Daily Dosage: (Not) extreme living in Granite Bay, CA

Somebody, call the police. We've got a bully alert in Granite Bay.

Popular body modification techniques – tribal tattoos, bellybutton rings – are certainly extreme. But given the boom in full-on face tats and scarification, they’re perhaps a tad passé in most circles. Even more traditional settings, like office workplaces and grandma’s living room, seem to have accepted basic tattoos and piercings as a cultural norm these days.

Or so I thought. Yesterday, a feature-length article in the Granite Bay Press Tribune proved that the definition of an Extreme Self can differ depending on one’s geography and corresponding demographics. Titled “Self-expression goes extreme,” the article meditated on the “growing trend” of wild and crazy residents getting friendly with ink and needles.

It used to be that dyeing your hair or switching your wardrobe was enough to stand out from the crowd. These days, those craving to wriggle out of the cookie cutter look to extreme measures to mark their individuality.

A walk through any shopping mall features examples of stretched earlobes, lip and facial piercings and extreme tattoos as ways of expressing individuality by using the body as a canvas.

The article goes on to profile some serious rebels, who opted for tattoos or piercings to (!) express their cultural identity, indulge in a little teen rebellion or experience heightened sexual pleasure. Some of the town’s residents are even suffering social repercussions from their nose ring or inked ankle flower.

Among the tattooed and pierced misconceptions and discrimination abound. Corvis said a major misconception is that the heavily tattooed are renegades, bullies or criminals when, in fact “we’re all family men, we’re normal, we just look different.”

So, aside from renegades and bullies, who the hell lives in Granite Bay, and why is it still 1994 in that part of California? According to U.S. Census data, 77 percent of residents are married couples and 91 percent are Caucasian. Too bad they don’t seem too high on body-mod culture, because they could certainly afford it: the median family income is around $120,000.

Ah, but perhaps Granite Bay’s body modification preferences are simply of a different variety. At least, the end of this article suggests that other kinds of tweaking might be more common in those there parts:

Dr. Donald Jasper, a plastic surgeon at The Plastic Surgery Center…said he sees a number of problems with just basic ear piercings…a simple body modification can have lifelong consequences.

The response, from local tattoo artist Melissa Funk:

“It’s not permanent, even tattoos can be removed these days and with piercing the worst you’ll end up with is a little scar,” Funk said. “Some would argue that having bags of silicone in your chest is mutilation. Who’s to say what practice is ugly?”