Body Mods Are Civil Disobedience Essay

The Modern era is classified as the period that started as the World War I ended. There where huge changes in technology. International corporations began to rise in power. They began to “westernize” with values, such as the appeal to industrialization, personal political rights, democracy, a background of knowledge in mass and education, private ownership of the means of production, the scientific method, public institutions, a questioning in God, and the independence of woman. Then by the year 1939 the Second World War took place and as it ended a new literary period began to form. A new period that dates from around the year 1945 to the present day is called Postmodernism. Postmodernism is difficult to define since there are not so

When studying the history of tattoos, pinpointing the first time a tattoo was seen was almost impossible to do until 1991. An Iceman, named Otzi, was found by German hikers in 1991. Otzi was found covered with at least 57 tattoos (Huffington Post). This is to show that tattoos have been around for more than fifty-three hundred years. Otzi’s tattoos were discovered to be therapeutic and they consisted of lines and crosses all over the body. The next oldest tattoos were found on the Chinchorro mummy. Chinchorro’s tattoos consisted of symbols and drawings, and were found to be decorative only. It is more than remarkable that even after 53 hundred years, similar designs, symbols, and drawings are still used to mark our skin. These findings

Tattoos have been prevalent in Polynesian culture for over 2,000 years. (PBS.org) This is where the modern tattoo first originated, getting its name from the Polynesian word "tatau", and where it has thrived as a cultural tradition of honor and courage. In Samoa, tattoos are given by hand, and the trade is passed down from father to son after years of practice and apprenticeship. Tattooing begins when a male of noble rank, such as a chief, hits puberty and marks his status for all to see. This traditional ceremony leaves indelible marks symbolic of the courage and the dedication to the culture needed to endure the pain. Samoan culture marked any man a coward, forever marked with his shame, if he did not receive a tattoo or complete the one that was started. In Hawaii tattoos were used to represent levels of distinction and also to aid people in their spiritual well-being. Some of the most common tattoos or kakau were images of the lizard which was revered and feared by the Hawaiian people and the crescent fan that marked the highest ranking members of society. Many intricate woven patterns that mimicked nature were used, but the exact meanings of these markings were lost because of the secrecy involved in the art of tattooing. The idea that tattooing was a secret art shows the importance of this ritual to Hawaiian society, and the Kahunas who administered the tattoos

Too much fascination with the body is problematic because embodied identity is not only about the body. Lasch 1980- Contemporary culture places fascination with the appearance of people and it is observed that this is causes narcissism among individuals. Gillian) […] More narcisistic forms of 'self-surveillance, including the 'tyranny' of idealised images and a 'fragmentation' of the body [...]” Specifically it is (Lasch 1979 p48 ) “... corporeal images of youth, beauty, health and fitness.” that are overrepresented. As a consequence body modification is advocated in order to achieve these ideological representations of the self. (Featherstone) Modification and enhancement help construct a beautiful appearance which Featherstone links to

Some history of Tattoo, you have the Polynesian culture with their elegant tattoos thought to have advanced over periods of time. In the late 1700’s, James Cook who was a British explorer went on an expedition to Tahiti and on his return many of his sailor had tattoos done by the Polynesian natives. The islanders of Tahiti term “tatatau”

The oldest tattooing culture began with the Native American groups from the southeastern United States (Deter-Wolf and Diaz-Granados, 2013). The earliest information shows Native American tattoos have many functions, like communication

a painted body, used by Britons and Scots to distinguish themselves from the rest of the population by these vivid colors and images (Hesselt van Dinter, 2005). Although, when Christianity took over Europe, tattooing mostly disappeared for the next 500 years, with little mentions of tattoos anywhere, the

The art of tattooing has been around for centuries, with origins dating back before the year 325, when it was banned by the Roman Empire and made its return once again around the 18th century via British explorers returning from Polynesia. Tattooing practices vary around the world, specifically in their meaning and significance cross-culturally. For instance, tattooing practices and significance in Western cultures vary significantly than in non-Western cultures. Specifically, in traditional cultures, tattooing often marks a crucial period or a rite of passage in an individual’s life, such as the transition from childhood into adulthood. In Polynesian societies, specifically amongst the Maori people, the art of tattooing plays a vital role

It’s not easy to define postmodernism in a word as there are various factions of postmodern thought depending on different areas.

Murphie & Potts regard postmodernism as “a cultural condition and a set of artistic practices within that period (40). Also, Jencks define as “the continuation of modernism and its transcendence” (qtd. in Murphie & Potts). Postmodernism is style of art and architecture of the late 20th century.

"The word tattoo comes from the Tahitian word "tatu" which means "to mark something". It is arguably claimed that tattooing has existed since 12,000 years BC. (http://www.tatthoo.com/tattoohistory1.htm) "

Post modernism is a difficult view point to interpret or describe in a few words, as to provide an insightful description that remains succinct is quite ironic as postmodernism opposes the attempt to ascribe one broad meaning to any “thing”. Postmodernism has often been referred to as the destruction of the Metanarrative. Thought-out all cultural eras society has usually had a focal point in their cultures. The age of enlightenment used God, modernists used technology, postmodernism seems to have disregarded structure all together. We can only truly understand what postmodernism is if we can understand the ideas that modernism portrayed. Postmodernism is the rejection of the ideas and structure that is the foundation of modernism. The rise of postmodernism can be drawn down to the rejection of trust in authority and the beginning of questioning everything. Postmodernism can be evident and demonstrated through a multiple of mediums such as art, architecture and literate. It breaks sharply away from the past, takes elements from the past, but doesn’t endorse their original purpose.

     To understand post-modernism we must first understand modernism. Modernism is the philosophy that began with the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was an era when science and art flourished. European society used the Enlightenment to object to the oppression of the church. This era emphasized only those things that are

Let us begin with the history of Modernism and Postmodernism. Modernism is an array of cultural movements that includes art, architecture and design in the late 19th century. It started with artists who rebelled against the traditional teachings and wanted something radical, embracing the new social, political and economic aspects of the modern society. Artists such as Picasso, Monet and Pollock were painting in styles that has never been done before. Modernists believed that they could change the society and their way of life. It was bound to happen with culture and trend change in Western society after the World War I. However, it became very rigid and inflexible, becoming more and more irrelevant to the rapidly changing world. Postmodernism, as the name suggests, came after Modernism. Modernists spent much of the 20th century trying to forge a better world inspired by science and universal truths. “Less is more”, quoted by a famous German-American architect named Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, it was what every

It is hard, to describe postmodernism exactly in few sentences, since it is constant to develop. Instead, it might be significant to concentrate on what it claims to evade the modernist project. Postmodernism was at first a response to "modernism", which is recognized with rationality, linearity, and "purification" (Featherstone 1991). Mostly it influenced the disenchantment persuaded by the Second World War, postmodernism inclined to refer to a cultural, intellectual, or artistic status deficient on a patent central hierarchy, linearity or systematize principle and representing great complexity, opposition, vagueness, diversity, and interconnectedness.