Journal of Health Care Law and Policy Volume 15 | Issue 1 Article 7 Body Modification and Adolescent Decision Making: Proceed with Caution Alicia Ouellette Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/jhclp Part of the Health Law Commons, and the Juveniles Commons Recommended Citation Alicia Ouellette, Body Modification and Adolescent Decision Making: Proceed with Caution, 15 J. Health Care L. & Pol'y 129 (2012). Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/jhclp/vol15/iss1/7 This Conference is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Health Care Law and Policy by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. BODY MODIFICATION AND ADOLESCENT DECISION MAKING: PROCEED WITH CAUTION ALICIA OUELLETTE* The observation that adolescence is a time of experimentation and self- expression is neither surprising nor troubling. Nonetheless, a parent facing a sixteen-year-old with a new tongue ring, an oozing tattoo, or an unrelenting desire for breast augmentation might well be both troubled and surprised by today's version of youth experimentation. Although precise statistics are not available, the evidence suggests that body modification, whether through cosmetic surgery, Botox injections, body piercing, or tattooing, is very much a part of youth culture in the United States today.' Anecdotal reports of "the graduation boob job"2 and mother-daughter cosmetic surgery3 are regular fodder on cable television. In some communities, rhinoplasty (the so-called "nose job") and belly button piercings are practically a rite of passage.4 Indeed, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports that in 2010, "nearly 219,000 cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were Copyright 0 2012 by Alicia Ouellette.