Brave New World: Western Tattoo and Piercing

Unlike Tribal culture, tattoos and piercings aren't a way of celebrating new achievements or life goals unless this is the persons personal reasoning. In the African tribes, it is forced upon them as a right of passage and they wouldn't agree to if there was the choice, so it's strange that Western culture has taken these methods from them and people willing inflict these methods upon themselves.

We are constantly pushing the boundaries and actually have more known piercings than that of the original origins. Stretching has also become very popular among the younger generations, some taking it to extremes and causing themselves many problems by doing so, including ripping their flesh and snapping earlobes. Mostly people use excessive piercings as a way to rebel against society or be more individual, spending into the hundreds to achieve it.

Perhaps more popular than excessive piercings is tattooing, some people spending a couple of hundred just to get one piece. We are in the generation which tattooing has become a normal accessory, a lot of people even just having one small one in a hidden away place. There are a lot of careless people who forget a tattoo is a permanent marking and have come to regret the work done; such as a name or something they had done on a whim, whereas others have tattoos which others find are too much but the owner loves and doesn't regret having done even in old age. Tattoos are very personal and even if the person says they have no meaning behind their tattoo, it reflects who they are and what they are interested in and find beautiful.

I think it could be very interesting to include tattooing in my project, creating a character behind the marking on the skin and creating a story through body art.


Reference:
Housk Randall and Ted Polhemus (2000) The Customized Body. Serpent's Tail. Italy.
Arnold Rubin (1995) Marks of Civilization: Artistic Transformations of the Human Body. Regents of the University of California. Singapore.
Karl Groning (2001) Decorated Skin: A World Survey of Body Art. Thames and Hudson. Germany.
Rufus C.Camphausen (1997) Return of the Tribal: A Celebration of Body Adornment. Park Street Press, Rochester, Vermont. India.