TATOOS, PIERCINGS AND BODY ART

A while ago, a doctor friend of mine was called to a medical emergency involving a 'full Arthur', a piercing which requires having rings put through a man's nipples and penis, to which chains are then attached.

It is now becoming common to see ears pierced not once but five or ten times, tongue piercings, belly piercings. Recently there was a program on British TV where ordinary women proudly showed off pierced labia and clitoris.

A similar development has occurred with the tattoo. It is now considered quite normal — even obligatory in some social circles — for a girl to have a tattoo on her shoulder or in the small of her back, whereas previously tattoos were seen as a male prerogative.

Whole back tattoos — in the style of the Japanese Yakuza — are becoming increasingly popular.

If this is not a sign that we are reverting to primitive barbarism, what is the explanation? To say that there is no longer a social taboo against these things begs the question why one would want to have one's body tattooed or pierced in the first place.

It is as if in the beginning of the 21st century people in Western countries are discovering a new way to express themselves, by re-discovering practices that have been known for thousands of years.

The implication for plastic and cosmetic surgery is revolutionary: patients are now seeking enhancements, not in order to improve conventional 'looks' but rather from a desire for self-expression, where the ideal is to look sufficiently different to stand out from the crowd.

© Geoffrey Klempner 2008