Deviance essay example

I once witnessed deviance in a society where tattooing was forbidden. This was a story of a young man who was influenced in the practice by his peers. He was living in a conservative society where his parents brought him up to be a pious man. The strong foundation that had been established in his life could have been an assurance that their boy will never be influenced into deviant acts. They never took time to tell him some of the practices prohibited in his society and mainly thought they will be automatic to him. This changed when he got an opportunity to advance his studies. He got into a circle of friends that thought having tattoos was cool. Even though he never saw such a thing in his family, he thought it was harmless as it defined him less. He thought having a tattoo is the same us having a new cloth which will only change physical appearance and not character. He knew of people who put on tattoos to signify they belonged to a particular group, but to him, it was just for fun. With such an attitude, he decided to have one and really felt great about it.

He was surprised when he came home for holidays and his parents organized for a private counselor for him. Surprisingly, he had no idea of what all this was and the truth dawned on him when the counselor introduced himself and why his parents had requested him to talk to him. He had noticed a change in the attitude of his parents towards him when he came back home but never bothered to find out why. According to them and the counselor, their son had joined a cult, which was signified by the tattoo on his body. The counselor was to advise their son and most probably convince him to disown the cult. This would be facilitated even if it meant that he joined a different institution. The young man was shocked and even found it difficult convincing him that it was a harmless mark that he put for fun. It had never hit him this hard that his parents and the society in general actually associated tattoos with occult.