the walking, talking embodiment of distinction. Become the person that you were meant to be, that is truly unique.
The best way to do this is to truly discover yourself. It cannot be in anything external, which inevitably ends up looking like, acting like, talking like, so many other people. Copy of copies of copies of copies of copies. Have you not noticed? Do you not see how all the tattoos and surgeries end up looking more or less the same? Have you not seen how all those surgeries leave faces, looking, ever so similar? No, again, no! Nature is always better! You can’t beat it! Worse, while things might sit upright, they do not look better because it does not look natural.
Wonderful You
You will never be genuinely unique unless you discover who you are and accept the lot given to you. Measuring yourself not against Madison Avenue, Hollywood, or anywhere else, but against what has always made humans the finest versions of themselves. And by doing so, you will achieve things that you could never achieve by striving to copy the world as you see it. By imitating the actions of others. By simply being you, unique, gorgeous, and lovely you.
You do not need to get anything you have removed. Do not think something is messed up because of alterations. Only, investigate why you felt the need to improve. Why did you want to change your appearance? Focus on you and who you truly are regardless of the reason for the alteration if not mentioned here. Because there will never be another person like you. The sooner you discover yourself, the sooner the rest of the world will see wonderful you.