Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

179 Epilogue 2008
The most recent modes of body modification involve a variety of
applications of plastic surgery. The most common of these is the
sub-dermal implant. Implants are usually made of surgical steel
or surgical grade plastics, and they are placed under the skin to
augment, enhance, or change the shape of the face (most commonly)
or other regions of the body. Thus, a person might implant
ridges over the eyes to simulate a lizard’s brow, install in his forehead
a bladder that can be filled with air to change the size and
shape of the head, or implant ridges over her collar bones for decorative
effect. These practices are most common among modern
primitives who wish to create a “cyborg appearance” as part of a
critique of modern consumer culture (see Hewitt, 1997; Pitts,
2003; and Polhemus and Randall, 1996; for extensive discussions
of these practices).
As the means by which people modify their bodies become more
varied, people seek out newer, more radical, sometimes permanent
methods of playing with their appearance and bodily structure.
The most radical among these to date involve dramatic and
irreversible surgical techniques. Members of the body-modification
world have been known to split their penises down the
center; sever, bisect, and pierce their testes; remove sections of
their ears and stitch them back together so they will simulate the
ears of a zebra; file their teeth into points and split their tongues
so as to simulate the appearance of a lizard; and even remove
finger joints or entire fingers. While these forms of body modification
are available for those who are strongly inclined to physically
demonstrate their alienation from conventional society, they are
rare practices that are unlikely to become especially popular, at
least in the near future.
TATTOO SCHOLARSHIP TODAY
When the first edition of Customizing the Body was published,
the scholarly literature on tattooing and other forms of permanent
body alterations was relatively limited. It consisted largely of a few
psychological treatments of tattooing as an indicator of social
pathology. As is still the case with many of the more contemporary
psychological discussions of tattooing, these studies were based
on studies of residents of institutions such as prisons or in-patient
mental health facilities. Since data are drawn from groups who are