Body art is the modification of the human body to enhance its appearance or to convey symbolic meaning. Body art is distinguished from clothing, costumes, and masks, which cover the body but do not modify it. Permanent forms of body art include tattooing, piercing, decorative scarification (creating scar tissue by cutting the skin), and branding (burning the skin). Temporary forms of body art include body painting, hairdressing, and manicuring. Such practices as plastic surgery, body building, and even embalming the dead can also be considered forms of body art.
Many kinds of body art aim to emphasize masculinity or femininity, or sexual attractiveness. Body art can also be used to display mottos or other messages or to indicate an individual’s status within a society or membership in a particular group.
Some forms of body art, such as tattoos, are painful to acquire, and so achieving them is a public display of fortitude. Body art often expresses messages about control—either the individual’s self-control and maturity, or the society’s ability to control its members by imposing standards of physical appearance.
Beginning in the 1990’s, more extreme forms of body art have gained popularity in North America and Europe, especially among young people. Many of these forms, such as tongue piercing, facial piercing, and full-body tattooing, derive from traditional Asian, African, American Indian, and Pacific Islands cultures. The association of these practices with non-Western cultures is part of their attraction.
See also Hairdressing ; Tattooing .
