Tattoos that need to be removed upon later reflection are nothing new. In the twilight of the punk age, however, more unusual modifications have begun appearing in plastic surgeons’ offices. Many younger clients are seeking to reverse generational fashion statements that seem regrettable in hindsight.
Justin Berton, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, interviewed one such individual. 21-year-old Oakland resident Colton Tidwell (not the person pictured to the right), had his ears modified with disc earrings to the extent that he “could fit a golf ball through the hole in his earlobe.” This remnant of his teenage years caused problems later in life:
“I went a little too far with it… My body had become a bumper sticker… It bothered me that people could take one look at me and think they knew what I liked or didn’t like.”Tidwell often found himself tucking his drooping earlobes under a baseball cap in order to avoid embarrassment. After having the surgery, which took 30 minutes, he was able to get a new job at a bank, and was happy that his ears had been fixed.