body painting

Piercings

While tattoos are the best known form of body art, body and facial piercing are far more common among the general population of cultures throughout the world. Even in the most conservative western households, ear piercing is typically viewed as a young woman enters into adolescence.

Other traditional cultures incorporate body piercings into symbols of cultural conformity or spiritual dedication. However, the vast majority of body piercing in modern society is used as:

• Sub cultural identification
• Fashion statement
• Sexual expression (genital piercings and tongue piercings)
• Symbolic expression

There are nearly as many different types of piercings as there are cultures that embrace them. Popular types body piercings that are used as fashion or cultural statements include lip piercings, nose piercings, belly button piercings, monroe piercings, hip piercings and ear piercings.

Ear piercing has been done since ancient times and was also the first kind of body modification that was socially accepted in the Western world. Ötzi the Iceman, the mummified body of a man who lived around 3300 BC, had pierced ears. Earrings are also mentioned in the Bible. A variant of ear piercing is cartilage piercing and tragus piercing.

Nose piercings gained a lot of popularity in the West during the 1990s. In earlier times, nose rings were worn by Native Americans, the Aztecs, Incas, Australian aboriginals and many more tribal cultures. There are 2 variants of nose piercing: septum piercing and nostril piercing.

Corset piercing imitates the lacing of a corset by lacing a series of surface piercings on the back. It is usually worn by women and is most often of a temporary kind because corset piercings heal badly. On photo this type of body art is usually shown laced, but's impossible keep them laced for long periods of time.

The tongue is the second most popular place to have a piercing (the ear is the most popular). Ritual tongue piercing was done by the Aztecs and Incas to honor the gods. The girl in the photo below has a tongue piercing as well as a Monroe piercing. Monroe piercings imitate a beauty spot such as Marilyn Monroe had one. They are also known as a Crawford (Cindy Crawford) or a Madonna.

Elaine Davidson, a Scottish woman, has the world record for extreme piercing, she has about 1903 of them (see picture above).

Scarification and Extreme Body Modification

Nowhere in the world of body art is the ritualistic aspect of this art form more obvious than scarification. While scarification is certainly not for everyone, it is rooted in the same tribal traditions as piercings and has been found across cultures as an important rite of passage marking the end of one's adolescence.

In modern society, advanced body modification has becoming particularly popular form of male body art. Taken to its most extreme expression, this form of body modification can involve some modifications that are not for the faint of heart.

The primary forms of extreme body modification include:

• Branding: body branding is precisely what it sounds like and involves the application of a red hot figure of metal to the skin for the purpose of leaving a scar.
  
  
  
  
• Scalpelling: consists of the use of a sharp scalpel to make precise incisions in the skin, sometimes with the purpose of removing an entire portion of surface flesh for dynamic scar.
  
  
  
  
• Implants: there are various types of implants involved in advanced body modification projects, but one of the most common is the implantation of cosmetic spikes into the forehead or eyebrows.
• Beading: beading is a separate form of implanting in which beads are surgically inserted under a persons skin for the purpose creating a symmetrical series of bumps within the flesh.

As you might expect, extreme body modification is not without its risks. Most forms of scarification and implants are technically surgical procedures, and many extreme body artists lack formal medical training. As a result, it is considered largely up to the people who elect to undergo these procedures to be responsible for their own medical safety. The vast majority of body modification enthusiasts take their health very seriously though.

Professional and amateur photography of examples of extreme body modification can be found in many corners of the internet, but the most important website to this lifestyle and body modification in general is found at the huge website BME.com. Body Modification Ezine, or BME, also has excellent resources on safety standards, a vast archive of informative articles and a thriving forum of active members.