There's an Alien Living in Barcelona
This body modification enthusiast and simple living have a lot in common
Apparently, I should be scared.
Not only am I living in one of Barcelona’s dodgiest neighbourhoods, but I also share that neighbourhood with the ‘Black Alien.’ A dude who has undergone extreme body modification to literally look like an alien, lumpy head, forked tongue and all.
I heard about this guy last week at a digital nomad meet-up. I thought it might be fun to meet some new people whilst I spend the next month doing my Barcelona thing.
Things started to go downhill when I mentioned I was living in the Raval. This is Barcelona’s immigrant quarter, filled with small ethnic food stores, old, dark winding streets and the best shwarma takeout you’ll find in the city.
I love it, I’ve always loved it and have spent a lot of time here. But it has a reputation. Its red light district, one block across from my apartment, does the area no favours.
As the group heard I was living in the Raval, someone piped up, “that’s where the Black Alien lives!”
“I heard he cut off his own ears and nose and wants to cut 2 of his fingers off next.”
‘‘Yeah he seems super dangerous, he stalks the streets at night.”
“I’m terrified of him! I saw him the other day and crossed the street.”
They showed me some pictures. And yes, there is indeed a guy who lives here who has no ears, no lips, no nose, is almost completely tattooed in black (including his eyeballs) and has lumpy implants in his head.
So I did what any self-respecting Millennial would do and joined half a million other followers on his Black Alien Project Instagram page and did a bit of digging. I wasn’t about to take what these expats told me at face value, I wanted to make my own mind up.
As I suspected, he’s actually not that scary. He’s just a vegan, French, extreme body modification enthusiast who loves his mumma and enjoys shitting people up by roaming Barcelona’s streets after dark.
People are scared of the Black Alien because he’s chosen a very different path to the norm and has gone against what society tells him he should look like. And it’s all too easy to take the whole thing at face value and assume he’s a mentally unwell person that gets trigger happy with a knife and bits of his own body.
If I hadn’t done my own research and happened to bump into him at 2am, then I too may have been terrified. But as it is, his Instagram is much more about his daily gym habit and protein shakes than it is about sacrificing expats.
Just because something looks scary and different doesn’t mean it is. And yeah, that’s my segue into simple living.
Simple living is about questioning how we’re told we should live
The average household has 300,000 items and you’re saying you want to live with less?
The average size of a house has tripled in the last 50 years and you want to live in a one bedroom apartment?
The average British child owns 238 toys but only plays with 12 and you’re telling me you want them to operate a one in, one out policy?
Then you, my friend are as apparently cuckoo as the Black Alien.
We’re told to live a certain way, but that way is broken. We’re sleepy, stressed and skint because we’re trying to keep up with the Joneses. We’re trying to secure a bigger and better future filled with the next upgrade, the larger house, the fancier car, all in the pursuit of happiness.
But the opposite - living a simple life with less - to many people is an even scarier prospect than overdoing it with the credit card this weekend.
Until you start to question it.
Question whether you’re finding contentment and meaning in your stuff.
Question whether the society has our best interests at heart, or is it more concerned with the interests of big business?
Question if living in a smaller abode, or driving a cheaper car will suck the life out of you, or are the payments on the mortgage and car loan already doing that for you?
Once you start to question what you’re told over the course of your life - that bigger is better and that success is measured by status - simple living becomes far less scary a prospect.
Much like the Black Alien, once you start to dig, you may find that your assumptions about the lifestyle are completely wrong.
It’s very easy to sleepwalk through life, never thinking too much about what we’re told to think, how to act, how to live. Questioning this is the first - and most important - step towards crafting a new way of living, one that is filled with all the good stuff, like connections, meaning and dare I even say a little smidge of happiness.
After all, if it’s not working for you, why insist on business as usual?
Simple living sticks a middle finger up towards broken societal norms. It means living with intention and on your own terms, regardless of what you’re supposed to do. Much like the Black Alien does.
I’ve not seen him in the flesh just yet. But if I do, instead of avoiding, I’m going to look him square in his black eyes, ask him how his mum is and see if he fancies a gym sesh.
Thanks for reading! If you’re not yet following me on Medium, get over there for more stories about simple living, careers and entrepreneurship and personal finance, all in the pursuit of living life on your own terms.
I’d love to hear from you. Tell me what you want to hear from me, ask me a question or tell me a story at charlotte.emma.brown@gmail.com.
Finally, if you want to procrastinate a while longer, check out my best performing story of last week, I Was a Sommelier for 8 Years. Here’s What We Really Think of You.
Until next time, adios!