Tongue Piercing of DEATH!

Here's just some interesting thing that I stumbled on while buzzing around online. It's an article at Time about a guy that died of a tongue piercing. Check it out here.

How'd he die?

An infection that went to his brain.

It's interesting that there are people who are very, very afraid of having something like Bariatric Surgery because of the risks (although the risk of dying from the surgery is a mere .2 percent and lower if the surgeon was experienced. At the same time people don't seem to bat an eye at the risk of shoving a piece of metal into their tongue...people do that to their ears, so what's the harm?

Well, any time you jam something into your skin I'm thinking it can possibly introduce problems. The way I see it the skin is there to keep dirt and foreign objects out of the body. Any time you intentionally break the skin there's a risk that something is going to get in there that shouldn't, and putting something in there permanently, even if it's something small like a barbell in the tongue, is going to run a bigger risk than something that is allowed to heal like my post-operative hole in the gut.

The body is usually pretty good at dealing with the brain doing something stupid like piercing the tongue. The fact that people are still doing it and not dying all the time is a testament to that. However, it's not entirely without risk. Many people end up chipping or damaging teeth. Others get nerve damage to the tongue. And they always run a greater risk of having complications in the mouth. After all, they put a hole in their tongue, the same place where food and dental germs wriggle around.

I'd have assumed that there was some risk of dying considering how my dentist has taken to reminding me that infections from lack of dental hygiene can travel into your brain. I don't read of this happening frequently but it could happen.

The difference is that I see no utilitarian purpose in doing something like tongue piercing, and there are no real benefits for the risks, are there? You run a risk of chipping your teeth, having to do more to maintain your oral hygiene or risk infections, you have pain while healing...for what?

I knew someone in college that had a piercing done. He developed an infection that made his tongue look like freakin' cauliflower. No kidding. It was disgusting. And I hoped he felt like a damn fool because he did this...why? Just because?

I don't understand it any more than I understand tattoos with no real significance. Why did you get Tweety on your breast? Do you understand that it'll look like Big Bird in twenty years? Do you understand that your interest in Sailor Moon may not be at the same level in the future as it is now? Or maybe your employer will frown on the Darth Vader is my Daddy tat on your cleavage when you're trying to make more than minimum wage? There are tasteful tattoos and tattoos of cultural significance but these inked-on-a-lark or shortsighted things are, in my opinion, silly.

Kind of like random piercings that signify...nothing?

Maybe it's a form of natural selection. I tell myself that so I can come to some reconciliation for the behavior I don't understand. If someone was really doing something really stupid, they'll either regret it (and rationalize the regret away) or they'll end up with a nice infection or some other unpleasant side effect down the road.

Some people get really defensive about their decisions to do oddball things to the body. That's fine. Do what you want. You have the freedom to waste your time and pain receptors however you want just like I have the freedom to express the notion that I haven't the slightest idea why you do what you do.

Is there an actual reason for doing the body piercings and tattoos that makes sense beyond the "because I wanted to" or "just because" reasons?