Nobody wants to be boring.
Nobody wakes up in the morning, puts on their boring clothes, eats their boring cereal, leaves their boring house, and thinks (boringly): "Ah, another great day of being boring."
On the contrary, everyone wants to be at least a little bit interesting - even if they don't realise it. That's what influences the types of outfits we wear, or the topics of conversation we choose, or if we're feeling a little more daring or rebellious - the types of body modifications we get. And these can range all the way from a simple ear stud to, well, this:
This is Amber Luke. She's 23-years-old, she works as a body piecer in Australia, and, as I think most people would agree, she's certainly not boring to look at. But it wasn't easy for her to achieve this look.
Over the past seven years, Luke has splashed out more than $10,000 on ear-stretching, tongue-splitting, dermal piercings, and even tattooed eyeballs.
"I'm absolutely in love with my image," she said to Daily Mail Australia.
"As soon as I turned 16, I was inspired by those around me to get tattooed. I craved to know what the feeling was like," she explained. "I developed an addiction at 16 years of age. By the time I hit 18, I already had three tattoos. And when I turned 18, I decided to get my first big piece.
"Now, I have over 50 tattoos, I haven't been able to count all of them."
But Luke has taken a number of risks in her endeavour to look this badass.
Getting her eyeballs inked, for instance, was an excruciatingly painful process - one that could have left her permanently blind.
"The procedure for getting my eyes done was only 40 minutes," she said. "It was very intense and very painful. My eyes got held open while a syringe was injected into my eye four times per eye. I was blind for three weeks."
"My tongue split was very uncomfortable as well, I wasn't able to speak or eat for a week afterwards," she added. "My ears were a very simple procedure; a silicone implant was inserted into the tips of my ears to shape them."
And, as strange as some may perceive Luke's look to be, she says she has the support of all those closest to her.
"My friends have all been very supportive of my modifications, and my mum has been my biggest supporter since day one," she said.
"My mum cried when she found out that I tattooed my eyeballs, but then she came around.
"I have plenty of people who try to bring me down because of the choices I've made to my body, but that's just it; its my body. I also have a lot of positivity surrounding my image. People are often fascinated rather discriminatory towards me."
Next, she says, she's going to get her teeth sharpened into vampire fangs, and it's not hard to imagine how that will go with the rest of her look.
It is sort of difficult, however, to imagine Luke as the blank canvas that all of us start out as. Yes, once upon a time, she was like the rest of us comparatively-boring folks. And this is what she's really like under all that ink:
Quite a difference, right?
Now, some people may turn around and criticise Luke for deciding to modify her body to such extremes, but, really, it's not their business what she does or doesn't do. As long as she's happy with her decisions, and aware of the risks she's taking, there's really not much to say about the matter.
And if you think that's a problem: you might just be boring.
