trends
Holey bodies
Paul Kotz / KANSAN
Body piercing is an unusual fad that is increasing in popularity However, it does have some possible medical side effects.
By Lauren Bone
Special to the Kansar
ed Nelson didn't get his nipple pierced to impress women. Hidden in prom shoes if
He did it in press matters.
Nelson, a Wichita senior, is one of many KU students who have had various unusual places on their person pierced. The trend of body piercing, which originated on the coasts, is slowly making its way to KI!
The popularity of body piercing has been increasing in recent years. One of the many odd attractions on last summer's Lollapalooza tour was a body piercing booth, where customers were able to get noses, hips, eyelids, eyesbrows, nailsens and, oh yes, their nipples punctured.
For the bravest, or just masochistic, there are many different locations on both the male and female genitalia that can be pierced.
Nelson got his nipple pierced at the Kansas City Tattoo and Body Piercing Convention about six months ago. He went with the intention of getting a tattoo but decided to get his nipple pierced instead.
"I'm a conservative looking person," Nelson said. "I can't pierce my tongue, so I pierced my nipple."
The procedure was quite painful. "It hurt worse than anything I've ever felt in my life. It made tattoos feel like a walk in the park," Nelson said.
For both men and women, a more common piercing location is the nose.
Joseph Gaulney, the owner of River City Hair Co., 1021 Massachusetts St., will pierce noses with a piercing gun for just $10.
gaultney says nose piercing is uncomfortable.
"If you can just imagine having a bit inside your
Gaulney said he thought that many KU students got their noses pierced for the novelty of it. They think of it as an extra accessory that adds to their appearance.
nose, that's how it feels," he said
Kate Gomez, Philadelphia freshman, disagrees. She first had her nose pierced in tenth grade, and she did not think it hurt too much.
Before Thanksgiving last year, Gomez had her other nostril pierced.
"I got it pierced again because nose piercing is such a trendy thing. That way I'm not like everyone else" she said.
But body piercing can be dangerous.
"When people start doing weird things to their bodies, they start having weird problems," said Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins Health Center.
According to Yockey, even though most piercing is merely through superficial tissue, complications can result. Infection is the most common problem.
Piercing the tongue is the riskiest thing, since that is the dirtiest part of the body, said Yockey.
"We see a few people with their noses pierced who have problems with sinus infections," said Yockev.
Another problem is the buildup of scar tissue, Yockey said. A man with a pierced nipple will have a visible scar if he decides to let the hole close, and a woman would definitely have problems breast feeding. Yockey said.
Vockey used the Amazing Mr. Lifto from the Jim Rose Sideshow as an example of this. As part of an act that came through Lawrence last fall, Mr. Lifto lifted cinder blocks from chains attached to rings in his nipples.
Yockey said that over winter break three people had noserings torn out of their noses. They required reconstructive plastic surgery.
The other problem Voyckey mentioned was trauma to the piered site.
"He has a lot of scar tissue to be able to do that," Yockey said.
Despite these risks, and whether the piercing is visible, what really matters is if it pleases the piercee.
Rachel G. Thompson / KANSAN
Top, Kate Gomez, Philadelphia freshman, has both of her nostrils pierced. She also plans to get her lip pierced. Above, Ned Nelson, Lawrence senior, exhibits his pierced nipple. Nelson said it hurt a lot to have it done, although it doesn't bother him now.
Nelson said that the little silver ring in his nipple was purely for his own pleasure. "Women are totally turned off by it," he said.
Gomez notes that body piercing is becoming more acceptable.
"Now, everyone's doing it, no matter what clique," he said.
Deia vu is familiar but unexplainable
Something weird happened to Carrie Cornelius, Topeka senior, in Baldwin City.
By James J. Reece
Kansan staff writer
She had a strange feeling as she recognized each stop sign and house as she came to them. But what really scared her was that she had never been to the town before.
The French phrase literally means already seen.
Cornelius experienced what commonly is called deja va.
It describes the odd sensation people have when they feel they are experiencing something that has already harmed.
But explaining a deja vu experience is hard to do without sounding a little
bit nutty.
Takahito Shiki, Osaka, Japan senior,
said that Buddhism preaches life after
death, and that he and many friends
have often discussed whether deja vu
was a link to a past life.
"I never know if I should say anything about it around people," Cornellus said. She said she never knew the reaction it would bring.
"I do not really believe it but I sometimes wonder, 'yeah, maybe,' because I cannot find a connection between the two."
But Greg Simpson, associate professor of psychology at KU, was not so quick to delve into spiritual answers behind deja va.
"It's a very vague kind of feeling that you have, reliving some experience," he said. "It is kind of like tapping some
memory that is too weak to call up into any kind of detail."
Simpson said that deja vu was neither magical nor mystical but rather a strange phenomena of the memory. He said it had never been studied scientifically because it was impossible to induce deja vu.
"That's one thing that's kind of funny about them," Simpson said of dejuvu experiences. "You have them, and then when they are gone they are really gone."
Out satpurkha Kaur of the Ardra Foundation, 10 E. Ninth St., disagrees. Kaur has taught Yoga for 22 years and now works to develop and rediscover natural intuitive skills and human energy. She said she saw dua as kind of a spark of spiritual reality.
"it's kind of a multi-dimensional
occurrence that brings the past into the present moment or even the future moment into the present, * she said.
She said her studies of space and time led her to explain deja vu with time.
'My feeling is that deja vu is slipping into the present time, the now," she said.
Tom Allison, Hutchinson senior, said he has experienced deja vu and considered its mystic possibilities.
"I have had brief experiences but nothing about how I could win money or anything," he said. "I have heard it expressed as a certain clear knowledge of what will happen — as just a strong awareness. I will not believe in it until unless I can test it in some kind of rigorous way, but I will not dismiss it either."
Issues and trends at the University of Kansas.
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Lead Story
On Feb. 5, police in Tallahassee, Fla., charged Sean David McDonald and Kristen Elizabeth Tice, both 20, with disorderly conduct after police spotted the couple engaged in sexual intercourse while dancing at a night-club. Police said McDonald had his pants down and that about 100 patrons were watching. McDonald told police he did not even know the woman's name, but had merely asked her to dance. One week earlier, police in Calgary, Alberta, were called to a shopping mall at 4 p.m. to disentangle a copulating couple in front of Norm's Ski Hut.
Cliches come to life
- In January, Mission Control in Cape Canaveral, responding to a sensor alarm, scolded the space shuttle Endeavor astronauts to please remember to put the toilet seat down.
One teenager was killed and four were wounded in an explosion at a Chevron oil storage facility in September in Sherman, Texas. The boys had trespassed onto the top of a large tank, removed a manhole-type cover, peered inside and, when they couldn't see anything, lit a match for illumination.
In September at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville, electrician Charles Bobst suffered burns by performing electrical shocks while doing routine maintenance on the electric chair.
People with Too Much Time on Their Hands
Last summer, the cable television company that serves Columbia, S.C., aimed a camera full time at an aquarium to occupy a vacant
Continued on Page 10.