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PaperclipPerfector  9d ago (text post)   2630 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 23, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Just because I was reminded by the comment in the main thread, do pierced septums, tongues, and gauges give anyone the major ick? Nose studs? Fine. Belly button piercings? A little wierd but fine. Any non-face tattoo? Fine. But hoooooly crap does anything more than a tiny septum piercing make me uncomfortable. Not just like, “oh that’s weird” but almost I find it physically repulsive that larger ones I find it hard to even look. Ear gauges also, anything bigger than a button. Tongue piercings in any size. Is this just a human “looks like that would hurt” reaction, or is there some other component maybe? Curious if others feel the same but are more/less vocal about it, or if it’s just a personal issue.

I was raised as conservative Christian (how conservative? Useless question, too relative) but in liberal Oregon, if relevant, so at least it’s not purely a lack of exposure thing.

Yes, they're off-putting. The septum makes me think of leading around a cow on my dad's farm, tongues seem very unsanitary and it fucks with their speech, and gauges (particularly very large ones) are super gross when the jewelry isn't in.

I don't mind most piercings as long as the jewelry is cute/pretty but don't like ear gauges or septum rings of any kind (the first just looks like those tribesmen that stretch their lip to silly amounts an the second reminds me of a bull, which is just funny on a 90 lb girl. I don't like any tattoos.

I tend to feel the odd one out in these discussions, since tattoos (at least in standard locations, in standard amounts, with standard designs) have never bothered me, even though I don't have any. I've considered it at times but it always then seems like a thing where there's just better personal uses for my money. My wife has a couple and I mostly tend to forget they even exist unless a discussion like this specifically reminds me of them. Excessive piercing is another matter, though.

Getting tattooed in a big way seems to be a Millennial thing, I don't see as many tattoos in younger generations, though of course it also takes time and money to get a major collection of tattoos going.

I hate piercings past one in each ear (for females) and any sort of tattoo unless it's some branding you intentionally got with your unit/ship because you experienced hell in some faraway jungle/rice paddy/desert.

I used to wonder, as a boy, what would be the thing that separated me, finally, from youth--what would finally be the issue(s) that made me have old man opinions. For my dad I remember he was disgusted that anyone of my generation and peer group would have the depravity to smoke marijuana. That seemed to me pretty regressive back when I was a teenager (though I didn't drink or smoke anything until over 21.)

I think I accepted homosexuality as just one of those things early on (though I am often confused by activist's insistence both that homosexuality is biological but also that to explore the biology of it is fascist and evil.) I hit a wall at transvestism but there was a time when my doubts were mainstream. Then transgender became (seemingly) a massive movement and any doubts about its authenticity or normalcy was shunned as -phobic and evil. What I had always considered normal became marginalized as "cis." People online started replying "Ok boomer" to me, though I am of GenX. Dennis Rodman back in the day seemed edgy and bizarre, but then you knew he had his demons and felt he was on the edge anyway. But then he was fawned on by Madonna (still barely relevant then) and everyone sort of just accepted his appearance. What had been transgressive became pop cool. Years later on screen you saw Lisbeth Salander sitting in the chair, warned that her new tattoo would hurt, and she just shrugs. But the subtext (emotionally damaged individual) was there. Then, tattoos eventually everywhere--not on the ripped, or lithe, or edgy attractive Swedish girl, but on the obese, on the calves of a guy in a print t-shirt and cargo pants at the 7-11--very quickly began to chafe. Piercings in the nose of otherwise attractive girls (or who would be attractive assuming they washed their hair and maybe did something more to prepare their appearance than a 12 year old boy) immediately revolted me.

In Japan, tattoos are still rare-ish (though a guy on my morning commute appears to have full leg tats, and because he's middle aged I assume he's involved heavily in the Yakuza.) But you do see them in the young who've opted out of traditional jobs. And in nightlife workers (bartenders, DJs, low-tier girl's bar girls) you also see weird piercings. But like everything in Japan these are the uniforms of their milieu. Like the artist wearing a beret or the new mom cutting her hair short or the salaryman and his suit. There's an order to it.

I can't see the order in the US (and thus it's harder for me to steelman). It's still too much my own culture.

I am reminded of this recent comment by @Sloot in he which he wondered (possibly ironically) whether eventually having no tattoos will become the edgy choice.

I'm not a fan of piercings. My last girlfriend got one, a more traditional Indian nose ring rather than a septum piercing, and was miffed when I explained that I was having intrusive thoughts about tugging on it with a string like she was an ox.

For most piercings barring those on the ear, they're an obvious and intentional act of rebellion. Half the time, it's a fuck you to conventional beauty standards, and the fact that it makes them less attractive is the point. I presume the rest are really set on it for some reason, or are mislead into thinking it's a good idea. I'm being generous in this assessment.

I'm a rather liberal and libertarian atheist from a Hindu family, with schooling at an explicitly religious Protestant (Anglican?) school. Just don't like 'em.

Yeah, can't say I've ever met someone whose appearance was improved by a septum piercing or gauge. At best they're attractive in spite of said piercing.

Man everyone down on nose studs and belly button piercings is intense. I think both are absurdly attractive, even if very slut-signaled.

The rest of it I could do without

I think people are getting distracted by considerations of class and aesthetics but I don't think it's purely those factors as you said that you're okay with little nose studs and non-face tattoos. I don't like jewellery, piercings or tattoos but I don't have that visceral reaction you're describing.

