It is written in Leviticus: "Thou shall not cut your flesh nor mark your skin". This is one of the darkest taboos in the Judean-Christian tradition, and as with all taboos the urge to break it is strong. Following the urge to alter one’s own body is a unique and powerful demonstration of rebellion against freedom-limiting traditions and institutions; this act puts us in touch with customs that previously belonged only to small and usually primitive ethnic minorities through a modern and urban ritual. These "tribal trends" in modern times result in some physical, recognizable sign on the individual’s body (a mark that symbolically trascends those rules of society which attempt to devalue, dilute, and ultimately erase every individual’s uniqueness in order to better preserve the community) to celebrate a person’s truly unique individuality. What motivates and individual to be tattooed? Perhaps in our constantly changing and chaotic urban culture, only a permanent mark on the flesh is deemed to be peremptory and irrevocable.
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Tattoos and piercings are essentially an affirmation of the freedom we have to enjoy our bodies as we see fit while in this world, to clarify and express some inner truth or conviction, to flout the repression of conservative society, and to celebrate one’s uniqueness. Piercings and tattoos can be landmarks - profound rituals that create intense physical memories linked to meaningful episodes of one’s personal history. Thus they can become powerful affirmations of a person and of his/her life transformations. As anthropologist David Levi-Strauss wrote in a study on modern primitives (also called neo-primitives): "The body without marks is a unrefined, inarticulate and mute body and it starts to communicate and become an active part of the social body only after obtaining the sign of civilisation".
Pictures by www.antonx.com |
