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Danielle Boyington-Warmack December 19, 2013 English 114 Collin Ludlow-Mattson The Culture of Modern Body Modification Body modification has been in practice for thousands of years in many places around the world. In the 10th and 11th centuries in China, foot binding (the bondage of feet to make them smaller) became popular amongst women of higher classes. Tattooing has also long been part of Asian culture. Lip gauging with ceramic plates has been practiced by Amazonian and African cultures for years. Historically, most habitual forms of body modification practice circulate around goals for social class advancement, acceptance, beauty, and sometimes longing for uniqueness. But what exactly can be considered body modification? you might ask. The simple answer, Ive determined from Wikipedia, is that it is the purposeful manipulation of the human body. Body modification comes in many forms, some of which are hardly recognized by the society the modern world. We know of tattoos and piercings as the average form of modification- one that is widely and generally acknowledged and generally accepted. What most people dont know, is that something as simple as cutting your hair or your fingernails is a technically a form of body modification. Piercing your two year old childs ears- body modification. But compare cutting your nails, or circumcision

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(removing skin of the penis at an early age) to silicone body parts, nostril gauging, and tongue splitting; the lines which separate acceptable and odd or outrageous body modification only widens. That in itself is A-Okay; the world is evolving at a fast pace, and accept for the beauty of difference and uniqueness only grows. Everyone you know is practicing or has practiced some form of body modification in their life, but what forms of body modification (which I will now refer to as body mod) separate the unique from the normal and why? Flash forward to Thanksgiving break of my freshman year of college. Id called up the only two people Id willingly hang out with, who still found themselves stuck on campus with everyone going home for the holiday and such. We took the bus down to Haight Street on what seemed to be the first hot day in San Francisco in months. We quickly found the tattoo and piercing shop which I had been recommended by some coworkers and the woman at the front desk had me signed up and seated within five minutes. As I sat on the cushioned customer chair I considered the different types of body mods I had committed to my body throughout my entire life. I looked down to my Chuck Taylor Converse shoe and remembered the four-plus hours pain Id suffered for an at-home stick n poke tribute tattoo done by a friend. It was fading fast with its thin and shallow lines, but it was clean and neat, so I appreciated my friends artwork immensely- especially because it was free! As the piercer in my current situation grabbed my nose and swabbed my septum with disinfectant, I thought about the rest of the body mod I had faced. Ive had my ears pierced since I was about four. At this time in my life as I write this, I am eighteen years old and have no recollection of the pain I felt getting my ears pierced. About a year ago my cool mom stuck the stem of an asparagus into my left nostril and pierced my nose with a

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disinfected sewing needle. Not long after that feat, I started gauging my ears. Although I let them shrink back to their original size, I eventually found another way to sate my odd craving for body mod. I grabbed my friends hand as the guy stuck the needle through my nose and interestingly enjoyed the sharp pain that pulsed through my nose. I considered what this piercing meant to me, why I got it, and what it meant to the rest of the body modification society, and how others would view me. In modern America, especially in San Francisco, California, many people have some form of body modification that can be seen walking up and down the streets. Most of these modifications are piercings, gauged body parts, tattoos and scarification; Ive noticed that in this day and age in San Francisco, people are a lot less likely to be afraid to have their body modification visible to the average eye. In this day and age, most people dont generally alter their bodies for custom, or to show their class and wealth. So why do we do it? Why do thousands of people of all ages, shapes, sizes, races, endure pain for the sake of having their body, essentially, decorated? Disregard the imposed physical similarities of these people, and I wanted to figure out the qualities of these people that brought them to do the same things. Is it just a modern fad, which separates us from previous generations? I dont know. So with my current situation of a tattoo and a septum piercing, I sought out to find out some answers. I didnt need to look very far, living in the wonderful city of San Francisco. At the time I could already list a few friends at the top of my head that had tattoos, piercings, and other body modifications. So my first step was to talk to them. I put out a mini-advertisement on Facebook asking if people were interested in being interviewed for this very I-Search

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project. I received many responses, and quickly put together a short but detailed list of questions. I unfortunately committed my own fallacy within my research. I am a very passionate person when it comes to art, and so my immediate response was to choose of the responders those who had artful souls- my friends who danced, painted, sang, played music, rapped, etc. I didnt stop to think about the others- there were people within the list whose tattoos might have had meaning, but who to me seemed to have gotten a tattoo for the sake of getting a tattoo. There was a person on the list of responses who I only knew as a person of destruction, and whose outward appearance was priority. I chose not to work with him for my own sake, but also because I felt as though his answers would have been jaded- either to impress me, or to come off as something he wasnt. Needless to say, my information on the subject had been limited, but I still loved what I heard in response. I first wanted to know from my interviewees what they had received. One of my good friends, Cory, has his chakras tattooed in beautiful colors along the spin on his back. When hanging out with friends, someone always managed to get his shirt off in order to show everyone the artwork on his back, so I had seen them before. In all honesty and fact, his tattoos have inspired an upcoming tattoo for me (a silhouette oak tree tramp stamp- to symbolize my highly developed earth chakra). He informed me that after meditation and energy had become a part of his life style, he had gotten the tattoos done about a year ago in San Diego. They were to serve as a physical reminder and representation of his chosen path in life. I could have easily confirmed that; he meditates every day and I myself once witnessed him climb a massive sloping cliff at the beach simply to sit and meditate for a while. One of the most important questions I asked him, and the basis of my I-Search project, was to represent the body modification community in one sentence. He told me