Maybe it's along the lines of being bad with the sight of blood. Most people would flinch if they saw someone with a rusty bit of metal sticking through their hand, so seeing an eye-catching and sizeable piece of foreign matter penetrating a facial feature might be triggering the same reaction even if it's intentional and meant to look "good". Or maybe it's a bit more of a body horror thing where you're uncomfortably aware of the chance of the piercing catching on something and causing a horrible accident. I get quite uncomfortable when I watch power tool videos on YouTube where the people are carelessly changing over blades without disconnecting the power. I know it's not going to happen because the video was uploaded without a bait title and thumbnail, but it's unsettling nonetheless.

Or maybe it's a bit more of a body horror thing where you're uncomfortably aware of the chance of the piercing catching on something and causing a horrible accident.

Yes. I get visions of something tugging on them really hard. I dont like tattoos either, but those arent uncomfortable to look at.

All facial jewelry is hideous on pale people. Maybe simple earrings, and a necklace hung low on the chest. Anything else washes white people out completely. This is why traditional white fashion didn't include nose rings; while traditional Indian and African cultures often do. The whole universe of gaudy jewelery belongs properly to the dark skinned on an aesthetic as well as a cultural level.

The problem with this claim is that the palest Indians are paler than many Europeans, and it's the North Indians (usually paler) that wear the most jewelry.

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Indians just love gaudy shit, it's in their memeplex. (no offence, I just don't get their obsession with intricate and loud clothes/jewelry compositions)

I don't think she's paler than your average European north of the Alps so I'm not sure what point you're making, and anyway her dark eyes and hair make her appearance higher contrast.

My point is simply that there are a lot of Europeans with similar (or darker) skin tones and dark hair who don't have traditions of extensive facial jewelry. In other words, skin color doesn't seem to play a causal role, and not all cultures agree that facial jewelry looks bad on pale people, and not all pale cultures abstain from facial jewelry.

That looks like AI to me.

Reverse image search turned up this a photo of the same woman in the same getup, timestamped 2017.

I don't think there's anything AI looking about this photo, but it's interesting that if this photo was from 2024 I'd have no way of proving this to you.

Current AI will routinely have crisp foreground and similar but blurred background --no doubt because it has been trained on such images (that, like this one, are real). The cleanup and lack of any granular detail here also looks AI, but that's probably just the usual digital airbrushing. My mistake.

Some one definitely went in with photoshop and obliterated the fine structure high entropy noise from her skin. Or maybe that's make up, idk.

Yeah I'm really not getting the point either way.

Right. Even pearls typically look bad on the really pale (especially blondes) unless they’re tanned to the ‘Swede after 4 weeks in Australia’ level. Dark hair gives you some more options for standout silver or diamond earrings but anything large is still usually a poor decision. As regards a simple necklace, whether it should hang high or low depends on your facial and neck structure, skinniness, clavicles and cleavage so varies. Still, less is more.

It's all degenerate and disgusting. Especially the tattoos, since you can't just go and remove them when you come to your senses. Plus, the massive proliferation of tattoos to the point where many people are just inked up with doodles for the hell of it is...WTF. In any case, no.

That kind of body modification is transhumanism for dumpsters. Any stupid bullshit goes in there so long as it's fashionable.

Also in Old Man Yelling At Clouds today: Stop dying your hair and grow out your eyebrows; those ridiculous marker lines above the eyes make you look like a caricature of a woman.

Random doodles you'd expect on toilet walls in a pub, but on your skin, as tattoos, ~permanently. Genuinely incomprehensible to me as anything other than a purely negative signal.

Large, elaborate, but a coherent work of art - fine.

One or two small ones, clear focus - rolling my eyes, but fine.

Indelible mark that communicates to an exclusive group one's belonging to that group - A tattoo is a natural choice.

Art that wouldn't work if it wasn't on a body - Could have done the same thing without making it permanent.

Fine art that could have been hung in a frame - Just hang it in a frame.

Humour or material that only means something to you - Just stick it to a pin board.

A design that you want people to see you wearing - Just print it on a t-shirt.

Incredibly niche specific purpose, like disguising blueprints so that you can smuggle them into prison or enacting a strategy to deduce who murdered your wife despite persistent amnesia - You're a character in a screenplay.

those ridiculous marker lines above the eyes make you look like a caricature of a woman

When I was young there was a trend among Mexican teenagers to pluck out their eyebrows and draw a brown mark approximately where the eyebrow should be. It looked horrible. Beyond forgivable. And the natural look of the Mexican girls is quite good. They were running their looks.

I don't see so much of it these days. The dark times have mostly passed.

Plus, the massive proliferation of tattoos to the point where many people are just inked up with doodles for the hell of it is...WTF. In any case, no.

I don't like tattoos either, but I've realized recently that a big complex sleeve offends me less than a bunch of smaller tattoos. Maybe those people were right, and size really doesn't matter?

I was not raised a conservative Christian, but I can't stand bull rings and ear gauges either.

And I don't think it's uncommon, it's a bit of a meme about various "rate me" subreddits that men there always downrate women with septum piercings.

Are you fine with chest tattoos?

pierced septums

Truly repulsive. The small ones make me constantly want to wipe their nose. Like a small booger. Gross.

tongues

Probably severe daddy issues and or some sort of drug problem. Also I assume they suck dick.

gauges

Disgusting and... confusing? I have no idea why people do this. Piercings are a sort of jewelry, kind of like a ring or necklace, I guess. But gauges are ugly disks that stretch and distort a very visible part of your head? Why? Making yourself ugly for "fuck you" shock value? If so, pretty cringe.

nose studs/belly button piercings

Trying too hard. You can look edgy or interesting just by dressing better.

earrings

Tiny ones are cute, preferably something simple or whimsical. Bigger ones are meh unless it's part of your overall aesthetic.

tattoos

Nearly always horrible, and now so mainstream that even the "good" ones are pretty mundane. Might work if you're a career criminal.

I was raised middle class in the South where, besides earrings, none of that stuff was done.

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