To all who are interested.
Some get it, some dont, and some by choice or by nature never will, but I do, and to try and further the knowledge and enlightenment of others here inlies my My personal body-modification philosophy: My body is a temple. I entered it at birth, unsure of myself and my surroundings, and careful not to scuff the still-white floors or mark the pristine walls of my new dwelling. As I became more comfortable in my space, I realized that the walls were bare, the rooms empty and echoing, and the floors slippery and cold. Years passed, and I filled the rooms with clutter, books of knowledge, diaries of experience, and artifacts of memory. Slowly, the floors became scuffed and marked by the feet of thousands who passed through and dwelt within my sanctuary with me. For too long, the walls were still bare. Unadorned. My feelings, knowledge, and experiences littered the rooms, but the temple's structure told nothing of my self. Finally, in a burst of revelation, I nailed a hole in the wall, and put the first picture on the wall. Then another. And so on, until my temple is decorated and personalized in the way it was always meant to be. My body is a temple. And soon it will be tattoed, pierced, and adorned according to my beliefs and personality, then I will feel it is complete. Michaelangelo once said that he sculpts by discovering that statue within a block of marble, and chipping away the excess. I believe that my mods will work much the same way. I discover an area of skin where a tattoo should be, and enlist an artist to reveal it. When I get a tattoo, piercing, or other mod, it will look like it has always been there. That is, in my opinion, the way it ought to be. Skin is a blank canvas. I am the artist. With a little ink, some metal, and a tool or two, the canvas is greatly improved, and in my mind, made complete.