ipl-logo

Body Modification Research Paper

703 Words3 Pages

Body modification is the act of altering one’s body for several different reasons such as aesthetic pleasures, self and identity expression as well as religious beliefs and even significant changes in one’s life such as rites of passage or affiliation1. The act of body modification has been around for centuries, some can be traced back to the Predynastic period in Egypt. The concept of body modification is quite an umbrella terms, under are hidden a number of different categories such as scarification, implants, tongue splitting, branding and even, common as it may seem, tattoos and piercings etc1. For the purpose of this paper, we will ignore several of these categories, only focusing on tattoos. The history and most importantly reason hidden behind a tattoo is just as interesting and complex as the design of the tattoo itself. Tattoos vary from person to person and also from culture to culture, meaning that the number of possible reasons hidden behind a tattoo is over a hundred. …show more content…

The upper part of the human body was closest to spirituality, to the world above while the lower part was closer to the earth, to the material world beneath their feet. Māori people were said to descend from two specific gods, Rangi the Sky Father, Heaven and Papa the Earth Mother, Earth3. As descendants, they believed they held quite a close relationship with these celestial beings and therefore their human bodies were seen as the essential link between Rangi and Papa. As Horatio Gordon Robley described in his book titled Māori Tattooing, the head of the person was considered sacred even after death and burial. The head is placed apart and upon visitation of the grave, it is taken out so that the visitor(s) may mourn over their death4. During this time, since the head was considered the most important part of the body, tattooed Māori heads were even as

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Tattoos By Andres Martin

    542 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people have a certain opinion when it comes to their standing on tattoos, whether they see them as beautiful pieces of art, or body mutilation, everyone subscribes to a different belief. Many people who see teenagers, believe that these teens are “troubled”, or impulsive and impressionable, which at that point in the brain’s development that may be true, but they never consider that maybe that teen is ready, or is willing to commit to the tattoo simply because it is something that has importance to them. Andres Martin, a child psychiatrist, wrote an article in a 2000 edition of the magazine “Reclaiming Our Children and Youth” about teenagers and tattoos, where he directly addresses the reasons that would support the ideas behind teens getting tattoos. Andres

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Samurai's Garden By Vail Tsukiyama

    1205 Words  | 5 Pages

    Many parts of the world view scars as more than just a memory of pain. In Africa, tribal leaders receive intricate designs cut into their faces, necks, and chests to show their position and to prove their leadership capabilities. Scarification,

    Read More

  • On Pins And Needles Defending Analysis

    752 Words  | 4 Pages

    Tattooing has been around for nearly as long as humans have been. For example, the oldest revelation of tattooed human skin was found approximately 6000 BC on the upper lip of a Chinchorro culture mummy from South America. The oldest direct evidence for tattooing in Europe is the body of Ötzi the Iceman, which dates back to the late fourth millennium BC. The argument makes a claim of value, because she firmly states her opinions in defense of body art. The essay was written on the 6th of April in 2010.

    Read More

  • Cultural Factors Affecting Aboriginal Australians

    1731 Words  | 7 Pages

    Introduction Aboriginal Australian peoples have been placed in unfair situations that have resulted in disconnections from society due to bias in culture, racism and because of previous historical events such as colonisation that led to colonialism and horrible events such as The Stolen Generation. These events act like a scar to the Aboriginal Australian peoples and their culture, those previously mentioned historical events symbolises the cut, the immense pain that was caused in that moment is still a factor and the pain from it is still prevalent and is symbolised by the scar. The scar also represents the factors that still manage to affect the Aboriginal Australians today, such as racism and lack of quality and access to education, money and health care.. The Indigenous peoples are also affected by various other factors such as limited access to health care that may be of poor quality, such resources may also bring fear to the Indigenous peoples because practitioners are not always sensitive or respectful to

    Read More

  • Hawaiian Traditions: The New Hawaiian Culture

    1154 Words  | 5 Pages

    Many Native Hawaiian people have lost touch with their culture. Many people around the world don’t know about the unique Hawaiian culture. People in America don’t know a lot about these unique Hawaiian arts either. Many of the old Hawaiian traditions were lost because foreigners took over the Hawaiian islands and banned many Hawaiian traditions that have been going on for decades. This loss of culture was devastating for the people and was hard to gain back after almost being completely eliminated.

