Discrimination over self expressive people

If you are apart of the alternative community like I am, chances are you definitely have gotten hate from others over the way you express yourself. Whether its your makeup, how you dress, your hair style, or how any tattoos and/or piercings you have. Alternative style people almost get as much hate as people of color, people with a different sexual orientations, ect.
I personally have quite a few experiences I've had to deal with...

I have this live streaming app called "Live Me". Basically you follow people and people follow you and you go live whenever you want doing whatever you want and people can comment and talk to you while you are streaming. I like it personally because I think its fun. You cannot control what people say unfortunately though... Last week I was live streaming and a few minutes into it (at this point I had about 120 viewers or something) someone comments on my stream, "I could wipe off 90% of your beauty with a wet Kleenex". Now personally, this made me laugh. To avoid further conflict I blocked this person. The reason this amuses me is because I love how I do my makeup and how much self love I have for myself. Freshman me on the other hand, would've been bawling her eyes out all day. Then, I didn't love myself because I was confused about who I was. I am a senior now, I have found who I really am and I am absolutely not afraid to be myself. I love the person I am. I love my style, I love how I do my makeup and I love my makeup skills, I love my personality. I encourage everyone to try and find themselves and love who they are. I love who I am. I have come such a long way to get to this point in my life but I finally made it when I was 17 and a half, and I am 18 now. Basically, insults don't really phase me at all because I am happy with the person I am.

That is just one of many moments of hate I have gotten in my life.


I have my medusa/cupids bow pierced as shown below.




Before I got it, I was told any lip piercings "look trashy". Did I care? Clearly not LOL. I definitely am in love with it and in my opinion it doesn't look trashy or gross or anything but beautiful. Personally I don't think any piercings are trashy looking. And guess what, my opinion is the only one that matters because it is my body and I'll do what I want with it!! I don't care what anyone else thinks because I love it.

I also have other piercings (clearly) and size 00g gauges. My mom is very against gauges. There was one day in public where she embarrassed me by saying they looked ugly and gross. Of course being the person I am I was rude right back. Luckily now she's come to accept them and my body choices.


Enough about me for now, because I am definitely not the only one who has gotten hate and severe discrimination for my style and makeup.....
In Manchester, England, 2007, a 20 year old girl by the name of Sophie Lancaster was murdered. She was beaten to death by a group of teenagers because of her dreadlocks and piercings. Her mother set up the Sophie Lancaster Foundation which better protects alternative subcultures.
This disgusts me. Killing someone over their style? WTF is wrong with people!!!! You don't have to agree with someone's style but keep to yourself!!! Don't inflict any abuse of someone for their style or anything for that matter!
The same year British police for the first time started treating hate on alternative subcultures the same as hate on gays, people with disabilities, and people of color (YAY!!!).

This is just one of so very many instances in England that I read about. People have been physically and mentally abused because of their tattoos, piercings, hair color, clothing choices, and makeup.

 

The alternative community has come a long way with being accepted, but we still have a long way to go sadly.





Personal Pieces

As of right now, I unfortunately have only 2 beautiful tattoos. I wish I had way more! But unfortunately they are expensive. The smaller one I have is on my left wrist and the bigger one I have is on my right arm. They both have great meaning to me. Most of my tattoos that I will have will have significant meaning to me, some will be stuff I just like.


My first tattoo


My very first tattoo that I got is the depression awareness ribbon with the word "hope" in it. The significance? It is one long story....
Ever since I was 10 or 11 (I am 18 now) I've suffered from manic depression and severe anxiety. I remember being so beyond sad all the time no matter what and I was even suicidal at the young age of 10. My mom took me to a councilor that I didn't like very much, but she didn't know what else to do. She was just as confused as I was to what was going on. Nobody knew why a child so young was experiencing such awful thoughts and feelings of hopelessness and dread. The councilor told my mom that I had severe depression. That was a huge moment of my life because I didn't know if it was something that would pass or if it was something I'd have the rest of my life. Shortly after this diagnosis we stopped going to this councilor.
I suffered with these depressing and suicidal thoughts till I was 16 years old. 16 was a very important age for me because it was the age I finally decided to get help for my issues. Up until 16 I thought I would just get better on my own and that I didn't need to go on medicine. I was very against the thought of going on medication up until everything got so unbearable that I had nowhere else to turn. My stubborn personality got the best of me for 6 years. I had to go on medication and see a therapist often. To be completely honest, it wasn't ideal. But if I hadn't gotten help at 16 I definitely wouldn't be here right now. Therefore it was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. To this day, I am still on medication (2 different ones to be exact) and currently I've been doing extremely well. From the middle of April of 2016 to up until recently I was struggling again because my one medication alone wasn't working like it should have been and some stuff had happened that triggered my depression and anxiety in full swing. But I went on a new medication and now I am doing well again thankfully!
My tattoo symbolizes what I have been through all these years and is a symbol of my recovery from my many mental illnesses.
To those who are struggling, please, I encourage you to get help. You and your life are important. Think about how your family and friends and peers would feel if you did something to yourself. Things may be bad right now but what I've learned is that it cannot rain forever.





My second tattoo

My second tattoo is a red rose on my upper right arm, and design wise it is my favorite of the two. The meaning of this tattoo is a couple of things. 1 is because roses are my favorite flower. And 2 it is also for my uncle who died of leukemia when I was only 4 years old. His favorite color was red. I honestly wish I could've known him because my mom tells me and my brother how much of an amazing person he was.