Every year, millions of people undergo different kinds of body modification such as nose jobs, breast augmentations,tattoos or piercings.

Nose job and breast augmentation are acceptable in society. However, extreme body modification is unacceptable in society. Have you ever thought about undergoing extreme body modification or if you have, what would people think about you and what would be their attitude towards you? The answer is usually negative. Society has a negative persspective of people who have extreme body modification for two reasons. To begin with, social norms which are the rules that a group uses for appropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors is one reason why people view extreme body modification negatively. Firstly, some forms of body modification are associated with gangs, prisoners and criminals. For example, there is a Japanese mafia which is called Yakuza. According to BMEzine Encyclopedia, its members are taken place in crime, sex clubs, and gambling. BMEzine Encyclopedia mentions the Yakuzas connection to tattoos as Yakuzas respected members should be heavily tattooed because of tattoos being a sign of strenght and affiliation. Because of Yakuzas being heavily tattooed, any heavily tattoed Japanese person is considered as Yakuza and having tattoes in Japan will associate you with a rude congregation and it might cause your being cast away some hotels and bars. Another example of this is Hells Angels Motorcycle Club which is the most famous motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate and whose members are involved in violence, drug dealing, trafficcing in stolen goods, and extortion according to official website of Hells Angels. All members of Hells Angels have very big and hyperbolic tottoos. These kinds of mafias and gang clubs lead societies to associate extreme body modification with gangs, prisoners, and criminals. Secondly, it is thought that people who have undergone body modification are useless in society. For example, there is a man who is called The Leopard Man. He was considered by the Guiness Book of World Records as the worlds most tattoed man. People and kids hated from him when he modified his

body by spending more than 5000 pounds. In addition to this example, there is a woman whose name is Elaine Davidson. She has the appellation of the most pierced woman with 6005 piercings in 2009. People think these people are crazy and they are useless in society. As a result, social norms make people think about extreme body modification negatively. Just as social norms is a reason why people view extreme body modification negatively, religious beliefs also influence peoples thoughts about extreme body modification negatively. Firstly, some kinds of extreme body modifications are forbidden in Christianity. In Leviticus which is a verse in bible, God said Do not cut your bodies for dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. It means Christianity rejects extreme body modification. Secondly, like christianity, Islam also bans extreme body modification. In Buhari Tb 26 which is a hadith book, this ban is mentioned as Prophet Mohammed banned the tattoos. Similarly, in Sahih-i Muslim which is a hadith book written by imam Muslim, Damn the people who have tattoos or do tattoos. According to Koran, God is good and he loves beauty but this beauty means dress up and make up not change the god-given body. People who have extreme body modification represent the evil in Islam. Therefore, extreme body modification should not be done according to Cristianity and Islam so people deny extreme body modification and have negative perspective of it. In conclusion, society has a negative perspective of people who have extreme body modification because of social norms and religious beliefs. While thinking about increasing number of people who have undergone extreme body modification, negative attitude of society towards these people is in a painful situatian. Therefore, in order to prevent this situation, sociologists should do some researches and share the results and solutions of these researches with the society because if society understands these people and the reasons behind extreme body modification, this negative perspective may dissappear.