MARK MY WORD: SAFETY-PIN FASHION RAISES EYEBROWS OF PARENTS, SCHOOLS

Safety pins used to hold diapers together. Now they're piercing eyebrows.

It's enough to drive parents crazy or at least make them want to ban all sharp objects from their homes.

Teen-agers also are putting diamond studs, gold hoops and other foreign objects in their eyebrows, belly buttons, noses and even tongues.

When I was growing up in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, the mini-skirt was a serious fashion concern to school principals. One of my high school teachers used to prowl the halls with a yardstick. She regularly stopped girls in the hallway to check the length of their skirts. Short-short skirts weren't welcome.

But I don't recall any serious thought about safety pins. Sure, mom had them around the house, but I never once thought they'd replace the mini-skirt as a fashion statement.

When I was in high school, no one thought about wearing saggy, baggy blue jeans either.

The guys didn't want grease in their hair. That fashion style was stuck in the '50s along with white socks.

Joni once got into trouble in junior high school in the St. Louis suburb of Hazelwood for wearing pants to school in the dead of winter. Girls weren't allowed to wear pants to school unless it was 17 degrees or colder outside.

She was sent to the principal's office, but fortunately common sense prevailed and an assistant principal sent her back to class.

Such were the school rules in 1970. It was a time when the dress-code police at Joni's junior high school slapped Band-Aids over exposed belly buttons when girls wore short tops and hip-hugger jeans to class.

It's hard to imagine what the new millenium holds in terms of teen fashion. What will my children be wearing in 2010? Will it meet the dress code? Will there even be a dress code?

Joni and I already are amazed at some of the clothing choices our children make.

Three-year-old Bailey is constantly in a state of undress in our home. She changes clothes more often than a runway model.

She considers herself fully dressed if she's wearing her sister's high-heeled church shoes and a pink hat. Clothes are optional.

She quickly discarded her Winnie the Pooh nightgown Saturday morning in favor of her light green, Tinker Bell outfit. She also likes to dress up like a witch. She and her 6-year-old sister, Becca, have a ton of dress-up clothes. A number of them are recycled Halloween costumes.

Becca loves to wear her bell-bottom jeans. Actually, she prefers one pair in particular, which she wants to wear constantly. She also has a few velvet-like and sparkling party dresses that she likes to wear to school.

Becca has pierced ears, but that's the only thing that's pierced on her body. Bailey says she wants to get her ears pierced too.

Fortunately, neither girl shows any interest in piercing their noses or belly buttons.

At this age, both girls view painted toenails as the ultimate fashion statement.

Becca also has a love affair with lipstick. The only problem is she tends to apply it with all the subtlety of a house painter.

Bailey still sees lipstick as more of a writing utensil than a fashion accessory.

Both girls like to play Barbie Magic Hair Styler. It's a computer game that allows you to be the hairdresser without ever setting foot in beauty school. You decide whether to cut Barbie's hair or make it longer, and apply everything from makeup to earrings on her with a move of the mouse.

The great thing about this kind of hair styling is that you can skip the shampoo and rinse.

So far, Barbie hasn't embraced body piercing. But she has expressed an interest in tattoos.

I recently saw a TV commercial for a new Barbie doll that comes with stick-on tattoos. Can body piercing accessories be far behind? Will Ken come with a ring in his nose?

If that happens, we'll all need extra safety pins.

~Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.