#external photos

[catalternate]

Our Father, who art in Heaven; Hallowed be Thy name…

(Church Photos)

[stars-and-branches]

get microwaved idiot

[rockethorse]

The basegame wedding dress has a pregnancy morph??

[desktoparchive]

[jimin-bangtan]

Jimin's Thorns & Studs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have wondered for a while about Jimin’s photocards for his album, FACE. In particular, I wondered about the thorns & studs pictures.  I wanted to know the difference between the thorns and the studs and finally came up with a theory of my own.  

THORNS

I have decided that the thorns are on places where Jimin was injured and/or where pain was or is associated with those parts. The thorns going down the left side of his neck are what convinced me of this conclusion. We know that Jimin has chronic, and sometimes severe, neck pain.  It is so severe that he has missed (a surprisingly few number of) performances and has even sought hospital care. He also has received shots, and we have seen him wearing kinesiology tape or pain-relieving patches.

If you pay careful attention, there are many times where Jimin is in interviews or activities where he briefly touches, massages, or presses on his neck, as if it’s a casual gesture, but when I actually feel his neck is bothering him.  When you begin to notice it, it is surprisingly often and has been occurring over a very long period of time. It’s either an unconscious gesture or he’s become a pro at making his reaction to his discomfort less noticeable or more natural.

Thorns are also on his left eyebrow and left ear. I don��t know anything about the eyebrow other than it is on the side where he has a smaller eye. Yes, his left eye is slightly smaller (often on the right side of a photo). The difference between his eyes seems more pronounced when he’s tired. (Keep in mind some photos or Lives are mirrored images.) To me, his imperfections, however, make him more beautiful, not less. I don't know why the eye is smaller, but Jimin chose to acknowledge it along with all of the other vulnerabilities he was courageous enough to reveal. I'll say more about that when I address the studs.

The ear issue, I suspect, may have been from when BTS was filming the Run music video and JHope & others hit the side of Jimin’s head with a pillow during the filmed pillow fights. I can’t locate the behind the scenes footage from this video shoot where I saw JM lightly remark that he used to have an earring in his ear, suggesting it had been torn out while filming one of the pillow scenes. It’s possible an injury occurred then or at a later time, injuring his ear rim.  He stopped wearing that top lobe earring for some reason, but his ear appears repaired or okay now. It may have been painful when it first happened, which explains why thorns were used. 

STUDS

The studs, I believe, may represent things that have caused him some distress or have been problems to him. They also could be things that aren’t painful but that he was born with and were not necessarily caused by injury.  

The 3rd picture at the top shows Jimin wearing the studs but also a lip ring. Since it likely would have been awkward to put a stud on his lip, I believe they possibly used the ring for the same purpose as the studs. Jimin’s natural and attractive lips should not have been a problem, but I do feel they have caused complications for him, where people describe him or call him nicknames based on his lips, often intending to be affectionate or cute, but could possibly be an issue to someone with insecurities and who has a feature that is more pronounced and noticeable than most others around him. He also has had shadows created by incorrect lighting for his top lip that has caused him problems on Lives and in non professional photos. He has even had makeup artists do strange things to minimize (or maybe enhance) the normal appearance of his lips. 

There are better instances showing the shadows but these are the best I could find at the moment.

Jimin also has studs around his smaller left eye, which could be a minor birth defect or from an infant injury (that I vaguely recall him speaking about but can’t locate the documentation).  There is a larger stud on that same eye, which could imply that there might have been an injury too - or it is possibly minorly painful at times. There is a stud on his other eyebrow too, but I don’t have any information on that issue. 

The earlier makeup artists were excellent at using skillful technique to balance his eyes or minimize attention being drawn to his smaller eye. He also often likes hair hanging down on the left side, even if it’s just a strand or two.

REFLECTION

It is worth noting that we are only seeing the front of Jimin’s face, neck, and shoulders.  It is possible there would be thorns and studs throughout his entire body, front and back, if shared. Also, worth noting is that considering the amount of pain Jimin must often experience with varying degrees of intensity, he has done exceedingly well to work through the pain more often than not and to not even complain about his circumstances. 

Another noteworthy observation is that in spite of whatever thorns and studs issues Jimin was born with or encountered, he still continued to grow and to be a decent, generous, kind, successful person.  He could have used them as excuses to be selfish, harmful, or unproductive, but I have lost count of the number of people who have interacted with him who have explained the positive impression he has left on them. Jimin continues to be a beautiful person inside and out.

Jimin’s album, FACE, was about him looking at himself and confronting all the external and internal wounds and issues that have affected him. I feel the significance or meaning of the pictures may have been overlooked by many.  Jimin revealed a lot of vulnerable information about himself and his pandemic experience through his songs, but I also feel he revealed a lot of vulnerable information in the photos connected to the album that may have been about his overall life and career as well. Set Me Free, pt2 sounded like it was about more than just pandemic pain and isolation. We should all be so reflective as to confront, if not reveal, our own thorns & studs. Cheers to Jimin for being so brave and open about his own.

[kenobihater]

i have two types of photo mode pics: jin's brief moments of respite and whimsy, or jin disembowling victim number 783 framed by an artful arterial spray

[smimon]

hello! please look at him

thank you!

hello! i am looking. i am looking INTENTLY 👀🥴🫠

thank you 🙏🧡

[mildmayfoxe]

omw to ✈️ wrasslin

[estradasphere]

God i hate Google

[imperiuswrecked]

Phone: you have no more storage left.

Me: huh.

Laptop: you have no more storage left

Me: guess I'll die then.

[ilkkawhat]

i had a dream the other night that photo mode came out, and when i woke up it hadn’t but i guess this will do

[salsflore]

[missallanea-a]

tiny life update: I bought a new laptop and, while waiting for it to arrive, my old laptop absolutely shit the bed. Mal's a lifesaver and is seeing if Best Buy can recover my hard drive but... yeah gonna be absent until this is sorted.

[astoldbychae]

Angel & Lia • Girls Night Out

[rhcenyra]

me, trying desperately to get my computer to open photoshop:

[bykremi]

Istanbul