A Painful Point

A strong interest in body art can progress in to an addiction...

One woman wrote a detailed account of her experience of having 13 piercings done at one time. She posted on http://www.bmezine.com/, a website where people post any body modifocation experiences, mainly piercings and tattoos. People on the net who claim to be addicted to piercings have between 11 and 15. Others claim to be addicted to tattoos, but there there is a fine line between compulsion and addiction.

For many, the pain of getting a tattoo or piercing is the appeal, physical pain to help the emotional. This pain of getting either causes your brain to release endorphins to cope with it.

Elaine Davidson from Brazil made the Guiness World Records for being the most pierced woman in the world with 720. As of February 2009 it has been reported she now has 6,005, including the 1,500 that are 'internal'. The metal in each piercing has a combined weight of 3 kg.

"I don't enjoy getting pierced, but to break the record you have to get to a high level." She was also quoted as saying "I like pain, I love pain."

New Zealand born Lucky Diamond Rich is the tattoo equivelent. Not one inch of his body has been left un-tattooed. Not one. "For me, pain ... that has been my dance most of my life. I did not value myself ... but the more I accepted the pain, the easier it is to deal with the pain. Tattooing, the obsession, it became the best way for me to deal with what I had come from" said the 38-year-old. He holds the Guiness World Record of full tattoo body coverage, a title he gained in 2006. He is a street performer and tattoo artist. http://www.luckyrich.com/page8.htm

Oh Sugar

If I said I was addicted to Geophagy would you have any idea what I was talking about?
You know about heroin and cigarettes, but what about less main stream addictions such as sugar or dirt?


An addiction is described as 'the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.' (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/addiction)


I read an article in Cosmopolitan magazine about people who can't function without sugar. I'm not as chronic a case as those who have cake for breakfast and lollies for afternoon tea, but I do go to the super market every few days just especially to buy lollies. Forget veges, there's nothing I like more than a fat bag full of pick n' mix sweets. Can you relate to this? chances are, you can in one form of food or drink. http://www.thefitshack.com/2007/03/21/are-you-addicted-to-sugar/


Consuming sugar loaded foods will send a rush through your blood stream, a feeling that will make you feel good. Problem is, the feeling passes and you are left wanting it again. There are two parts to an addiction, the physical, and the psychological. We can blame both on opiates, the addictive substances found in drugs, an in this case, sugar. Opiates are highly narcotic, creating a sedated or euphoric feeling.


Addictions vary widely and half have aren't curbed by body absorbed substances . A Brazilian man called Luis Squarisi suffers from what he calls an addiction to funerals. He quit his job so he could attend every funeral in his town, Batatais, for the last 20 years. "What set me off was my father's death in 1983. The first thing I do every morning is to turn on the radio to find out if anyone has died, if I don't hear it on the radio I call the hospitals and the local funeral home", said the 43-year-old.


Geophagy is the act of eating dirt. It may sound comical, but it can be found as a common practice in third world countries, stemming from cultural and environmental factors. In the slums of Haiti, people make dirt pies every day. Baobao, an 18 year-old woman from Mongolia became famous after eating dirt for 11years. 'Baobao’s addiction has had serious implications for her neighbour’s roof, made from mud which is traditionally used as a weather resistant material.' In Western countries it is confined to people suffering chronic mental illnesses. (http://www.neatorama.com/2006/05/17/the-girl-who-eats-dirt/ )