Usually I talk about tattoos however, when you think about tattoos, you have to look at body mod. Contemporary tattooing stems from the body modification sub-culture. Body mod is all about trying to stand against accepted society and showing this distaste for the mainstream by altering the body. With the invention of the electric needle in 1891, tattoos were considered vulgar and this idea continued til about the 70s and 80s. Someone who had a tattoo was considered an outsider which is one of the things that attract people in the body mod scene to tats. However, recently, tats have begun to spill over into popular culture and many in the body mod scene have turned to other kind of practices.
There are a couple of things that are practiced like the implant
ing of horns and balls under the skin, piercings and tongue splitting which are really popular. One of the newer things right now is branding. It is kind of like what you see cowboys do to cattle or pigs. It has replaced tattooing and takes it a step farther. It is a form of scarification where you come in with a design and it is placed on the skin. Then the scarification artist takes a heated tool or some use shocks of electricity and burns the design into the skin. The design heals over and you get a permanent scar of your design. 
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You should check out a show called TABOO which went over this branding craze. It's a cool idea and definitely not reversable unless you get a skin craft which makes it all the more interesting.
ReplyDeleteYea I actually saw that segment of TABOO, that's how i first heard about this
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