Facing up to body art: "as soon as I turn eighteen, I'm getting a tattoo.".

I realized, after hearing this declaration repeatedly in my suburban high school, that a study of body art would be particularly relevant to students' lives. Front conversations with soon-to-be-tattooed students, I was convinced that many of them had not identified and reflected on all of the factors involved in a decision that would affect them indefinitely. When informally polled as to why they thought people today get tattoos, the majority believed that it was a simple matter of individual expression.

"People want to express themselves ... to be noticed ... to be different." I began to see it as my responsibility to help them sort through and understand this art form and its issues. I wanted students to understand the historical and cultural reasons for body art so they would be able to make informed decisions.

Start with What We Know

Body art sits squarely at the intersection of aesthetic, social, cultural, spiritual, and political concerns. Today, young adults demonstrate body art in forms (tattooing and facial piercing, for example) considered taboo by the dominant culture.

I introduced body art as both an art form and as a universal social behavior. Humans have always sought to change the appearance of the body in one way or another. I asked students to brainstorm and list as many types of body art as possible. They listed more than twenty everything from cosmetics and tanning to piercing, tattoos, and plastic surgery.

Considering the list, students realized that some body art techniques are more socially or culturally acceptable than others. For example, many females use cosmetics every day. Tattoos have gained in popularity among American youth in the past decade.

However, many students had never heard of scarification (the process of creating a design on the skin by means of shallow cuts that are sometimes rubbed with a colorant or irritant to enhance the resulting scar tissue) or raised tattoos and some found the very idea revolting. Likewise, when I asked students to respond to the intricately patterned face of a young Iatmul man from New Guinea, they quickly labeled him as strange. Then I asked these students to picture the same man at a Green Bay Packers game, painted the same way but in hues of green and gold. Now that image made perfect sense to them.

Origins and Traditions

The universal human activity of displaying body art has taken various forms throughout history and across cultures. By looking briefly at the history of body art and considering origins and traditions, students increased awareness of the way social, cultural, and political factors have influenced body art. Through our historical survey, one theme stood out: group identification or membership. Body art has long functioned as a means of identifying the individual as part of a particular group, whether that group was a clan, tribe, gang, military organization, or a loosely networked band of outcasts.

Students understood that throughout history time, place, and group association have shaped the decisions individuals made regarding body art. They acknowledged the influence their own culture had on their decision-making. They began to realize that what they had previously assumed was a very personal, expressive decision was less under their control than they had imagined.

Techniques and Aesthetics

We visited websites (see Web Links below) and found examples of various techniques for using the body as a format for imagery. We critiqued the images as artworks.

In our critique of these images, we discussed the issue of permanency. I asked students to revisit the list of body art forms that they had initially developed and separate the permanent from the non-permanent techniques. This was not as easy as it may seem. For instance, while tattooing was listed as permanent (for by now they knew about tattooed bodies found frozen in ice for thousands of years and they had debated the success of tattoo removal techniques) and make-up was listed as non-permanent, groups deliberated on how to classify piercing. Some holes heal quickly after the inserted object has been removed and others seem to remain indefinitely though they may become quite inconspicuous.

I wanted students to focus on the issue of permanence and change in our society. We live in a fast-paced, socially mobile society perhaps characterized by change more than anything else. Now more than ever, the ability to be flexible in continually changing conditions is essential. Are permanent forms of body art (of which tattooing is the most prevalent) appropriate in a society characterized by change? I asked the class to think about the themes in their own lives that will never change. Presenting these issues encouraged debate among students. "How do you know you will always think that image is cool?" "How do you know you will always have that opinion?" "How long do you think you will be a part of that group?"

Only a few themes survived the scrutiny of the group. "I know I'll always believe in God." "I'll always love my mother." "I know that if I have kids, I'd always love them." "My name probably won't change."

Controlled Experimentation

Having done some historical research, having engaged in aesthetic critique, and even having questioned the sovereignty of their own decision-making, students welcomed the last day of the body art unit. I provided a variety of non-permanent body art materials for their experimentation. Students applied henna to one another, painted each other's faces, hands and arms, created sequin and rhinestone designs, polished nails, and sponge-printed their hair.

Justification

I followed this with a unit in which students use solid form construction to create adorned heads of clay.

I believe the time spent on the study of body art is justified as long as students begin to understand the tradition in a wider context than simply a way to spend one's eighteenth birthday.

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students analyze common characteristics of visual arts evident across time and among cultural/ethnic groups to formulate analyses, evaluations, and interpretations of meaning.

WEB LINKS

Body Art: Marks of Identity www.amnh.org/exhibitions/bodyart/index.html

Bodies of Cultures:

A World Tour of Body Modification www.museum. upenn.edu/new/exhibits/online_exhibits/body_modification/bodmodintro.shtml

Body Art Facts

* The Tlingit of Alaska painted the emblem of their clan on their faces, for identification purposes, before tribal gatherings.

* Early warriors painted themselves to look fierce and frightening to their enemies.

* Cosmetics are often used to help people conform to society's accepted standards of beauty. These standards have continually transformed since Egyptian men and women applied henna, ochre, and kohl to their faces.

* Various African and Aboriginal tribes used scarification as a rite of passage. The marks were valued both as a sign of courage and as a mark of beauty. In some cultures, scars were necessary before an individual was allowed to marry, own property, or engage in trading.

* Body piercing, the practice of creating a hole through the body and inserting a piece of metal, bone, shell, ivory, or glass as an ornament, has existed for thousands of years. In some cultures, ear or nose piercing was related to prestige or rank in society.

* Historically, tattoos have been used as a form of group identification, to declare political status, to commemorate strength in battle, or simply for beauty. However, n most large and complex societies, tattoos have had a negative reputation, used to identify criminals, spies, or prisoners of war. Both the Greeks and Romans used tattoos to brand undesirables.

* In ancient Japan, tattoos were considered a mark of dishonor. Decorative tattoos developed in an effort to hide the brand of an outcast.

* As tattoos became associated with criminals, prisoners, and outsiders, they began to have a certain appeal as defiant symbols of outlaw pride: a badge of outsider or bad-boy status.

Wendy Strauch-Nelson is an assistant professor of art education at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. This unit was developed and implemented at Arrowhead High School in Hartland, Wisconsin. [e-mail]