Body Piercing Saved My Life by Andrew Beaujon and the Crazy Scene of Kids Moshing for God

Chris Sarda
Aug 26, 2017 · 4 min read

“Body piercing saved my life” was one of those clever quotes that caught people’s eye in 1999. I remember having a decal with it and the hand of Jesus with a stake through it on my back window in my late teens. The circles I ran in were rebellious, they were all about being a better person and Christian, it was that crazy. It was also about an underground form of metal, punk music and hip hop. That was my world and my friends’ world in a small suburban town in between Fresno and Bakersfield.

In today’s climate where everything is a meme and ideas burn out quickly, “Body piercing saved my life” is an oft seen and boring quote but it represented my own youth culture, it represented what I wanted to be: someone good whose life didn’t revolve around drugs and getting high and it was unafraid to highlight the violence I believed at the time was involved in the death of God. Through my nineteen year old eyes the imagery was metal and the attitude was as punk. It felt more so when regular Christians and secular metalheads found out I listened to Christian death metal like Mortification.

“Body Piercing Saved my Life” is also a book by Andrew Beaujon’s, published in 2006 a little older now, it chronicles some of that underground that was actually taking place very loudly all around us. I haven’t started the book but I was deep in the scene as a fan. My world and beliefs have changed significantly since I was 19 but I look back postively on that movement and the people around it. I was steeped more in the metal/punk/hip hop side of it all, the places where most Christians saw a dark, evil or overly rebellious secular music scene. The book is likely to drum up memories and ideas as I read it and even preparing to start it has made me think a little more about the music and the subculture that is Christianity today.

Flipping through the index and table of contents the first thing I notice is that this book won’t be explicitly the scene I was involved in. The focus will be more on the old Christian rock stars that set the stage and then the stuff that appeared on contemporary Christian radio. I enjoyed bands like Jars of Clay and Audio Adrenaline but those were concerts I went to with my church and they were put on by religious organizations. What I remember fondly is going concerts with my Christian friends to watch Christian artists who were trying to be successful in secular land as “Christians in a band” not “Christian bands”. The music was less a Third Eye Blind replacement as it was a Slayer and NOFX replacement.

It was intensely important to give new Christians replacement versions of their favorite mainstream bands. Christian record companies were just as crazy about signing the Christian Weezer and the Christian Blink 182 to feed that demand. With every altar call came a new set of kids that needed Christ centered versions of their favorite subgenres of music. I was a regular in the hard rock section of my local Christian bookstore and was once asked to make a “If you like X you’ll like Y” chart to help kids. Those never really did the secular band or the Christian band justice. Project 86 didn’t really sound like Rage Against the Machine at all, but hearts were in the right place. Entire essays could be written on the benefits and disadvantages to linking two bands that have nothing to do with one another in order to recruit someone into the subculture or keep them once they made the initial step to become Christian.

I still listen to all of the Tooth and Nail and Solid State bands and still consider them some of my favorites (my email to this day inspired by Blindside the Swedish Christian hard rock band, if you like Deftones you’ll like…) I’ve moved away from the belief system and the scene. I’ve become more of a total music experiencer and historian from my armchair. But it existed in my head and heart and I’m sure Andrew Beaujon’s “Body Piercing Saved My Life” will spark up a lot of the thoughts and ideas that have been brooding in this head and heart for over a decade.

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Chris Sarda

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Music Newsletter: http://tinyletter.com/notpartofyourscene Anti-niche: I tweet about languages, sports, finance, music and all kinds of absurd human things

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