Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Our Fascination with Body Modification

padaung woman
padaung woman (Photo credit: gianluca_cozzolino)

One quite peculiar facet of our society's way of life and also the culture of several communities all over the world is body modification. Body modification has been happening for thousands of years for many different reasons. Very early modification had something with regards to cultural importance most of the time but in some cases it was merely as a result of vanity. Individuals from cultures all over the world all through time have been focused on their personal appearance and would go to fantastic measures to enhance it.
body modification (tattoo, piercing, implant)
body modification (tattoo, piercing, implant) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The very idea of beauty would appear to be one that was exactly the same through the entire world and all through time but that is certainly simply far from the truth. Within a particular African culture extended necks are thought beautiful. It is actually regarded as so significant that girls have long necks that they can place metal bands around their throat beginning at a young age and gradually increase the amount of bands to force their neck to extend into unusually long proportions. This modification can be so extreme that if the metallic bands ended up being taken from their neck, these ladies would be unable to keep their heads up.

At one time tiny feet ended up being regarded as attractive and incredibly essential for ladies to have in Japan. It had become regarded as extremely important for ladies to possess little feet that beginning in early childhood, Japanese girls had their feet bound in tight ribbons to stop their feet from developing.

More serious types of body modification which are currently in practice, include things like branding. When an individual is branded, an incredibly hot metal device is heated to extremely high temperature ranges and this piece of equipment is held against the epidermis for a few seconds to result in a serious burn. Once the burn heals it actually leaves behind a raised scar of the specific pattern that the person selected. This specific kind of body modification is pretty hazardous as burns very easily become infected. One really unusual body modification which is getting into style with the underground popular culture is implants. A stainless-steel or Teflon item is inserted underneath their epidermis to create protrusions on the exterior of your skin. This really is fairly uncommon still however it is increasing in popularity.

No matter what type of body modification a person decides on, whether it is tattooing or getting metal implements inserted beneath the skin, the reason why are usually extremely personal nature. Even though it is becoming a lot more common to see individuals with unusual body modifications a number of these body modifications continue to be fairly taboo. The only exemption could be obtaining a tattoo. This really is one specific kind of body modification that is certainly rising in popularity and is pretty socially acceptable.

No comments:

Post a Comment