Body Art
Tattooing can be found the world over, though its
style and its meaning vary dramatically. Tattooing has long featured in the
cultures of the Japanese, Polynesians and Native Americans. The practices of
the Maoris of New Zealand provide a striking example of tattooing. They are
well known for the elaborate patterns with which they traditionally decorated
their faces. Integration with white settlers led to a decline in the custom,
but it is now regaining popularity amongst young Maoris.
Native American Indians are known to have pierced the
lower lip, and today this practice is found in tribes across Africa and South
America. A long cane is often pushed through the skin around the mouth or nose as
decoration. The Sara tribe of central Africa, for example, traditionally pierce
and then stretch their lips with saucer-like disks. Nose piercing is as common in India, South America and Africa,
as is ear piercing. In some societies, a piercing though the ear lobe is
gradually stretched to create a visible hole. This is more and more common in
the West.
In non-Western cultures, tattooing and piercing have
recently declined, as these societies try tp “catch up” with the West. On the
contrary, in the West their popularity is ever increasing. Until recently, body
art in our culture was mainly found on groups such as sailors and convicts, of
those wanting to rebel against society, like the punks of the 1970s. Over the
last decade body art has moved into the mainstream and it is increasingly
socially acceptable.
Just about every part of the body can be pierced or
tattooed. In the West, facial piercings are popular (especially through the
eyebrow, lip and tongue), as are navel piercings. David Beckhem, the famous
British footballer recently sparked craze for tattoos in foreign languages when
he had his wife’s name, Victoria, tattooed on his forearm in Hindi. Polynesian-
style tattoos of large swirling blocks of color are currently fashionable with
men, while women still tend to favor smaller, less visible tattoos.
People use body art for a range of reasons. In the
past tattoos have been used as a mark of social status, to ward off demons and
ill health. They have also been used as
a means of identifying and punishing convicts, slaves and outcasts. However,
these days mast people use body art simply as decoration.
As tattooing and piercing become increasingly common
however, some people are resorting to more extreme methods of body modification
to stand out from the crowd. “Body branding”, for example, is a dramatic (and
dangerous) practice which is gaining in popularity. It involves searing the
skin with red-hot metal, in some shape or pattern, to leave a permanent scar.
Implanting is another extreme way in which people
alter their body’s appearance. Somewhat similar to body piercing, it involves
the painful insertion of metal objects under the skin. One example of
implanting is the insertion of horn shaped objects under the skin of the
forehead, giving a “devil-like’ appearance.
It seems unlikely that branding and implanting will
ever become as popular as tattooing and piercing. But fifty years ago, who
would have thought that businessmen would go to work hiding pierced nipples
under their suits, or that kids would be asking their parents for tattoos for
their sixteen birthdays. Whether branding or implanting will become popular or
not, one thing is certain – body art, in one form or another, is here to stay.
