OBSERVATION OF THE DAY. An anthropologist makes a professional judgement.

So when I see Westerners with all kinds of tattoos, piercings, stretchings, scarification, brightly colored hair, my assessment is that person is displaying their [c.q.] social status and group membership just like any other culture. Except, what they are saying is "I am an outsider, I am a social outcast, this is how I separate myself from the rest of society, this is how I try to intimidate the society that I perceive has somehow kept me down, I embrace my freakishness!"

So, that said, it always pisses me off when folks like yon tattooed Tina, make statements like, "And there are times when the less mainstream of us feel marginalized or stereotyped, even in academia..." Uh, duh! Isn't that what you were going for when you CHOSE to modify your body?! To set yourself apart (read: marginalize) yourself from the rest (read: mainstream) society?! You're a hypocrite.

Seriously, get over yourself. You can't choose to look like a freak and then expect to NOT be treated like one.

Indeed not.