Body Mod and tattoos, art or not?
From Mod Mania
Body modification and especially tattoos are well known and are becoming more and more popular in the society. In order to get these modifications there is a need to go through procedures that, in all of them, it creates horrible pain, sometimes even life threatening situations, or even bring discrimination from other peoples that do not like it because they misunderstand the value behind it. But then, why people still get their bodies modified? There is always a reason and different methods to express or represent that particular meaning, but maybe for them with the feeling of pain and the permanently mark is the best way to express themselves or even help them to create group identification, since different types of body modifications is prefer more in one country than others
Body modification has long started in history, practiced for thousands years ago and all of them have all sorts of reasons and thinking or even purposes in getting it done. Could be spiritual and decorative, for identification, cosmetic, group identification or as simple as an art of self- expression and beauty, or even in some particular cases, could be as bizarre as the pleasure of feeling the pain Amongst the spiritual and decorative modifications purposes and unique as group we can find in the tattoos of the Māori, indigenous Polynesian, people from New Zealand. They have considered these tattoos, called Tā moko, as a sacred art in which the prevalent place to be tattooed is the face. The first tattoos marks were done in order to celebrate the transition from childhood to adolescence, where both men and woman are tattooed but in different placements (men were allowed to tattoo in their whole face where women were only allow to be done in their chins, lips and sometimes the nostrils). The process is done in a ritual with music, a ritual that engraves the history of the person’s achievement and also the status of the person within the tribe, so they will remember their own responsibility in life. Although this style of tattooing once lost its popularity, nowadays it has revived not in the ritual sense, but in the tattoo designs itself, thus is used more in a decorative meaning.
Mentioned about body modification as a decorative meaning it is also important to talk about the modification as an art or self- expression in which nowadays a lot of people modified for that simple reason. One of the example people uses to modify their bodies as an art or self- expressions is body implants. Body implants are done by placing an object, often materials such as titanium, soft solid silicone, Teflon or sometimes stainless steel, and then create a 3-D design under the skin. Steve Haworth is the pioneer and expert of this 3-D body modification and he refers that people who choses to get their bodies modified often the reason is to express their extreme individualism. Before when people modified their body with this technique or any other methods stood alone but now they stand as a group.
In these body modification groups we can actually identify the different sub-groups which they stand for by just looking at their preferences in how to modify their body, particularly the graphic in tattoos designs. For example: in punks to gay communities or even environmentalists they often tattoo the Anarchy symbol (letter ‘A’ within a circle) to represent the fringe of the society towards them; marines or navy people often chose to tattoo the Anchor to represent the steadfastness, that they are not going to be dragged no matter what happens; for chinese and japanese people often get their bodies tattooed with graphics that is related to ‘fung sui’ such as dragons, phoenix, Koi fish, or any other mythical illustrations, thus giving them prosperity and luck.
Although most of the people get their bodies modified for special and meaningful reasons, getting body modification is often criticized in a negative point of view, maybe because of the way that is done or the pass meaning behind it has deeply penetrate to modern culture peoples minds. A considerable example which nowadays is still threatening the society is the tattoo done by the Yakuza gang (Japanese mafia). Is a type of tattoo in which it covers the full body back, upper arms and the chest, where the crest of their organization is also included. In the beginning Japanese who worn tattoos are those who had committed crimes and, even nowadays, they believe that people who has that type of tattoos, are affiliated with a gang, even if it is not necessary true. People who have spotted people’s shoulders with that tattoo often turn their backs and try not to get involved with them, even in bathhouses there is a notice that says they refuse service to dunks and tattooed costumers.
Another example is a type of body modification done by cutting or branding the skin called scarification tattoos. Is a painful procedure or even barbaric, originally done by Africans tribe, is nowadays gaining more popularity. People who use this method to modify their body often lead people to think that they mentally have problems, that they might need someone’s help. Personally I do not think that I will be able to accept or appreciate this type of modification because I think somehow the health issues are in great danger and is sort of scary in a way, but I guess for those who appreciates it have their own reason
So is body modification a good way to express ourselves? Is painful and might cause health issues and u might get discriminated and have difficulties in getting a job. I have a friend which tattooed his back simply with a poem and he posted a picture on his website that is commented with ‘NEVER ASK ME WHY’. It is a poem marked on his back in order to honour his father that passed away. It was through this medium that changed the way I look at this way of expressing something When I was younger all I thought was a person that has tattoos or has their body modified are different from us, that they are the ‘bad guys’, which I should never get in touch with this people. As I grew up I started to understand that is not, it does not mean that those people get their bodies modified because they want people to think that they are the people whom we should never be talking to. It is a type of art in which is expressed through body modification, where a variety of story and thinking is behind it, but in some way is important to acknowledge the types of modifications to get, that would not cause people to stereotype it negatively
Reference:
Scarification
http://freshpics.blogspot.com/2008/04/scarification-tattoos.html
http://hubpages.com/hub/Scarification-as-Body-Art
http://hubpages.com/hub/Scarification_as_Body_Art
http://wikskins.com/tattoos-with-texture-scarification-the-newest-body-modification/
http://www.articlesbase.com/culture-articles/tattoos-with-texture-scarification-the-
Implants http://www.fazeteen.com/winter2001/implants.htm http://weirdnews.about.com/od/weirdphotos/ig/Ripley-s-World-of-the-Bizarre/Extreme-Body-Modification.-27k.htm http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/extreme-body-mod-when-body-mod-goes-too-far http://www.beforeyoutattoo.com/Tattoos/Extreme-Body-Modification.html http://www.tattooculture.ro/bodymodification.htm
Yakuza http://www.tao-of-tattoos.com/yakuza.html http://quazen.com/arts/bodyart/yakuza-mark-of-the-tattoo/ http://ampontan.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/japanese-tattooos-a-serious-commitment-not-a-fashion-statement/ http://www.freetattoodesigns.org/japanese-tattoos.html
Different types of tattoo http://www.buzzle.com/articles/chinese-writing-tattoos.html http://hubpages.com/hub/Koi-Fish-Tattoo http://www.museumoftattoos.com/articles/category/tattoo-designs/page/2/
Spiritual http://tattoos-and-art.com/spiritual-tattoos?nggpage=2 http://www.tattoosymbol.com/spiritual-tattoo.html http://hubpages.com/hub/Tribal-Tattoo-Design http://www.body-jewelry-useek.com/1308-tribal-tattoo-designs.htm http://www.tattoojohnny.com/modern-tribal-tattoo-designs.asp http://tattoolifecan.com/meaning-tattoos.html
Decoration http://www.tao-of-tattoos.com/maori-tattoos.html http://bodyart.australianmuseum.net.au/tattooing/tamoko.htm http://www.freetattoodesigns.org/maori-tattoos.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C4%81_moko
