Man charged with tattooing, piercing underage teens

CHURCH HILL, Tenn. (AP) — A Hawkins County tattoo business operator has been charged with giving tattoos and body piercings to underage teenagers.

Thirty-six-year-old Jerome Rufus Flannigan of Rogersville was arrested on Thursday and charged with two counts of child piercing and one count of child tattooing.

Flannigan, who is on probation from Sullivan County convictions that include aggravated assault and drunken driving, was held without bond pending arraignment Monday.

Church Hill police say the mother of a 15-year-old girl reported that her daughter had received a tattoo last month at Irish Creek Tattoos.

Police say Flannigan is also accused of piercing a tongue and nose for two more 16-year-old girls.

The charges are misdemeanors punishable by up to 11 months and 29 days in jail each.

Jewelry on the nose, lips or tongue can be a piercing

In my opinion, there is nothing that says, “Look at my NOSE!” like a glittering gemstone in a pierced nostril.

I see a lot of adorned noses, but I can’t imagine getting one. Not that they are not attractive on the rare individual with flawless skin and a sculpted proboscis, but the Janet’s World Institute for Facial Statistics reports that, for 71.9 percent of us, the nose is not our best feature.

If anything, I might consider getting some other part pierced to divert attention from my nose. But what? I cannot at this point go with the belly-button ring, unless I decide to reveal the topographical relief map of Asia that appeared on my stomach after the birth of my three children. Similarly, a decorative ring on my chin would only declare, “Two-for-one sale!” But my point about pierced noses is this: even if one’s nose is perfectly proportioned and alarmingly cute, it is not just a feature-spacer like the cheekbones, forehead or chin.

It is command central for our sense of smell, affecting our sense of taste. It facilitates inhaling and exhaling. It’s the part that alerts us to allergy season in Maryland, running from about August until November and March through June. And it’s a facial “mood ring,” warning us to take refuge indoors by turning a mottled gray in the frosty winds and brilliant red in the unrelenting sunshine.

So I think we must respect the nose, and not pierce it on a whim. We must check out the Boston Children’s Hospital Web page “Body Piercing, a Guide for Teens,” so that we can get the willies .

Yes, this is one of those Web sites we should pass around to people interested in so that they can make an informed decision while having the living daylights scared out of them, with its helpful hints about potential HIV transmission and nerve damage resulting in loss of feeling at the body piercingpiercing site.

But don’t fool yourself that this is going to dissuade the individual on the road to a body piercing, even if accompanied by your reasonable, strident or pleading argument.

Once, one of my son’s friends announced she was getting a tattoo. I immediately launched into a story about how I had recently been standing in line behind a woman at a black-tie event, and how my first impression of her was not of her fabulous gown but of this distracting grayish-blue blur on her shoulder — a faded phoenix tattoo. I offered to pay my son’s friend the cost of the tattoo NOT to get one. All the while, my son was making the frantic “cut” symbol.

“Mom, she’s made up her mind,” he said. “And you are not her parent.”

Well, this has never really deterred me. Recently, my niece asked my opinion on getting her nose pierced, and I managed to overcome my natural shyness to shout, “Don’t do it!”

I’m sorry to reveal the politically incorrect truth — jewelry in the nose, lips, tongue or eyebrows just invites rude staring by people like me. We cannot help it. We are consumed with wondering what would happen if you bent to pick up some shoes in a dark closet, and your eyebrow ring got caught on a hanger? Or if you’ve had to give up cool spices like Old Bay with a pierced tongue? Further, even though it’s disgusting, we want to know if you’ve ever sneezed out your stud?

And all the while, we are not noticing your lovely eyes, your shiny hair, or your beautiful smile. Like in the “Tide to Go” campaign, the noise coming from your facial piercing is — at least initially — overpowering any other message you might like to convey.

So please forgive us NOSE GEM if we appear distracted EYEBROW STUD when we’re talking to you MULTIPLE LIP RINGS. We’re just NOSTRIL BAR a little CARTILAGE BARBELL old-fashioned.

Why The World Needs A Freak Piercing

Erik Sprague, better known as The Lizardman, sticks a running power drill up his nostrils, which is what he does when he’s not busy setting himself on fire or suspending himself by his nipples. His laundry list of body modifications includes green scales and black markings over his entire body, Teflon implants in his skull create the appearance of horned ridges, sharpened, crocodile-like teeth, a forked tongue, and stretched earlobes. He has a number of piercings, many of which are only visible when he streaks, which he does often.

Body modification starts with an inexplicable instinct to play with your body. I always had a very natural interest in tattooing and piercing. Some kids draw on the walls; I was a draw-on-my-arm kind of kid.

In my opinion, body modification includes things like clipping your nails and getting a haircut. People do unnecessary things to their bodies for reasons besides hygiene. It’s one of the few things you can say exists in every single culture and society. What I do to my body is not unlike what they do to theirs; it’s a spectrum, and we’re just on different ends. They may be styling their hair, while I’m radically altering my outward appearance.

Body Modification Started with Piercing

The first thing I did was pierce my ear in my freshman year at college. I lived in a small rural area and my parents said, “It’s your body, your consequences, your life.” If you walked into a gallery and saw one of Picasso’s latest Cubist works, you’d start with his early work and then look at all his work in between, you see the progression, and it seems perfectly natural.

What I am and what I do is an aesthetic choice. I don’t think I have an inner lizard that wanted to get out, but it’s a lizard for the same reason it’s a blue suit for someone else. It’s stylistic. A few years ago I started using reptiles in my act. They’re very fragile and difficult to keep. Currently I don’t have one. My wife is actually not a big fan of reptiles, which is interesting, since she’s married to me. She’s never known me as anything else. The first time she laid eyes on me I was running out on stage on fire, wearing nothing more than a green Speedo.

The Lizardman: A Professional Freak

My act involves rituals and things like putting running power drills up my nose, which is a variation of the human blockhead, or the traditional approach of using a hammer and nail. With the drill variation, you don’t feel a thing unless you hit the side, which I do every time. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s something I’m willing to do to get a reaction.

I want people to react with shock, awe and/or laughter, depending on the moment. If you’re at my show, you’ll hear a lot of gasping, and hopefully at the end, applause. I don’t have a lot of grand designs. I’m an entertainer, so I’m just trying to elevate simplicity. I think it’s a very noble thing to make people laugh. I may distract people from what’s bothering them. The human body really can swallow a sword or hang from hooks. Sometimes people are inspired by what I do. Like any art, it’s not only what you put out there, but what people invest in themselves. The viewer always contributes to the dynamic.