Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

5 Introduction
Body painting is ancient and geographically widespread. Excavations
of European paleolithic burial sites have revealed implements
and pigments used for body painting as well as pictorial
representations of painted figures (Hambly. 1974 [1925]: 308-310;
Thevoz. 1984: 9-21). There is considerable cross-cultural continUity
in the basic colors employed and the symbolic meaning
attached to them. Red (typically derived from iron-bearing clays)
is commonly used to represent blood and symbolize fertility and
mortality. White (from clay or ash) is associated with the supernatural
and is ritually used as the color of mourning and purification.
Black (from charcoal or berry juices) typically symbolizes
impurity and evil (Vlahos. 1979: 22-32; Hambly, 1974 (19251:
146-160; Thevoz, 1984: 54).
Whether one lives in contemporary America-where approXimately
$5 billion is spent each year on makeup and hair care
products (Freedman. 1986: 43)-or among the Sharanahua of
Peru-where a man commonly expresses his appreciation for a
woman's beauty by saying. "Her paint was lovely" (Vlahos, 1979:
27)-body painting is used to enhance attractiveness. The Nuba
of the Sudan, for example, have developed body painting as a
major form of personal decoration. Nuba body art is primarily an
aesthetic practice related to celebrating the human body, health.
and physical strength. Young Nuban men create highly personal
designs intended to accentuate their physical development. The
use of color and form is a matter of personal creative choice rather
than being dictated by tradition or ritual meaning. Body decorations
are valued for their uniqueness. symmetry, and enhancement
of phySical characteristics. The Nuba are proud of the
deSigns and intend them to be admired by and attract the attention
of the opposite sex (Faris. 1972; Brain. 1979: 42-45).
Hair is another body element that is routinely shaped, cut, colored,
removed, and otherwise used as a medium of aesthetic creativity
and social communication. Male facial hair has, in various
times and societies, symbolized either high rank or low status,
callow youth or venerable age. adherence to convention or rebellion
(see Guthrie. 1976; 25-37). For both males and females hair
style consistently has been a semi-permanent way to demonstrate
opinion of and connection to current popular taste. established