Being
art students, living in the biggest city in the Midwest, the term material rhetoric
isn’t one we’d normally use but it’s one we live, breathe and absorb everyday
into the fabric of our being. Coming here, I was terrified it would be like
high school where I was seen as the weird girl who listened to devil worshiping
music and was constantly taking photos of everything and anything. It was my
greatest fear to not be accepted for the person I am here in Chicago. The
concept of being understood by others is so vast that I would never expect
anyone to be able to after just meeting me, but it’s when people can’t embrace the
idea that different doesn’t mean defective.
By
looking at me, you can tell I have a style that differs from the norm. When I
was 13, I went to my first show with some older friends. They were my best
friends and they were playing one of the opening sets for the first August
Burns Red CD release show at the Myspace Café in Warren, Michigan. Thinking
back, I can remember how the culture that this music created for this group of people
was incredible. I was sucked in immediately and although I’ve had different
turns in style and taste in music, metal has always been the core of how I
dress and presented myself.
Wearing
name brands or having the perfect hair has never been my main concern. To be
completely honest, I’ve just always wanted to be honest with others about the
person I am. As I said, it terrifies me to think that people will detest me
because of a difference in appearance, tastes or interests. But that’s human
nature to be afraid, yet interested in the unknown. From that first show at the
Myspace Café and on, I went from wearing Hollister and Abercrombie to band
shirts and bandanas. I found myself wrapped in the culture and when I was 14, I
got my first facial piercing; my right nostril.
Soon
following my first nose piercing, my mom allowed me to get my septum, then my
industrial. I turned 19 years old this year on May 20th and since
that first piercing 5 years ago, I’ve had over 17 different parts of my body
pierced and I’m nowhere near stopping. A
year ago, I got my first tattoos, one behind each ear. They’re a treble and a
base clef, to represent the 11 year I spent dedicated to choral performance and
voice lessons along with the 3 years I spent writing music with friends in
bands of my own.
I come
off as a completely different person than a huge majority of the people I meet
would ever expect. Talking to Evan after class one day, he admitted that he
thought I was a lesbian at first when he met me in class. Although there’s absolutely
nothing wrong with being a lesbian, I’m not one and I thought it was hilarious
because he thought that purely based on seeing I had tattoos. All 8 of the art
work I have so far on my body mean something very important to me. Art is what
you make of it, and my tattoos are part of what makes me who I am. Someday I
will be just as old and wrinkly as everyone else, but I will have the most interesting
way of explaining my life and the story it’s told by the tattoos that will
cover me.
In the
lecture from Brendan Riley yesterday about zombies, he ended the presentation
with a few closing points, one of which being “be thought about the things you
love”. That was one of the most captivating things I’ve heard in my life
because it’s how I truly try to live my life but I’d never thought of it that
way. The way I stay thoughtful about the things I love is through my tattoos,
my photos and my tastes. Everyone is different, even if you’re identical down
to your DNA, our minds are the most potent weapons we will ever have. We love
the things we do without any rhyme or reason, it’s just purely because we are
who we are and no one should ever force us to change that.
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