Bmods - Other Cultures

As we often see today, many men and women are unhappy with their bodies. They feel as if they don’t live up to the standards of beauty put up by society and themselves. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Luckily for them, there’s a huge market out there to alter their bodies and feel beautiful, ranging from piercings and tattoos to the plastic surgery. Changing how you look has never been any easier! However, modifying or altering your body is not a craze or phenomenon brought up by our self-absorbed modern western society. Body modifications are embedded deeply in history and continue to still be found today in many cultures. These cultures alter their bodies for a more symbolic reason but can also even a more superficial reason due to their culture’s beauty norms. They have been present for hundreds of thousands of years, and will probably stay in human culture forever.
The earliest records of humans modifying their bodies are found on one of the oldest naturally mummified man ever found. His name was Ötzi, as he was found frozen in the Ötzal Alps running through Austria and Italy. He had ear piercings, which had been stretched, and tattoos, which scientists believe were done as a form of acupuncture. He dates back over 5000 years! Just think about how far back body modifications must go, if he is one of the oldest mummy humans have found so far. Thus, we can concur that tattooing and piercings are some of the oldest forms of humans altering their bodies. In fact, they are a constant in human history and culture. In Polynesian tribes, tribal tattoos are intricate and detailed. They often symbolize many things, such as wealth, social status, honor, and the coming of age. In some parts of Burma, women’s faces are tattooed to avoid getting kidnapped or raped by other neighboring tribes. In Thailand, tattoos are spiritual and are used to inscribe spiritual messages onto Buddhist monks. As for piercings, in many tribes and cultures, piercings are...