Kids/ Tattoos - What Age is Acceptable

[Pangloss62]

My former stepdaughter began begging for a tattoo and piercings at about age 13. Her dad and I said NO, NO and NO!!! Finally, at age 15, we told her she could get piercings done as long as they were not visible on her face. She got her tongue and belly button done at age 16.

I don't know, stormi, it all reminds me of that book about "raunch culture," or that movie Thirteen. Why would a 13-year-old girl want a tongue stud? The answer to that question is probably more upsetting to me than the stud itself. I think a lot of women (and men) have forgotten how so many folks worked so hard to fight the objectification of women, the idea of women as "toys," and now it's all about that, and women are choosing it themselves. "That's the point" some say, that it's about freedom to do what you want, but that has consequences for our culture as a whole. I don't like the result, but I guess that's my problem, not your's or your daughter's. I see all these young girls and, yes, older women too, getting tattoos and piercings, reading any number of those useless "womens'" magazines, Desperate Housewives and a ceaseless obsession with sex. Sex sex sex. Viagra, and now a new liquid for women for better sex (saw it last night). It's so hedonistic and narcissistic. I know I'm sounding really conservative right now (I'm actually fairly liberal), but why can't we all be more cerebral, more intellectual. Are tattoos and piercings just about sex? Not always, but I think that the implication is there, and often it's explicit. way.