Those of you who monitor the newsfeed have probably seen the stories about the warnings regarding piercings and tattoos being issued in Australia (more, more). The government is stating that anyone helping a minor (15 years old and younger) getting nipple piercings or genital piercings — including both the piercer and the parent that approves it — will face up to fourteen years in prison. If the person is 17 or younger the same penalties apply for tattoos.
So basically they're saying that until you reach 18, your body belongs not to you, and not to your parents by proxy, but to the government. I don't know about you, but I'm not comfortable with that… Do I think people should wait till they're 18 to get a tattoo? Probably yes. Did I? No. Was it a positive experience for me? Yes. Same goes for piercings. I am a happier and better person today because I did those things, and I don't feel any government has the right to try and steal that.
Reading the experiences on BME it becomes immediately clear that body modification is an immensely positive activity in many young people's lives. By passing insane laws threatening piercers and parents with dramatic jailtime, they make their feelings about this community very clear. For comparison, the penalty for murder in Australia is seven to fourteen years. That's right — we're actually being told that body piercing and tattooing are as bad as murder.
I'll also mention on the tongue splitting bill in Illinois that the Senate has approved the bill (more) but with one condition — deleting the provision that there must be a “therapeutic or clinical need” for the procedure. That is, they've said, in effect, that it may be done by doctors — they've given oral surgeons the green light to treat this as an elective procedure.
If doctors actually start offering this procedure, this could be a step in the right direction.
That said, if doctors say “thank you very much, but we're still not doing it” (a quite likely outcome) then it's a step in the wrong direction because it'll stop quality non-medical practitioners from doing it, leaving only the hacks. So we'll see… The house still has to approve the revision.
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