Body Mods: an Undefined Art Form

Body Mods: An Undefined Art Form Body modifications, to many people, aren’t a form of art in their opinion. What they don’t know is that the people getting tattoos and piercings or the ones that are tattoo or piercing artists are simply using the human body as a canvas rather than a simple watercolor or paper canvas. Statistics say that more than half of people in the United States believe that body modifications are a sin or make a person look “trashy,” that’s more than 50% of the billion people who live in the U.S! What these people who have these such beliefs don’t know is that for some people body modifications bring some people’s self- esteem up greatly or that a person might use a tattoo as a symbol of dedication to a sincere person in their life that may have died or that they love more than anything in the entire world. Because of some of these common debates and ideas, body modifications are known as an undefined art form. One type of body modification is the art of tattooing. Tattoos began well over 5,000 years ago and were common back in those years of early history mostly as a symbol for different tribes. Even today in such places as Africa, young boys show dedication to their tribes by getting tattoos on their faces by having a sharpened knife and permanent colored ink cut into their faces. Not all tattoos have to be colored, however, tattoos can be just a simple design carved by a sharp, pointed item. It is unknown who exactly invented the art of tattooing but Samuel O’Reilly invented the first working electric tattooing machine in the year of 1891. In the years of the 20’s to the 40’s, if your body was inked with tattoos you were in fact considered a freak in other people’s eyes. People that had tattoos often joined so- called “freak shows” in order to be noticed as well as to be accepted into one group of society. Even though you might think the term “freak show” is a derogatory term, it was really what these shows were known as and