019: Bodyhacking

Body modification has many forms and facets. On the simplest level, make-up and pierced ears, to tattoos, piercings, scars, spikes and studs, and then to things that make me squirm to think about them. (As if the other stuff doesn't.) This is not the thing I would normally write about... but Wired Magazine has an online column devoted to biotechnology called "Bodyhack". Naturally, this term hacked its way into a different corner of my brain, the one that recalls conversations with people regarding who would be the first of us to get WiFi implants when they become available. And I started to wonder how far it could go. Because there's no question that it will.

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Bodyhacking
Words and Music © 2006 by Tom Smith
Released under a Creative Commons Noncommercial ShareAlike License


My body is a temple I'm rebuilding
I need to do some work on my facade
These changes are like prayers, I'll get a lot of stares,
And With every step I'm closer to god

I started with a tattoo and two piercings,
A dragon and my lower lip and tongue
I'd often heard it said that would make me good in bed
Turns out it matters more which way I've swung

I've got to change,
But not how mother wants of me,
I'll rearrange
It's just a bodyhack
It's not so strange,
It's just like plastic surgery
taken to extremes,
And all my hopes and dreams
Are looking in the mirror
Hoping I'll be looking back

I got some eyebrow spikes and other implants,
Some talons for my fingernails and feet
Telescoping bones, new skin with crimson tones,
The scars across my back draw a Magritte

The catalog from slashdot helped immensely
My eyes are different colors for each mood,
I hear my own heart pound in 5.1 surround,
As of next week I'll no longer need food

I've got to change,
But not how mother wants of me,
I'll rearrange
It's just a bodyhack
It's not so strange,
It's just like plastic surgery
Taken to extremes,
And all my hopes and dreams
Are looking in the mirror
Hoping I'll be looking back

I'm sure there was a version of me that I liked at one point
But I know... I don't know
I barely can recall those days before my tungsten ball joints,
That was so... long ago
And some would cast aspersions but they miss the bigger picture
They can't see... A to Z
These nanobots and waldoes may seem ancillary fixtures
But I'll be... soon set free

The other day I ran into an old friend
she said she hardly recognized me now
I killed her where she stood, it was for the greater good,
Sometimes when you change, you don't want folks asking how

I've heard some say you should find god within you
And I know now evolution's not the key
But intelligent design, the intelligence was mine,
And I'm wondering what kind of god I'll be

I've got to change,
But not how others want of me,
I'll rearrange
It's just a bodyhack
It's not so strange,
It's just like plastic surgery
Taken to extremes,
And all my hopes and dreams
Are looking in the mirror
Hoping I'll be looking back