Let's Talk About Tattoos & Piercings

Today I thought I'd touch on a parenting subject that I reckon a number of you - especially those parents with offspring who are tweens or teens - might have had to deal with. For those of you whose children are younger than that, better listen up too as you’re gonna face it soon enough too. I’m referring, of course, to TATTOOS and PIERCINGS. And the young people sure can be fascinated by them.

Over the years, my wife and I had interesting conversations with our teenage daughter Jemima, who cycled through alternating phases of desiring to imprint parts of her anatomy with tattoos of various designs and contemplating sticking metal objects through the same. She never actually went through with any of it (aside from earrings), but she argued her case eloquently and pointed to the fashion of the day, showing us photos of friends as well as media celebrities (see Angelina Jolie on left, Beckham & unknown starlets below) who had tattoos and piercings of all conceivable shape and size.

Having grown up in a relatively tattoo-less and piercing-less (except for pierced ears for the girls) environment, I guess our generation is still kinda conservative in this area. So during Jem's early teenage years, we attempted to exert our parental control (through the usual means - reason, threat, reverse psychology or bribery :-) against these bodily offenses. It seems to have worked while Jem was still studying and living at home in Singapore. Now that she’s nineteen and away at university, who knows what she's up to ...

Sometimes I wonder about our (or at least my) basis for having developed this somewhat disapproving view on tattoos and body piercings. I guess during our time (and to some extent even now), tattoos were frequently associated with triads , gangsters and criminals. As for piercings, apart from ear piercings (and even for that, only one per ear!), I see no necessity to mutilate the body in this fashion.

Well guys, what are your views ? What similar discussions might you have had with your kids on this subject ? Do your offspring have tattoos or piercings ? Or could I have misjudged you guys ... maybe you don't disapprove of them. Maybe you even have tattoos and piercings yourself ? If that's the case, make sure you show them off at the Grand Reunion. LOL

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Books that Influenced Our Teenage Years

I know what some of you would be thinking when you saw the title of this posting. Yawn yawn boring ... right? Not necessarily so, I hope.

Whether we realise or not, books (and magazines) had a huge impact on our knowledge in the pre-Internet world of the 70's. While some were fortunate to be exposed to the literary classics (Dickens, Hemingway, Conan Doyle, Twain, Bronte sisters, you know) from a young age, a lot more boys took pleasure in reading stories of war, adventure and drama. Think of the authors you read in those days, and the names of Alistair Maclean, Ian Fleming, Agatha Christie and Harold Robbins are likely to feature.

I might be generalising a bit, but I reckon I'm not far from the truth in saying that most of our female counterparts also enjoyed their romance novels (Mills and Boon?).

And mind you, I deliberately used the word "influenced" in the title of this post. This is because it's a neutral word as the impact of books could be positive or not so positive (depending on how you look at it :-) in developing the adolescent mind.

In those days, we had several main sources of books.

Many of us were members of the Sarawak State Library, and may have got started on reading there. Of course, those chaps who are really honest would probably admit that their real reasons for frequenting the National Library had as much to do with engaging the girls as enhancing their grammar. Our own St Joe Library also had a decent fiction section, although the focus was more on examination-related texts and references.

Some were fortunate enough to be able to afford to buy some books from the bookstores in Kuching - in those days Kwong Hwa, Sky, KK Abdul Majid, Rex and Wahid (?) were the popular ones carrying a wider selection of English language books, magazines and comics.

In those days we tended to borrow books from each other a lot more. Some teachers also used to encourage us to bring books we liked to school on certain days, so that we could talk about them and often swap with each other.

And of course, boys being boys, there would be some "highly popular" books being passed around, away from the teacher's eyes, usually covered in thick wrapping, to be read only in toilets or behind locked doors. Anyone remember some of those titles? Ah well, we were all Asian teenagers and I'd guess that much of what we learnt about the "birds and the bees" came not from the lips of our parents, but from such popular references, augmented by the bragging of some of our more advanced formmates. :-)
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Well boys & girls, share your memories of books that influenced YOU in those carefree days of the 70s ...
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