How do you feel about tattoos and piercings? Some people frown upon tattooing and piercing their bodies. Some people don’t believe in it, because they either don’t find pleasure in getting them, or even because they have something against them. This is why in the following readings you will learn more about body modification. More deeply into the positive and negative effects body modification has on you and/or your surroundings. Body modification, or otherwise known as body mutilation, is when a person deliberately alters their human anatomy. They do this in numerous ways. But for now we are only touch upon tattoos, piercings, and plastic surgery. To start, body modifications have been around for numerous years. Ranging as far back as the Iceman era. The first evidence of it can be traced back to an iceman found in the Otzal Alps between Austria and Italy. After carbon 14 dating was done on the body, it was proven that indeed the tattoo was done before his dead nearly 5,300 years ago. That dates back long before the birth of Jesus Christ! The design on this iceman were said to be only ornamental, were for purposes involving magic, or even just to state the social status between the Iceman’s group or tribe. Even in the early ancient times tattoos were popular. Taking part of the fourth dynasty. At this time tattoos were just getting to the needle stage. What is meant by that is that they were just starting to use it to actually create the tattoos. They also, adorned clay dolls with tattoo-like designs while further serving to prove that tattoos actually had a meaning in life. From the poorest to the richest everyone had one type of tattoo. As time went by, the progression of tattoos got better. By the early Polynesian era ... ... middle of paper ... ...way to get infections and/or diseases. Some people after getting a piercing don’t react to the metal of the jewelry but after a while they have allergic reactions to it. You may also experience more scarring after you get them off then what you wanted or bargained for. This is because once you take the piercing off, it tends to leave a whole, marks or even scars after they heal. Works Cited DeMello, Margo. Bodies of Inscription: A cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000. Print. Ellis, Juniper. Tattooing the World: Pacific Designs in Print and Skin. Chi Chester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2008. Print. Lloyd, J.D. Body Piercing and Tattoos. Farmington Hills: Szumski, 2003. Print Pitts, Victoria. The Cultural Politics of Body Modification: IN THE FLESH. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Print.
Kosut, M. (2006). An Ironic Fad: The Commodification And Consumption Of Tattoos. The Journal of Popular Culture, 39(6), 1035-1048. Retrieved November 29, 2013, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2006.00333.x
Body modifications, with the focus of tattoos, have existed in our society for centuries and the way in which it is perceived has changed somewhat over the years, yet certain dishonors still remain our modern day. Like most body modifications, tattoos are an often misunderstood form of body modification. Despite the stigmas, tattoos have become a unique object of desire to endless diverse groups of people. But are the popular assumptions of tattoos out of sync with the true meaning behind them? Further explanation and exploration of the history will reveal the social and cultural practices of tattooing and the causal connection between the mind and the tattooed body, in addition to providing answers as to why tattoos stimulate uneasiness and curiosity and create a challenge to discursive practices.
(2014). The Artification of Tattoo: Transformations within a Cultural Field. Cultural Sociology, 8(2), 142. Retrieved from http://www.galileo.usg.edu.
Gilbert, Stephen G. "Sir Joseph Banks and the First Records of Tattooing in Tahiti and New Zealand" Tattoo History: A Source Book. 2001. http://tattoos.com/jane/steve/banks.htm (20 October. 2001)
Every day, tattoos have become apart of almost everyones daily life. Wether it be simply seeing someone with some on the street, to giving hundreds of them a day. While admiring their beauty, however, many people don’t think about the history behind the practice and how they have developed over the centuries. Tattoos have been around for thousands of years. One of the earliest evidence of tattoos being practiced was from the Iceman found with tattoos from the area of the Italian and Austrian border and was carbon dated to be around 5200 years old. Matching it's time, they use long one stakes dipped in soot.
Alexa Stevenson. “Probing Question: What Is The History of Tattooing.” Penn State News. 20 June, 2008: 1
Tattooing is not just a recent fad. Tattooing has been around for a very long time. "The current first proven incident of a tattoo dates back 4,000 years B.C. a traveler was found in Italy near Austria, preserved in the permafrost of a glacier. Carbon dating and arte facts found near him suggest that he is over 5,300 years old" (Tattoos and Design). Tattoos have been used to identify a person with a particular group or just to decorate a person's body. "Some designs are symbolic: In Japan, carp mean bravery; peonies mean good fortune" (McNab 42).
What do body modifications signify in people's culture? Some cultures force body modifications as a right of passage into a new stage in a person's life. Body modifications are associated with many things, for example, commitment, social rank, and ways to control people's lives. Waris Dirie, Tepilit Ole Saitoti, and Enid Schildkrout talk about body modifications and what they mean in different cultures. Cultures have different forms of body modifications with their own meaning and background. Men and women must take on specific roles set upon by their culture from the body modifications they endure.
Tattoos and body modifications have been around for many generations. They first began in 3370 BC and were used by Europeans and Egyptians. Both tattoos and body modifications are defined as a cultural representation of self-expression and sometimes even religion. In the article “Tattoos and Piercing: Issues of Body Modification and the Workplace,” Dr. Elzweig states, “Although tattooing is not a new phenomenon, the number of people who have tattoos has increased significantly and continues to rise. Life magazine estimated in 1936 that only 10% of me American population was tattooed in whole or in part (One out of ten Americans is tattooed, 1936)” (Elweig, Peeples).
It isn 't uncommon to see people walking around with tattoos permanently stained on their body. It is also uncommon to know that they usually have a meaning. From Chinese symbols to images devoted to the flying spaghetti monster, people love to keep these tattoos to remind them of a message or a special someone. According to the World Book Advanced Dictionary, a tattoo is "to mark (the skin) with designs or patterns by pricking a line of holes and putting in colors. ' ' And the meaning of an individual 's tattoo can vary depending on where you are. In this essay, I will discuss contrasting elements in prison and in tribal tattoos. This will be done by doing a cross sectional study of their history, meaning and methods. Are prison and tribal tattoos similar or different?
Tattoos are a waste of money, until you put a story to the art. For years’ adults have hated tattoos, and their rebellious teens loved them. Now looking around, more and more people are getting them, including elderly people. What caused this social change today?
For a while it was believed that ancient Egyptians started the art of tattooing before Egypt itself was an organized society. “The earliest known examples were for a long time Egyptian and were present on several female mummies dated to c. 2000 B.C” (Lineberry). That changed when Ötzi the Iceman was found in the Italian-Austria border in 1991, and he pushed back the date a thousand years. Researchers still aren’t completely sure where tattooing really originated from.
“The impact on the world today through the history and visual reasoning behind tattoos, lead to the inquiry of personal life changing experiences.
...patronage to a belief. Through time the tattoo has been plagued with rising fear that those who receive them will automatically become an outcast of the social order. The fear of body art is calming in the general public’s eyes and whether it is a biker or a school teacher with one they are beginning to be looked at as the same. The rising population of those getting tattoos has directly leaded to the rising population of those accepting them. It took a while for cultural opinion of tattoos to swing from taboo to standard practices of people from all races, ethnicities, ages, and genders. Time has granted the sanctioned onslaught of bad looks, and snubbed noses to slowly die down and natural acceptance of body ink to be granted. It is not just the crazy neighbor next door with a tattoo but the respected doctor up the street or your Sunday school teacher at church.
Jones, Jonathan . "Tattooing: Eye Catching- but are they art?." Guardian 23 September 2011, n.