- My roommates smelled it through my nose.
- I can make it clap.
(clapping tongue together)
(mellow music)
- Hello, I'm Scout.
I'm 22 years old and I use they/them pronouns.
- Hey, lovies!
I'm pineapple, Mizz-pineapplez.
And today we're going to talk about my...
body modifications.
- I am a 21 year old, black queer man
living in New York right now,
but originally I'm from Florida.
- [Mizz-pineapplez] What made you interested
in body modification in the first place?
I think that I've been interested in body modification
ever since the first time I saw a body modification,
which would have been like Ripley's Believe It or Not
with the cat lady and I believe the lizard man.
And I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world.
And I thought that they were so beautiful and unique.
And I think that's really when my interest peaked.
- I don't think I can pinpoint what exactly
made me interested in body modifications,
but in the grand scheme of things,
I think it was mostly just like music I listened to
when I was kid and movies I watched,
and just the general want to be different
than other people and not blending in in a sea of people.
I really wanted to just stand out.
- When I was young, probably like 9 or 10,
I was in Publix, in the little magazine aisle,
and I come across this body modification magazine.
There were like these two girls
who was like really popular for their tattoos and stuff.
And the devil girl, she like had her tongue split,
she had like the like subdermal horns.
I saw that and I was like,
"I want tats, I want a piercings on, eve... everything."
- [Mizz-pineapplez] When did I start body modification?
My first body modification was actually a branding.
It was one that I did myself on my tummy, right about here.
I branded a little upside down crocs on my belly.
- I started with body modifications in 7th grade.
My mom thinks it was 9th grade, it was actually 7th grade.
Me and my friend, we went to the Hot Topic in the mall
and I bought a eight gauge tapers.
And I just shoved them into my ears in the mall food court.
And, you know, here I am now.
- My parents at that time, like won't even,
they wouldn't even let me get my ears pierced.
So like, this was all like on the wall.
I guess I started around 16 or 17
when I got my septum pierced.
I had a friend of mine do it at school.
After that I had gotten one of my nipples done
and I had also gotten a tattoo on my leg.
- So my journey with body modifications
definitely started off very slowly, you know,
it starts off my ears very, very gradually
cause one, I was like 13.
I didn't have a lot of money
and also I didn't want my parents to noticed.
It was like slowly but surely.
And then when I was like 15, my mom was like,
"You can get your nostril pierce.
You just got to take the plugs out of yours".
And I was like, "Okay. Yeah, I can do that."
I put them in like three months later.
And then the day I turned 18,
I went and got my septum pierced.
And then like two weeks after that,
I went and got my nipples pierced.
Since I turned 18, it's just been like full speed ahead
because why not?
And I enjoy it. And I like how it looks.
- So, I've always been like a balls to the walls
kind of person,
but in the last two or three years,
I'd say is when it really peaked.
I went to my first tattoo convention
and I got this really cool unicorn.
And I was pretty much hooked from that point forward.
Started kind of obsessively getting tattoos from piercings.
Found a guy that would be able to split my tongue.
And that's kind of how my journey has progressed.
- All these stuff was like done by like friends
or like people my friends knew.
I'm still in my first year of college,
I got my other side of my nostril pierced,
and a couple months later, I got the other side pierced.
I got a couple of large pieces,
like I got this guy right here,
this is tarantula on my hand.
Yeah. It's kinda hard to show.
And then there's also a death taro card on this arm.
- [Scout] The modification that hurt the most
would most likely be getting my nipples pierce,
however, stretching out my septum.
The recent stretch I did, I went from two gauge
to zero gauge, which is six millimeters
to eight millimeters.
So I did a two millimeter jump in my nose
and that was brutal.
And my nose was sore for probably like two months after.
- [Kasamba] Getting the tongue split was a journey,
it's definitely my favorite. I do not regret it.
But the healing process was hell excruciating,
I could barely think, it was absolutely ridiculous.
My tongue was so swollen.
I can barely drink, like I could barely drink water.
Like I was eating baby food and like applesauce,
and like smoothies.
And that was all I could eat for like two weeks.
I also had to take the stitches out myself.
- My tongue split was definitely the most painful.
Not the actual situation,
but the after effect and healing was worse than labor,
it was just horrendous.
It was the worst pain of my entire life,
which is hence the reason why I'm kind of putting off
getting it re-split.
- It took me a while,
but I was just looking to get my eyebrows pierced.
I wanted to get it all done in one sitting.
And I had to just find a piercer who would do it
because like some of these people were like,
"Oh, I'm not comfortable doing."
