This is taken from the cover of P.F.I.Q., 'Piercing Fans International Quarterly'. This is the only copy of the piece I have available as the 'then' Editor of this magazine purchased it from me, and I never took a proper photograph of the painting. He also owns 'PARTY DOLL' and 'BONGO'. Unfortunately I have lost touch with this fine collector ... Bless him!

I sometimes stare in horror and disbelief at you who pierce and tattoo and scar yourselves in the name of vanity and fashion. You DO know that this is just a fucking FAD, don't you!? ... This is just another way for you to hide in the flock of conformists pretending that you are nonconformists. I gotta wince at the self deception that you are perpetrating upon yourselves. The notion that you are doing this to 'set yourselves apart' from the rest of society is a lie born of fear! I feel a special weakness in my colon at the notion that this is some personal 'statement' of yours! ...

Don't you know that your current passions will be trounced upon and die, only to be reborn in ten thousand conflicting manifestations of meaninglessness, over and over! The ideals which you hold so terribly important today, will melt away and mean virtually nothing to anyone tomorrow. Your self importance is just a passing fancy! Soon you will stare helplessly as your youthful idealism is burned away on the fires of grim mortality. Your vanity will slip away as your skin withers and bloat's on your decaying body. Your pretty tattooed butterflies will degrade into piles of steaming dog shit! Most of you will live to sorely regret what you are doing ... YOU, and thousands like you will add to the already growing industry of 'mistake removing', the erasing of these meaningless markings which you so rebelliously cover your bodies. Wise up! You are not making a bold statement against conformity! YOU ARE CONFORMING TO THE TEMPORARY FASHION OF YOUR PEER GROUP!

There are forms of tattooing and body manipulation that deserve respect. These include the markings of criminal gangs, outlaw bikers and religious zealots ... I understand tribal markings, slave and prisoner brandings, even those fanatic individuals who consider their bodies a moving canvas, (Can I please have your skins when you are dead?) But why have you tattooed Yosemite Sam on your butt!? If most of you were to tattoo the symbols of greatest importance applicable to your existence on your bodies, you would be covered with images of hamburgers and French fries, TV sets and beer cans! ... If you want to make a statement about what personifies the sum of your being, why don't you hang coins from your piercings and stuff your assholes with dollar bills? ... THAT, I would respect!

Most of us are too afraid NOT to be part of a group ... It's conditioned and instinctive to feel the need to be part of something bigger than ourselves ... For protection against the things that we fear. Unfortunately at this point in the evolution of mankind, it is no longer the cave bear or tiger that we need fear ... it is ourselves. For this reason, conforming for the sake of preservation is obsolete! Safety in numbers? ... it's been bred into us for millions of years, but now it threatens to destroy us! It's understandable that you would feel fearful or unprepared to cope within a our society which defines success by how close you can live up to the fantasies manufactured by our own media. So you join a smaller, more easily accessible social substructure, which, given time, will blend into the larger structure ... And so, YOU are conformity at it's most insidious ... YOU and your STUPID TATTOO'S!

If you want to do something that will really set you apart ... Get a fucking job and save up to have your limbs surgically removed and replaced with superior bio-mechanical appliances! IMPROVE YOURSELF THROUGH TECHNOLOGY! Now that would be a worthy vagary ...

I know these ideas are not going to win too much applause from you young hipster types ... and most of you will think I'm just plain full of shit. However, perhaps a few of you will think about what I'm saying ... and come up with something more original than sticking a fucking piece of metal through your genitals! ...