Body Modification

Alexandra Gutierrez

English 101

Professor Poe

9 March 2013

The Making of Body Modifications

It seems that man has always been changing his outward appearance, whether it be dyed hair, plastic surgery, bodybuilding or the other more extreme modifications such as, tattoos, piercings, implants and scarification. Body modification has been around since the beginning of time; man would paint, pierce, tattoo or scar their bodies for his tribe, his god or even his own pleasure. However, in today’s time, it is not as socially acceptable as it once was. Many view body modification as need to stand out or an act of rebellion, when in reality it has a long history of beauty and maturity.

Body modification means what it says-when a person decides to modify his or her own body for any reason. It may be cultural, spiritual, religious or even cosmetic. Body modification comes in various ways, people assume that ‘Body modification’ refers to a pierced lip, a split tongue, stretched ears or a tattoo but it can be something so simple as a ear piercing or getting a different hairstyle. Body modification is around us every day of our life, and it seems to be seen more now than ever. “A 2003 Harris poll estimated that 36 percent of 25-29-year olds in the U.S. have one or more tattoos” (Guynup 2004).

There are numerous examples all over the world of body modification in cultures. In Papua New Guinea near the Sepik region, they believe that crocodiles created humans. They used scarification as initiation rites for young men, using a bamboo sliver their chest, back and buttocks were sliced in order to test their strength and self-discipline. The outcome of this process is scars that represent teeth marks of the crocodile that they believe ‘swallowed’ the young man. A tribe from Australia was also known for scarification. At the age of 16 or 17 cuts were made on the chest, shoulders and bellies of both men and women. Tribe members that had ‘clean skin’ were not allowed to...