(Kasamba blabbering)
Whatever, man.
So I finally found someone and got all of these done
in one sitting.
It was just sore, like my face was so sore.
I love them to be honest.
- My favorite one by far is my stretch septum.
I worked the hardest for it.
It's been like year and a half journey,
stretching my septum to get to where I'm at now.
Sometimes I'll take my septum out
and I'll look at myself in the mirror and I'm like,
"Who the (beep) is that?"
- [Mizz-pineapplez] How much do I think I've spent
on body modification?
I would say that I have probably spent
at least 6 to $7,000 over the entirety of my life.
And I'm no where near done.
And that's just a rough guesstimate.
- Man, a at least 500,
cause we got 120,
50, 50,
30,
50.
I don't know, probably like 500 in total.
I don't know. I don't keep track.
It's better than not think about it.
- Probably spent a little under 2K.
I don't know like, when you count everything you got like,
the tongue was like 550 or something.
- [Mizz-pineapplez] Can I show you my tricks with my tongue?
Absolutely I can.
So, I can't do a lot because the split on my tongue
is pretty shallow, but I'll show you what I can do.
I can make it clap.
(lively music)
(tongue exhibitions)
- [Mizz-pineapplez] Did I run into any problems
with my tongue? Do things taste different?
So in the first few weeks of healing,
absolutely things are much more potent tasting.
- I notice some people get like new taste buds
and stuff like that.
I don't really know if I have.
And I haven't really noticed too much of a difference
to my tongue.
- [Mizz-pineapplez] What are some stereotypes
or judgements I've heard or been faced with
because of my body modification?
For me, I work a regular 9 to 5 job,
and in that job, it allows me the opportunity
to just kind of be who I am, which is really nice.
My family and friends, I definitely think
are a little weirded out by it,
but they've learned to accept that that's just who I am.
And I'm the weird one. And that's just what it is.
To me it's beautiful.
- Of course I always get the classic,
"Have fun on finding a job."
I'm self-employed, so my boss does not care
what I look like.
People are gonna think I'm mean or intimidating
based off, not just like my piercings
and body modifications and tattoos,
just off of general appearance.
And then they actually talked to me and they're like,
"Wow. It's like the nicest person I met all day.
It's crazy."
- The most common one I guess, like people like saying like,
I'm like, they don't like white people's stuff.
Like, tryna like emulate, like whiteness.
What I always say when people say that to me is that
body modification was quite literally invented by black
and indigenous people.
Like they have been doing body mods for centuries,
saying like, that's for white people,
it just doesn't add up.
Like, nah!
- [Mizz-pineapplez] How do I feel about the attention
that I get?
Good. I think I feel good. I'm pretty sure I feel good.
- I love it. And I don't care how conceded that sounds.
I love it.
You know, when some old person stares me
when I'm like in the self checkout line at Kroger
buying a frozen pizza and a pack of PBR.
I take that as a compliment. I know they're terrified.
They might think I'm gonna mug them. I don't care.
They will talk to me and be like,
"Wow, you are a kind soul."
These people that look outrageous are just regular people.
They just look different than everyone else.
And that doesn't make them a bad person.
- Like, it doesn't really bothered me
cause like, usually like they'll stare at me for a bit
and like, give me a compliment.
Like, "Oh, I really like your piercings."
But like there's also people who just stare and like, "No."
Like it doesn't really stress me out.
cause like I would have done the same thing
when I was a lot younger.
- I can't tell you how many different times
somebody has come up to me and say something weird like,
"Are you just doing that for blah, blah, blah,
social media platform?"
And that's really frustrating for people to assume
that you would do this to your body just for clout
or just for attention.
- [Scout] Any funny stories?
Yes. Me and my roommate were in Indianapolis
and we were all partying one night,
and one of her friends was like,
"Yo, you think you could fit a cigarette through your nose?"
And I was like, "I don't know. Let's see."
And I can, and I will give it right now.
And so I put a cigarette through my nose,
and my roommates smelled it through my nose.
It's also funny cause people, they're like,
"How do you get that out if the cigarettes burning?"
You just... push that through,
and pop this bad boy back in there.
(putting septum piercing back on)
Just like that.
- One time, I was on the bus and like this person's
just like, they just asked me if I was like a masochist.
Didn't even ask my name. They're just all like,
"Hey, like you have a lot of piercings.
Like, are you masochists? Like, you like pain?"
And like, I'm like, "Uhhhmmm."
I get that a lot, I'm not gonna comment further on that.
- [Scout] How do my body modifications make me feel?
