Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

4 Introduction
prospects. At the simplest level. clothing and fashions are adopted
in order to display symbolically gender. social status. role. lifestyle.
values. personal interests. and other identity features (see.
for example. Blumer. 1969; Bell. 1976; Lurie. 1983; Flugel, 1969).
In modern societies powerful commercial interests focus significant
resources in an effort to shape the meaning of clothing and
market fashions to consumers.
Clothing style is of sufficient symbolic importance that it often
is controlled through "sumptuary laws" that allow only members
of specific (usually high status) groups to wear certain materials
or fashions. In ancient Egypt, for example. only members of the
upper class were allowed to wear sandals. Similarly. in eighteenth
century Japan the lower-class citizens were forbidden to wear
silks. brocades, and other forms of fine cloth.
Unconventional or alienated subcultures commonly use clothing
as a mechanism of"conspicuous outrage" (Bell. 1976: 44-56).
The flamboyant costumes adopted by hippies in the 1960s. the
punk rocker's torn clothing held together by haphazardly placed
safety pins (Anscombe. 1978; Hennessy, 1978). and the outlaw
biker's leather jacket (Farren. 1985) and dirt encrusted "colors"
(Watson. 1984) clearly symbolize disaffection with mainstream
values and identification with those who are overtly discontented
with the status quo. Fashion, like all other mechanisms of appearance
alteration. is used symbolically to proclaim group membership
and to signal voluntary exclusion from disvalued social
categories.
Non-Permanent Body Alteration
One of the most common mechanisms people have used to identify
themselves and enhance their beauty is through the use of
body paint. Thevoz (1984) maintains that members of tribal cultures
use paint to differentiate themselves from animals and human
beings who do not belong to their tribe or clan. Paint marks
one as human and signals social connections. Due to its lack of
permanence. in the majority of cultures in which it is practiced.
body painting is "event oriented"; it marks a break from the
everyday activities of the group. The paint symbolically sets the
decorated person apart from his or her everyday self.