From: crispin@csd.uwo.ca (Crispin Cowan)
Subject: Re: A question of aesthetics
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Western Ontario, London
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 18:15:08 GMT
Keywords: left/right symmetry/whatever

Posting for a friend w/o posting capability:

In article <10APR199203571768@juliet.caltech.edu> jaywb@juliet.caltech.edu (Bromley, Jay W.) writes:
>   Alright then, so all this rage about left/right side piercings got
>me to wondering to what people actually found pleasing (leaving aside
>left=straight and whatever if possible) in terms of pierce location.
>   I myself find a like a certain assymetry.  Why?  I'm not quite sure
>except maybe I'm just unbalanced myself. :)
Assymetry rules OK!  I'm assymetrical in my pierces as well, partly by
design, partly by accident.  My right ear has five-in-a-row from the bottom
of the lobe up into early cartilege, plus what me & my local pierce-friends
call a high-top, up in cartilege at the peak of the ear curve (at least, I
call it a high-top and they all know what I mean).  The right side of my nose
is pierced.  My left ear has the usual low-lobe pierce, and a tragus.  My
right nipple is pierced.  And most of the time, the only common factor in the
eight earrings is that they're all silver, they don't match otherwise.
I'm right handed, but that hasn't been the ruling factor.  What happened was
this:
When I was 14 (I'd been waiting 7 years, part of a deal with my mother) I had
both ears pierced.  A few years later I wanted to get another set done, above
the first, but suddenly everybody had two sets of holes and I didn't even
_like_ those girls, why should I copy them (which is how it would have looked)
so I didn't.  Then I decided that if _everybody_ was getting double sets on
both ears, I'd get a double set on _one_ side.  Then I had to decide which
side.  I'd rather have had the left, but the left ear was the one that gave
me the most trouble with irritations and little infections, so I thought "do
the right, save trouble" so I did.  Tres cool, at the time, for the people I
hung with.  Then, a few years later, when I decided to do my nose, I thought
"well, which side?  Well, if I want to wear a chain, and I wear it to the
_right_ ear, then it can climb a bit to the second hole..."  And as other
holes got added, they went on the right because of these two reasons, and
because I liked the assymetrical look.  I'd still rather it was all on the
left.

Then I got the tragus done.  I put it on the left because I didn't want to
get _too_ hung up on having only one hole in the left.  That would be as
bad as being hung up on symmetry, for me.

When I got the nipple done, it was only one and on the right side for 5
reasons: 1)I didn't think I could stand 3 months with no nipple play _at
all_ [which is what they told me at the Gauntlet] 2)I like being able to
have different kinds of sensation on the different sides 3)I _like_
assymetry 4)the right breast has tended to get less attention in the past
because a)it's the smaller of the two :-(, b)all my lovers have been right
handed (think about it); so it was sort of a "don't worry, I love you anyway"
gift [and if the right-handers don't like the ring, they don't have to play
with it] 5)And if I want to run a chain from face to breast (gonna be _some_
party [the chain is party-wear, I think my supervisor would flip if I wore it
to school]) I'd rather it _didn't_ have to cross my body.
So I guess my aesthetic is asymmetric, but the deciding factor has been
practicality.

As to what I find pleasing in other people...  Mostly assymetric, again.
Symmetrical can be pretty, but to me (personal taste here, no flames, you
wouldn't bite me for liking chocolate cake, wouldja?) it's like a matching
tie and belt... doesn't do much for me.

>I also want to get a PA, but it's hard to not be symmetric there! ;)
Hey, Jay, don't count on it.  Most penises (sp?) aren't symmetric either,
at least most of the ones I've met curve a little one way or another.  I've
even met one that was, well, _twisted_ (and so was its owner :-) )

>Regards.
sync
K.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.bodyart