Ears, noses, brows, and lips; no this is not the new version of your favorite childhood song, but pretty soon it could be. Nowadays it seems as if people are getting more and more piercings. Getting your belly button pierced is practically a rite of passage if you are a young teenage girl. When regular earrings are no longer enough, then it’s time to start the gauging. It’s not something we typically think about because it has become more mainstream for people to have facial piercings, but when I asked my mom if I could get my nose pierced, there was clearly no way she would let that happen. I have begged her for at least two years to let me get it done and the answer has never changed. She always says that she doesn’t like how it would affect my presentation to other people. This, if anything only made me want it more, and also got me thinking about why adults have such a problem with it but our generation doesn’t. To me and almost every other teenager, piercings are purely just a style. But to my mom and other parents out there, they are practically like having a bad resumé permanently attached to your face. I argued back and forth with her, assuring myself that she was wrong. I told her that in less than two years when I can go and get my nose pierced without her permission, I’m going to, so why not just let me now? Her reason: because by then hopefully you will have enough sense not to. Sure she doesn’t want my career in the future to be affected, but studs can be taken out, holes will close up, and in a matter of seconds it’s as if no one had ever stabbed a needle through my nose. I thought that with all my quick comebacks that I had maybe, just maybe, argued my darling mother into submission, but then she came back with one more point: “why?” Why did I even want to get a nose piercing, and why did I begin to gauge my ears against her approval? This point was my only downfall – I gave up. Honestly, I couldn’t think of a good reason why I wanted one. I like how they look, it’s cool, etc., but are these even good enough reasons? Does there have to be any reason at all? Instead I thought about why everyone else gets piercings, but that did not get me very far. I took it upon myself to find out: after all, my mom’s question was still unanswered. Everyone I talked to said they got their piercing either because they wanted one or their friends have them. These were good enough answers for me but I doubt it would help my side of the argument in any way. We get piercings because we want to, plain and simple. Without gaining any new insight that could help me to claim the victory I had worked so hard for, I thanked people for their input, logged off Facebook IM, and continued on with the homework I had put off for hours. In the end I am still under my parents’ godly reign and have since given up trying to persuade them; there are plenty of other things I can fight with them about anyway. All I have left to say is I only hope that my children are nothing like me.