Body modification
From Mod Mania
I have read the essay, Tattoo Art (Body Modification), that student s3195033 wrote in semester one 2008. I found that interesting, so I have do more research about it. And try to find more information about different kind of tattoo art, which is also a kind of body modification.
In this essay, it will cover why people would like to modify their body. A brief introduction of body modification . Different kind of body modification in different culture. And it will end up with the future development of body modification.
There are many different kind of body modification.
The most common one that everybody know,
will properly be body piercing and tattooing.
If you don’t have any tattoo or piercing,
you may still involve in some kind of body modification, make up.
Make-up
You may not know making up is also one kind of body art,
but it is actually a good example of body modification.
Make up include removable substance- paint, powders,
dyes-applied to enhance or transform appearance.
Some makeup is meant to be seen; some is meant to be invisible.
Some said that makeup can build up one’s self confidence;
some said makeup can hightlight the contrast between men and women.
make up set
special effect makeup
(gelatin and straight make-up, sculpy teeth)
Body Painting
Another kind of body modification is body painting.
Body painting can transform a person into a spitit,
a work of art, another gender or even a map of a sacred place.
To make body paint, pigments composed of plant extracts or
mineral clays and powders can be mixed with vegetable oil or animal fat. Throughout history, the substances used for body paint have been
important trade items. Ochre, camwood, cinnabar, and kaolin were traded throughout Asia, Africa and Europe.
Henna
Henna is an important substance for body
paint. Henna is a flowering plant, it produces a red-orange dye molecule,
lawsone. Another meaning of Henna is another kind of body paint,
Henna has been used to adorn young women’s bodies as part of
social and holiday celebrations, it is a temporary skin dye
and it was widely traded in the Muslim world along with patterns
and designs used to apply it.
Henna is a cosmetic and a medicine, people use it for hair conditioning and dyeing,
skin antiseptic and tonic, and as cloth and leather dye.
Henna painting is considered a woman’s art form,
only a few male will do that. This is often to mark special
events in a woman’s life, especially marriage. They have a special,
intricate henna patterns for the bride to paint on her hands and feet.
Design of Henna vary with each culture, and even within culture.
Arabic women’s design consists of large, bold floral patterns;
Moroccan women’s design are mainly geometric, linear designs.
India women prefer painting some paisleys, vines and birds.
Muslim women do not paint figurative images due to the Islamic
prohibition on representation art. Henna has recently become
temporary tattoo, people want to test out a location and design
by first having an ephemeral henna designs.
Body Shaping
Body shaping is another form of body modification.
The shape of human body change throughout life,
but in many cultures people have found ways to permanently
or temporarily sculpt the body. Different culture have
different definition of beauty, some thinks that body full
of piercing is beauty, some may think that putting metal
inside their body is beauty.
People have bound the soft bones of children’s skulls and feet,
stretched necks with rings, removed ribs to minimize waists.
Feet bounding is a good example of body shaping.
This is a 86 years old woman in China’s southern Yunnan Province.
She unwraps one of her bound feet at her home.
Villages in China where women with bound feet survive are
increasingly rare but the millennium-old practice nevertheless
too almost four decades to eradicate after it was initially banned in 1911.
Most commonly today, people sculpted their bodies through plastic surgery. Becoming fat is a sign of health, wealth and fertility in some countries. Fattening may be part of a girl’s coming of age ceremony or a way to proclaim the high status of a ruler, either male or female. Tiny waists, small feet and large or small breasts and buttocks have been prized or scorned as ideals of female beauty. Men's bodies have also been molded by deliberate fattening, weight lifting, head binding or wearing corsets.
People usually give a bad impression about plastic surgery. When people heard of plastic surgery, they might immediately think about Hollywood film start shaping that body. Rich women trying to delay the effects of aging. But in some case, plastic surgery can also change somebody life positively. Some people relive after doing plastic surgery, which maybe a child who has a dog bit on his chin? Or a young woman who had a car crush and got scar on her face. Plastic is named from the Greek word Plastikos, which means to form or mold (it also give the material Plastic its name as well). So for plastic surgery, it does straightly mean a face full of fake stuff, it means forming something on your body. There are two main types of plastic surgery. One is Reconstructive plastic surgery, the other one is cosmetic plastic surgery. Two different type of plastic surgery gives different meaning to the patient.
Reconstructive plastic surgery correct defects on the face or the body. This include physical innate defects like cleft lips and palates and eat deformities, traumatic injuries like those from dog bites or burns, or the aftermath of disease treatments like rebuilding a woman’s breast after surgery for breast cancer. Aftermath of disease treatments make many patients lose their confidence. They can not face themselves with an ugly scar on their face or their breast being cut out. Reconstructive plastic surgery can then help them to build up their self confidence again and become a Normal person in the society again.
The other type of plastic surgery is cosmetic plastic surgery. Cosmetic plastic surgery change a part of the body that the person is not satisfied with. Common cosmetic plastic surgery include making the breast larger (augmentation mammoplasty) or smaller (reduction mammoplasty), re-shaping the nose (rhinoplasty), and removing pocket of fat from specific spots on the body (liposuction). Cosmetic plastic surgery also help people build up self confidence. But it is only base on the patient’s own satisfaction .
After all, why would people decide to get plastic surgery? There is an interesting research result about different reasons why teenager and adult getting plastic surgery. According to the report of The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), there is a difference in the reasons teens give for having plastic surgery and the reasons adults do. Teens treat plastic surgery as a way to fit in and look acceptable to friends and peers. While adults mainly treat plastic surgery as a way to stand out from the crowd. So, the intention for teens getting plastic surgery is base on peer pressure, and the intention for adults getting plastic surgery is base on their own satisfaction. Figure show that the number of teens who want to do plastic surgery is rising. According to ASPS, over 333,000 people 18 years and younger had plastic surgery in 2005, up from 306,000 in 2000. That is a quite shocking figure.
Body modification is an old practice, it roots reaching back at least 30,000 years. It had a big change from the technology to the reason why people would do this. The technology of Tattooing, Piercing had change a lot during past hundreds years. I believe it will keep on develop in the future. Maybe it will become a trend. Maybe in the future, male will be the main gender who is getting plastic surgery. I think the technology of body modification will be the element it change the most. In the future, tattooing may be operate by a machine instead of using tattoo gun and operate by hand. According to Shannon.L, genetic engineering would be the main trend of body modification in the future, a fancy piece of technology.
Body modification is a modification that would change your life. People should think twice before they do body modification. This are so many different kind of body modification all over the world, I believe it will keep developing in its own way.
Poon Hiu Sze, Elsa s3145557
Reference: - research group, 2000, Body Art, Marks of identity, American Museum of Natural History http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/bodyart/glossary.html -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henna#Cultivation_and_uses -http://funyeah.com/fun/photos/2007/Bound_Feet/ -http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/body_image/plastic_surgery.html -http://www.about-body-art.net/ -http://www.bmezine.com/news/pubring/20030202.html
