Body Art

Body art is a choice for each of us. Whether it is from permanent marking your body or to a temporarily modification to your body, it is a display of a silent language known as body art. We learn how to modify our bodies from the culture that is imbedded in us from our ancestors and their practices. Body art can be a showcase for a close-knit group with which we may be associated or personal expression show who we are or where we are in our lives. It can also display of who we would like to be, or who we want to emulate. Body art is in the eyes of the beholder, but the perception of that beauty varies greatly, not just among cultures, but also among generations.

"Body Art as Visual Language" written by Enid Schildktout, is an essay about the different ways a person makes his or her body an unspoken language of its own. She talks about how body art has always been a part of people's culture. In some of the cultures the display of body art is a sign of their status within their society. It is also a display of what ones perception of beauty. Schildkrout tells how the "ideas of beauty vary from one culture to another" (Hirschberg & Hirschberg, 2012, p. 109). It is just like fashion; it is a part of one's makeup. As I read the story, Schildkrout's discusses how people express their body art in quite amazing manners. People in some cultures chose to not just adorn themselves in tattoos, but also piercings, scarifications, and, the most extreme, head shaping. Also, Schildkrout goes on to discuss the perceptions that people have about body art. Body art is not always a permanent alteration to one's body. Body art also includes hair dyeing, body painting, and wearing make-up; anything one does to their body to make themselves look a certain way is a form of body art. All these different languages of art are a way for one to assert their own individuality or conformity.

As I think about my own body modifications, I was forced to ask the question of why I did or did not perform certain alterations of my body. My answers were simple; "I like the way I look when I wear make-up. I color my hair to cover the few gray hairs I have, because I do not like gray hair. I wear earrings which is also a form of decorating my body, because it is perceived to show an elegant status. I choose to never have tattoos because I think they look tasteless.

My feelings on the decoration of the human body are projected through me from my heritage and the culture in which I grew up. For most of my generation, I know only a few people that have tattoos. A great many women of my generation dye their hair, pierce only their ears, and most wear make-up. My heritage is of a very conservative culture, and that is why I do not have body piercings other than my ears, nor the tattoos, or any other form of body art. On the other hand, I have a friend of the same age whose roots were in another part of the United States