Growing up as a teenager in the 1990’s in an English northern mill town was not the best place to be ‘different’ when I found myself drawn into alternative avenues and became part of grunge scene.  There was a lot of discrimination towards alternative sub cultures like metal heads and grunge kids. The odd looks of disgust being called a Goth or a Mosher amongst the more severe name calling. I found it hard enough fitting in as it was, let alone wearing over-sized military jackets, ripped jeans, pillar box red hair and facial piercings. The verbal abuse didn’t stop me though, because I was proud of the way I looked and my individuality. I loved rebelling against conformity; I didn’t want to fit into the working class 9 to 5 world.

Today, fifteen or so years on I am still the same; I still have piercings and a slowly growing number of tattoos. Fashion still has no interest to me. I wear what I want and what I feel comfortable in. By the end of the 20th century, piercing had become more popular with younger people; undertaking nose, tongue, eyebrow and other parts of the body which became social symbols (much like they are used in tribal communities) for western subcultures. I have witnessed that as western society has moved into the 21st century, more extreme forms of body modifications have become more popular and members of sub cultures wish to become more experimental with their appearance.

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​Some of these images may make people a little uneasy but they are intended to show the diversity of individuality of our modern cultures and subcultures and to document how western society is evolving ancient cultural practices to express who they are and how they wish to look.