For all the reasons I got the things I did,
especially with my nose and, you know, all the chains,
like that's something that I was extremely insecure
about growing up.
And that's something that I got bullied for a lot.
And then I started doing all this stuff.
I'm like, wait, "I really like this about myself."
I mean now, and then I'll take all my piercings out
and just look at my face and be like,
"I still enjoy how I look."
They make me feel really good
because they definitely helped me on a little journey
of self-love.
- Look how cute I am, I'm freaking adorable.
And the tattoos with everything else just completes
the whole look.
- I really aspire...
to be like who I needed around when I was younger.
When I was younger, I used to not really like looking
in the mirror.
Unlike now, I look in the mirror and I smile every time
cause I love what I see.
And like the way I feel about like body modifications,
like self expressions, like decorating your room, you know,
like you're gonna like exist in this body,
like you might as well make it look cool.
This is the way I feel about it.
- [Scout] Do I ever get my piercing snag on clothing's
or people?
Yes. I go to how sure is a lot?
And so right here, this whole chain is the bane
of your existence if you're in a mosh pit.
I fortunately have not had this ripped out of my face yet.
I have known several people who have,
who have straight up rip their ear.
And then I got my nose rings and like eyebrows,
and little brain, like almost everything
I've gotten stuck on people's hair.
- Do I ever get caught on things?
No, I don't.
I do notice that sometimes it's a little bit harder to chew.
I'm not really sure why that is,
but I've noticed that I've bit myself while eating
way more time since I got my tongue split
than I did before.
- I will get my piercings like caught, like in my own hair
or like sometimes someone else's hair.
- [Mizz-pineapplez] What are my future body modification
plans?
So, I definitely wanna get my ears pointed.
I would love to be a little elf lady.
My split is kind of shallow,
so I would like to get it split further back.
- Getting my dahlias pierce,
which is for those who don't know, it's like,
imagine the dimples, but it's just two little piercings,
like right on the outer corners of your mouth.
So I'm getting those pierce in about three days.
And I wanna get a second bridge done, so they're stack.
I wanna get a snakebites, I'm a big fan of symmetry
if you can tell by everything I have going on.
So any facial piercing I'm getting done,
it's gotta be symmetrical.
And after that, who knows?
Let's just kind of, what do I wake up and feel like doing
to myself today.
- I'm definitely going to be getting a lot more tattoos.
Neck, face, full body, like covered in tattoos.
I'm definitely gonna gauge up my ears and my nostril,
my septum and all that.
I have like a lot of surface piercing, anti-eyebrow,
eyebrow, like they tend to like reject a lot.
Don't last very long.
If they're reject or more so when they reject,
it's like I'll probably just take them out,
let them heal and get them pierced again,
but maybe in a different arrangement.
What if like when these reject, I got them pierced to like,
going like this way, like vertically.
So it's like a little teardrop.
- [Scout] What do I want people to know about people
with body mod?
We are just like everyone else.
Most of us have jobs. It's not that hard to find job.
A lot of us are gonna be the kindest people
you will ever meet because we're not someone
who will judge someone off of their parents.
We'll actually talk to someone.
You just kinda stop caring
about other people's opinions of you,
because what's the point?
Like, why live your life for other people's opinion?
And truthfully, I don't care if the way I look
make someone uncomfortable. I don't.
- One thing people ask me a lot is why would you do that?
But when you go to buy a pair of designer shoes,
I don't ask you why.
I just accept the fact that that's what you like.
I don't question your life choices
because it really is irrelevant to me.
- There is no reason and like, white people shouldn't
have a claim.
It's a body mods. They weren't the ones doing it. All right.
Like picked it up from black and indigenous people.
All right.
They picked up tattoos from like people
in the Pacific Highlands.
Picked up piercings, gauging more specifically
from people in Africa.
And I acknowledged and I understand that like,
their whole cultures that were doing these stuff
for centuries,
and like I give credits to them.
- You're gonna consider getting body modification?
Definitely think on it for a long time.
Don't just jump and make a wild decision.
Decide if it's really something that you wanna do
cause people will judge you and people will be mean
to you as a result of the fact that you chose
to do something different and stuff outside of the box.
- If you're thinking of doing any body modifications,
please do it the right way.
Because if you do it the wrong way,
you're gonna have to end up getting it redone anyway.
I definitely have pierced my years with safety pins before,
don't do it, it gets infected so fast. I promise you.
I can breathe with this in my nose for anyone wondering,
you can see all the spare room and just don't be an (beep)
people with body mods.
(upbeat music)