When I was growing up you were edgy if you had more than one piercing in your ears, let alone facial or body piercing. I’m sure there were people out there with pierced nipples and clots and cocks and so one, but it wasn’t as widely accepted as it is nowadays. Same goes for tattoos.
Now, I’m not saying these are bad things, I’ve got a couple tattoos, and I’ve had a body piercing or two, and I like them. I think they’re a great form of self expression, and can be sexy as hell as well. What I don’t like is the trend of authors giving their characters tattoos and piercing and thinking that that alone makes them edgy or kick ass.
It takes a lot more than body decoration to make a person rock, especially a character on the page. Describing their physical characters does not make them well-developed. Giving them blue streaks in their hair, or body art does not make them well-rounded. Personality comes from more than the way a character looks or dresses, the same way it does for the people you see on e the streets. Those things are, at the very least, wrapping, or at the very best, an expression. They alone are not personality characteristics.
A well-developed character makes the reader forget they are a a character, and think of them as a person. They’ll have a speech patterns and mannerisms that show more than tell, and most importantly…. motivation for their actions, and emotional depth. As an author I urge you not to get so caught up in the way your characters looks that you forget to pay attention to the ‘inside’.