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simply and quickly: everlasting art on the physical form. I, of course, reveled in this description for some time. In all normality and sense, that is exactly what it is. But I also considered that not only was it a tattoo artists work on someone elses body, but it was some quality of a person, transmitted to an art form on their body. I easily decided it was wholly applicable to what body modification meant to me. Another friend of mine had come to a similar agreement. Josh, whose tattoos I can already picture off the top of my head; black and white shaded old time ship over raging waters inked into the skin of his left bicep. He has had snake-bite lip rings since before I knew him and very large, but healthy gauged ears. My first observation upon putting his body mod into consideration was that he was incapable of bringing his body to a similar if not exact original state. At this point, his ears will never shrink down to their original size, and he will always have loose skin hanging from them. His tattoo, even if surgically removed, will probably never fade completely. Hell probably have noticeable holes under his lips for quite a while if he ever choses to take them out. He voiced to me that he understood his chances at a higher-up business job, or being taken seriously diminished when he began his body modification. He knew that his body might never return to its original state, but that he hoped that one day the people around him wouldnt judge him by the ring in his lip or how large his earlobes were. He hoped people would realize how shallow and petty their judgment was, and that they would simply categorize him by his character. When I asked why he got them, he told me it was his form of self-expression- I could not think of a better or more justified answer. Even after years of knowing Josh, when I look at him, his still- and possibly always will- seem slightly mysterious, as if there is something about him that I will never know. Although I have yet to ask of his trials and tribulations of life, I know that he

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has always had to deal with self-esteem and detrimental views of life. I know that his self of expression is an outlet of his struggle with life. He, like Cory, mentioned an art form when I asked them about the body modification community. Id finally received another response after a few weeks of posting the Facebook research advertisement. My responders name was Tansy, and she was an old friend of my father who had taken good care of me every now and then as a child. I was extremely happy to hear from her. She is a sweet, liberal, and very warm hearted woman, so talking to her felt very easy going. She told me she had several tattoos on her body, most of which were done in her early teenage years, and one of a floral design on her back done more recently. She also had many piercings done throughout her life but decided on keeping only several ear piercings (no gauges). She regrets most of the tattoos done when she was young, and has removed several of them since, but greatly appreciates the beauty of the lilies that flow along the left side of her back. She says shes always received comments on her body modifications- some of them were harsh, like a Frankenstein comment she received on a surface bar across her neck. Some of them are compliments. Regardless, she appreciates what she has, and understands the consequences of her younger and more reckless tattooing days. Interestingly enough, her floral piece did not have any symbolic representation- like my other friends did. She said she thought it would be beautiful, and had always wanted flowers adorned on her body. She evidently said that the tattoo culture was rich in culture and self-expression! I sat for a while, and thought about why I received some of the body modifications I inspired to get, and considered the ones in the future. My septum piercing I got because I

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thought it would look good and align my face- while others think I look like a bull, I appreciate the beauty. Im planning on getting more piercings done on my ears, again, simply because I think they will look beautiful. My good ole stick n poke tattoo of Kokopelli (Native American fertility deity) on my foot was a tribute. It has, and always will be the most significant tattoo on my body. I had, about a year ago, had aborted a child who within month quickly physically altered my body, and who I had no other instinct but to love dearly. I keep this tattoo as a reminder to myself, and so it does represent one of the hardest struggles of my life. This is why I understand Cory and Josh in their self-expressiontheir tattoos mean something to them. Although I feel this way, I also understand Tansy, and her desire to modify her body for personal beauty. So I pulled all of these ideas together, sat with them over a cup of coffee at my on-campus dining facility, and thought up my answers. Here is what Ive come to find. America is a melting pot, coined simply. We are the current mixture of hundreds of different cultures; be that food, people, music, mannerisms, family ideals, morals, etc. Because of this enormous mixture of culture, we also have a plethora of different types of modification from different cultures being used today. Weve got earlobe stretching, practiced by cultures in Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas since ancient civilizations walked this earth. In historic Asia, even facial tattooing was prevalent. These days weve incorporated the historic customs of many cultures from across the world into our lifestyle. These cultures used body modification as influences of beauty, power, and uniqueness; and that is what we are doing today. We are a mixture of cultures; we are walking, breathing exhibits of art in our everyday life. Weve come to a deeper reason behind body modification. Although some of us still pierce our ears, cut or dye our

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hair to fit in with trends and society, many do not follow that path. Many of us, despite outward influence, get our piercings and tattoos because we want to visualize and expel our soul ideas of what we personally find to be beautiful. Fuck what everyone else things; if I like the way I look with my septum piercing, then I would be mistaken not to get it. Many of us use tattoos to keep ourselves reminded of memories, of influential people, quotes, pictures and times in our lives. Some of us use tattoos to serves as representations of our lifestyle choices, and that is the beauty of the body modification culture. Some people express themselves through music, sports, visual arts, singing, writing, etc. Some of us dont have those talents, and so we chose to use body modification to express many things that others cannot- simply because of their jaded ideas of body modification. We dont undermine ourselves with societal norms and regulations. We express, and we do it through bodily art form, and isnt that beautiful?