Encylopedia of Body Adornment.pdf - Print My Tattoo

INTRODUCTION xix
The differential marking of criminals and the lower classes continued into the
twentieth century in many societies, and of course the use of specialized adornments
among the elites to distinguish themselves from the other classes continues
as well.
In modern society, we see that the desire to mold the body as a sign of social
status is unchanged, with men and women using makeup, jewelry, hairstyles, cosmetic
surgery, dieting, and fashion to transform their bodies in accordance with
the current dictates of style. Fashionable bodies are young, thin, and beautiful,
and when commonly practiced forms of adornment and modification (such as
dieting, makeup, and hairstyling) cannot achieve these characteristics, more extreme
modifications are available to those who can afford them. Full face, hair,
and body makeovers are purchased by the wealthy and are also seen on television
shows like “The Swan” and “Extreme Makeover,” and rely on modern surgical procedures
such as bariatric surgery, cosmetic surgery, cosmetic dentistry, cosmetic
dermatology, and hair implants and weaves.
Also in modern societies, we have seen the development of nonnormative body
modifications such as tattooing, piercing, stretching, branding, scarification, and
genital modifications, which allow individuals to step outside of the bounds of the
normal social order, and mark membership in alternative subcultures, such as bikers,
punks, convicts, gang members, or among those who practice alternative sexualities.
Also in the twentieth century we saw the development of a movement that
not only uses nonnormative and often extreme body modifications but relies on
them for aesthetic, spiritual, sexual, and personal growth. This movement, known
as the modern primitives movement, borrows body modification techniques and
religious and cultural beliefs from non-Western societies to resist and challenge
modern social practices. Ironically, however, while the traditions borrowed in the
modern primitives movement generally serve to mark traditional peoples as belonging
to the social order, those practices, when used in the contemporary West,
serve instead to separate the wearers from society, rather than integrate them. Even
more ironic, perhaps, is the fact that many of these traditional forms of body modification
have now disappeared from the societies in which they were practiced,
often stamped out through Western imperialism, and only exist now in cannibalized
form among modern primitives.
According to theorist Michel Foucault, in state-level societies, power is inscribed
on bodies through modes of social supervision and discipline as well as
self-regulation. But at the same time, bodies also can be sites of resistance as they
always entail the possibility of counterinscription, of being self-marked. Thus the
use of body modifications in ways that are not only not socially sanctioned but
are explicitly antisocial can be seen as a way in which disaffected or marginalized
bodies can mark themselves in accordance with their owners’ self-image.
Contemporary members of the body modification movement who use extreme
modifications in nonnormative ways see themselves as taking control of their own
bodies and expressing their individual identities. Proponents see these modifications
as ways in which they actively transform the self. However, mainstream society
typically views them in a very different light, and sees them as a disfigurement