Body Modification [Hardcover]

This fascinating collection explores the growing range of body modification practices such as piercing, tattooing, branding, cutting and inserting implants, which have sprung up recently in the West. It asks whether this implies that we are returning to traditional tribal practices of inscribing identities onto bodies on the part of 'modern primitives', or is body modification better understood as purely cosmetic and decorative with body markings merely temporary signs of transferable loyalties?

Contributors address the question of the permanence of body transformation through fitness regimes and body building; look at the French performance artist Orlan and the Australian performance artist Stelarc who explored Western standard oThis fascinating collection explores the growing range of body modification practices such as piercing, tattooing, branding, cutting and inserting implants, which have sprung up recently in the West. It asks whether this implies that we are returning to traditional tribal practices of inscribing identities onto bodies on the part of 'modern primitives', or is body modification better understood as purely cosmetic and decorative with body markings merely temporary signs of transferable loyalties?

Contributors address the question of the permanence of body transformation through fitness regimes and body building; look at the French performance artist Orlan and the Australian performance artist Stelarc who explored Western standard oBody Modification - Mike Featherstone
An Introduction
'Modern Primitivism' - Christian Klesse
Non-Mainstream Body Modification and Racialized Representation
The Possibility of Primitiveness - Bryan S Turner
Towards a Sociology of Body Marks in Cool Societies
Anchoring the (Postmodern) Self? Body Modification, Fashion and Identity - Paul Sweetman
This Body Which Is Not One - Margrit Shildricklsj