The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [102]
A heavily inked tattoo artist called Regan’s name. She wiped her hands on her jeans. In the back room, Crystal rolled her chair to Regan’s side and grabbed her hand. Regan heard the whiz of the needle. She took a deep breath.
The series of sensations Regan experienced while getting a tattoo never varied. The first few times the gun brushed her skin, it didn’t hurt at all. Typically her nervous anticipation of the process was worse than the reality. After a while, though, the outlining would become painful. Regan closed her eyes. She usually didn’t have company when she got a tattoo. She let go of Crystal’s hand, opting instead to grip the wooden back of the chair as she usually did. She peeked at her pelvis. The tattoo artist had barely begun. Oh, God, Regan thought, and laid her head on her arms.
By the time the artist began the coloring stage, Regan was used to the sting. Coloring was uncomfortable, like cat scratches, except when the gun traveled over a bone, which made Regan wince. Then the artist had to go over a spot multiple times, rubbing already open wounds with a needle. Just when Regan was ready for the process to end, the artist would begin adding his own flair to the piece, embellishing details, darkening a shade, adding color.
Regan had waited until adulthood to get the Straight Edge tattoo because, she said, “I’ve known too many Straight Edge kids who get SXE tattoos and then stop being SXE. Then they feel stupid and regret the tattoo. I figured when I got older, I’d stop holding on to the title so tightly. I thought it’d be better to wait so that the tattoo was a celebration of how being SXE has positively affected my life rather than an affirmation of my SXE pride.” For similar reasons, she had waited until age twenty to get any tattoos at all.
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A DIFFERENT KIND OF PRESSURE
Drug and alcohol peer pressure today is not the “It’ll make you feel real good” variety that cracked up students during assemblies in the “Just Say No” era. It’s both more subtle and more blatant a nudge. Because social events among the popular crowd seem to involve drinking and/or recreational drug use, willingness to participate can directly affect social status. “It’s really down to the people that drink and the people that don’t,” a “weird kid” said about social divisions at her Georgia private school. “And then it goes to whether they’re on a sports team or not (and if they’re good). And if they go to parties or even get invited.”
Alcohol and drug use often become a means for students to try to prove that they can manage a social life in addition to schoolwork, sports, or other extracurriculars, without seeming stressed about maintaining a balance. A popular Pennsylvania junior tried smoking weed and a hookah for this reason. “I did it because I wanted to be able to say I had done so,” she said.
Students are trying alcohol at younger ages, which means the pressure to imbibe can start early. Lana, now a junior, was part of the popular clique in her Chicago middle school—until she refused to drink. “On the south side, you start drinking around seventh or eighth grade and if you don’t, you’re considered a huge loser. My dad’s an alcoholic, though, so drinking was never a big thing on my list. But I wanted to be popular, so I’d pretend to drink at parties,” Lana said. When her friends realized she wasn’t drinking, they kicked her out of the group. To get back in their good graces, she started to smoke marijuana. She was twelve.
Some students are able to resist the pressure because classmates are