    Read More

  • Perfection In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark

    353 Words  | 2 Pages

    Written almost two centuries ago, “The Birthmark” is an early form of our present-day obsession with a flawless, perfect physical state. Our society has numerous ways of showing just how far they will go to show their passion for physical perfection. Like in “The Birthmark” our society makes physical changes through plastic surgeries because for one reason or another they are not happy with themselves. While most of the time people make their own decisions about changing their look, it was Aylmer who convicted Georgina to let him change her look.

    Read More

  • Body Image Research Paper

    133 Words  | 1 Pages

    In today’s modern culture, almost all forms of popular media play a significant role in bombarding young people, particularly young females, with what happens to be society’s idea of the “ideal body”. This ideal is displayed all throughout different media platforms such as magazine adds, television and social media – the idea of feminine beauty being strictly a flawless thin model. The images the media displays send a distinct message that in order to be beautiful you must look a certain way. This ideal creates and puts pressure on the young female population viewing these images to attempt and be obsessed with obtaining this “ideal body”. In the process of doing so this unrealistic image causes body dissatisfaction, lack of self-confidence

    Read More

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of Josie Appleton

    109 Words  | 1 Pages

    Josie Appleton’s piece opens with her introducing the fact that body modification has lost its mark of being taboo. Appleton then transitions into describing the different kinds of people that modify their bodies and why they do it. The fact that people used to mostly use tattoos to identify with a group and are now using them to define themselves is heavily enforced. The rest of the piece describes in great detail the different ways people use piercings and tattoos to better understand themselves and mark important milestones. The piece concludes with Appleton claiming that body modification should only be for fashion, because bringing significance to it causes problems.

    Read More

  • Hawaiian Identity

    930 Words  | 4 Pages

    This inclusive and expansive method of determining identity established relationships and was the basis of social identity in their hierarchal class society (Kauanui, 2008, p.38) In contrast to this, the 1921 Hawaiian Homes and Commission Act imposed an arbitrary blood quantum in an effort to measure cultural orientation. In order to claim indigeneity, one had to have at least 50% blood “purity”. Although this 50% rule was viewed as more “scientific,” the blood quantum made assumptions about indigenous concepts of genealogy which undermined its fluidity and attempted to quantify race, a

    Read More

  • Scarification In Australia

    624 Words  | 3 Pages

    The history of scarification is an ancient tradition of cutting the skin in a specific way and manipulating the cut to form a scar, usually attempting to form a keloid scar, which is when the scar is raised. It is unclear as to when scarification originated, but it is generally thought to be as old as tattooing, which potentially dates back over 10,000years. Scarification is most prevalent in Indigenous Africans and Australians, as tattoos would not show as clearly on darker skin, and instead led to scarification being the main form of body modification. Most scarification result within individual tribes and families, and therefore it is important to note that scarification differs greatly around the world, and no two tribes are the same, and even scarring within a singular tribe can differ from person to person. For that matter,

    Read More

  • The Imperialism Of Hawaii In The Film Act Of War

    511 Words  | 3 Pages

    By taking over quickly, a lot of aspects of Hawaiian culture got distorted

    Read More

  • Should Minor Be Allowed To Get Tattoo Essay

    645 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is a quote that i found and i totally agree with it. “Tattoos are like stories-they 're symbolic of the important moments in your

    Read More

  • The Sociological Definition Of Tattoing By C. Wright Mills

    888 Words  | 4 Pages

    People get tattoos to show their love or appreciation of things that have a significant or a sentimental meaning to them, this could be a way to commemorate an important day or time in their

    Read More

  • Cosmetic Surgery Disadvantages

    718 Words  | 3 Pages

    1.0 Introduction 1.1 Background of the Issue This report is written to find out the pros and cons of cosmetic surgery to people as well as how much cosmetic surgery has benefited people both positively and negatively. Cosmetic surgery procedures have been performed back in the early 1800s, which means it has been in existence for centuries as what history has suggested. Besides that, the development of cosmetic surgery states that it started to gain popularity since the 1970s and 1980s. Cosmetic surgery can be defined as the operative procedure as improvement of appearance is the principal purpose (Medical Dictionary for the Dental Professions, 2012).

    Read More

  • Body Modification Is Addictive Essay

    1336 Words  | 6 Pages

    When it comes to the topic of body modification, most people will readily agree that it’s their body and they can do whatever they want. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question is if body modification is addictive. Whereas some are convinced that it is their body and they choose to do whatever they want, others maintain that it is an abomination and that they are destroying their own bodies. People are always saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”. The problem is that when it comes to meeting a person for the first time, first impressions mean everything.

    Read More

More about Body Modification Research Paper

Open Document