A woman with 44 piercings across her face, ears and body says strangers point, stare and even take photos of her in public like she’s a “strange attraction”.
Adrianna Szczypek insists she doesn’t see herself as “extreme,” but her distinctive look attracts strong reactions from shocked pensioners and mocking teens alike.
The 31-year-old’s modifications include a stretched septum, stretched helix, two lobe tunnels in her left ear, a small tunnel in her right lobe, and two nasallang piercings.
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“I am used to the stares, but other sorts of reactions, such as making faces or shaking their heads, make me uncomfortable,” Adriana, from Poland, told Need To Know.
“I’m aware that you don’t see people like me walking the streets of my town often and I’m conscious that I’m some sort of an attraction whenever I appear.
“I get all sorts of reactions, from people staring at me and that happens a lot every single day wherever I go, people making disgusted or shocked faces.
“Often, people point at me – and what still shocks me to the core, I’ve had a few people take pictures of me.
“Today, for example, a group of teenage boys started pointing at me, making stupid faces and pretending to pray.
“I get stares from people of all ages, children, teenagers, adults and the elderly.
“Sometimes people approach me, usually cashiers, but not only.
“I’ve also had a few teenage girls tell me that they like my piercings and are jealous, so that’s something.”
The cleaner got her first piercing, a lobe hole, when she was 11.
Then she had an eyebrow piercing just before her 16th birthday.
Since then, her collection has grown steadily.
To keep costs down, Adrianna admits she often pierces herself.
She said: “ I have a stretched septum, stretched helix and two lobe tunnels on my left ear as well as a small tunnel in my right ear lobe.
“I also have two nasallangs and used to have a finger piercing, which I recently retired.
“I currently have 44 piercings, including five stretched holes, and only 14 tattoos.
“I’ve spent a couple thousand on my body mods in total and I do my own piercings often.
“It’s nearly impossible to keep track on the pain levels but I have a very high pain tolerance.
“And I’m not scared of pain, needles or blood.
“The pain of stretching your septum is something I would call intense.
“That pain is different from the sorts of pain that I’ve experienced.
“When doing my nasallang piercings, I expected unimaginable pain, but that didn’t actually turn out as bad.”
Adrianna has no plans to stop getting pierced, no matter what the haters say.
She added: “I definitely want more ear piercings.
“I’d also love to get my whole body covered in tattoos, maybe one day I’ll start working on my dream.”
After sharing clips of her piercings online, people were quick to criticise her appearance, with some pointing out that the piercings were infected and warned Adrianna to remove them.
One person said: “Girl some of those are rejecting.”
Someone else said: “As a professional piercer, this is absolutely horrifying.”
A third person added: “OK, I can’t tell if it’s a joke because half of them are inflamed.”
Another person said: “And they’re all rejecting, congrats.”
A fifth viewer added: “Some of them are infected too.”
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