Every generation has its own extreme stunt, its thing that seems cool at the time but you grow to regret later. These things show defiance, a sense of identity; and can be as simple as hair coloring to dangerous acts of self-mutilation. But some trends need to be stopped, especially when they're not done by the youth.

Recently Mike Tyson ushered in an era of face tattooing, an act that is exactly what it sounds like. For whatever reason, Tyson allowed professionals (we assume) come only inches away from his eyes with a tattoo needle! But he's not alone, both Rau from the Mark of Kri and the main hero in Fable are sporting this painful artwork. As this trend picks up momentum, I have to wonder if there's much of a future for this kind of extreme make over. Are the kids going to be tattooing their face, and if so, will that somehow make Mike Tyson the patron saint of extreme face art?

But before we canonize Mike Tyson, perhaps we should see just how effective this form of self expression really is. Do the women go for the facial tats? Do you look cooler? Does it help you fight? Well, in the case of Mike Tyson, it certainly didn't help him make his comeback, and the Mark of Kri sold pretty poorly. And come to think of it, Fable was shunned by people angry at undelivered promises made years earlier. So looking at it from this point of view, it's hard to figure out why anybody would put their face through this amount of torture. Maybe this trend has something to do with getting hit in the head a lot, or maybe it just looks good on paper. Whatever the case, it's not recommended unless you're really drunk and you've been double dog dared.