Tattoos and Body Modification

Faced with a less than scary lecturer the thoughts of many around me began to fade and falter until most people had a look of complacency.

First of all I can say with the utmost certainty that this the most recent lecture was easily the best one of the lot. Not only was the lecturer exciting to listen to but he had a lot of knowledge in his chosen field of expertise. He knew how to engage people, which was evident almost instantly and lasted till the end, as literally no-one had any questions.

I don’t know if everyone felt the same way I did about his lecture but I truly learnt many different things during the lecture and afterwards I felt that not only was it a good lecture, but it was a good use of my time in general, the sort of lecture I would have happily attended without being forced to (well I say forced to, I’m paying for it so I’m damn well going to attend everything possible).

Now first of all let’s have a quick recap of some of the information that he went over in his presentation, just with far less nudity and scrotum piercings. Please note this is in slightly briefer note form and so please feel free to fill in the gaps.

First of all there are four different types of body modification: Non invasive which does not breach the skin layer with the opposite being invasive which does breach the skin. Then you have temporary and permanent modifications such as tattoos and such like.

One point that was raised was the limited view of body modification that people have. Such as how many people if you ask them have they modified their body most people will not think about: Make-up, cutting your nails, filing your skin, getting your hair cut and body building.

There are many reasons for getting this sort of thing done. Some of these ways are: Religious (such as circumcision), Artistic reasons (body as a canvas sort of project), Aesthetic (simply that you feel that doing such a modification would make you more beautiful), Rite of Passage (becoming a man/woman), Membership to a cult etc, Rebellion, Fashion, Memorial and in some cases as a way to control others of be controlled.

A point that was brought up was the common feeling that body modification is considered deviant to some. The main reasons that were given by our lecturer were: Religion, Society (generally overview of a single topic generally by one outspoken individual), Medical (being prone to infection during the process, not so much now but that was certainly an issue before), Pain (why would someone go through with something like that willingly) and the last reason is that some people derived pleasure from the experience.

Lastly one of the most interesting points about tattooing was the discussion about a Maori tattoo called the Moko. The moko was, and still is, a complete story about the person who has it, giving their name and rank among the villagers amongst other information. Some of these are even done with excruciating pain to the individual due to them not being done with simple needle and ink but instead being done with a chisel and then the ink inserted after.



Due to their beautiful facial tattoos they began to be hunted by many ‘civilised’ human beings so that they could be collected as artwork.

Finally my very simplified feelings of body modification, quite frankly I don’t care what people do to their bodies, but I do wish people wouldn’t mutilate their genitalia, I mean it really is weird. Go nuts with tattoos, stretch your ears to whatever you want (They’re emo, they’re a little unstable anyway) just please don’t expect to get a full facial tattoos and ear lobes down to your crotch and still expect to get a good job in a popular store, or for that matter a job where you see and interact with other people.

For a little history on tattooing please refer to the link below.

http://www.designboom.com/history/tattoo_history.html