Modern primitives : an investigation of contemporary adornment & ritual

Human beings are the only species who deliberately alter their own appearance. This customization can include tattooing, piercing, scarring or adorning the body. Even the actual body shape can be amended - compressed with corsets or padded out in the right places. This work looks at the increasingly popular revival of ancient human decoration practices such as symbolic/deeply personal tattooing, multiple piercing and ritual scarification. Primitive actions which rupture conventional confines of behaviour and aesthetics are objectively scrutinized. In the context of the death of global frontiers, this volume charts the territory of the last remaining underdeveloped source of first-hand experience - the human body.