Explore simple and extreme body modifications practiced throughout history. See examples of body alterations ranging from tattoos and piercings to horns and scars.
Updated: 11/21/2023
Body Modification History, Types & Examples
Table of Contents
- Body Modifications (aka "Body Alternations" or "Body Mods")
- History and Types of Body Modification
- Extreme Body Modifications
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
What are forms of body modifications?
There are countless forms of body modifications. Tattoos and piercings are the most common, but there is also scarification, branding, dural and subdural implants, tongue forking, and many more.
Do people get horn implants?
People can get horns implanted as a form of body modification. Horn prostheses are implanted subdurally, meaning beneath the skin.
What are examples of body modifications?
There are many types of body modifications ranging from quite common to extreme. Some of the most common include tattoos, piercings, and scarification.
Is extreme body modification illegal?
Extreme body modifications are not illegal in the United States. They can, however, carry significant risks to the person's health if not done correctly and in a sanitized way.
What is extreme body modification?
Extreme body modification refers to changes to the body that are outside the cultural norms of society. In the United States, extreme modifications include tongue forking, horns, and subdural implants, among others.
Table of Contents
- Body Modifications (aka "Body Alternations" or "Body Mods")
- History and Types of Body Modification
- Extreme Body Modifications
- Lesson Summary
Body modification also called "body alterations" or "body mods" refers to deliberate physical changes that alter the body's appearance. It typically applies to alterations that are considered outside the societal norm, such as tattooing, piercing, scarification, and branding. However, many of these practices are becoming more common and culturally accepted. Body modification has been practiced in many cultures throughout history for various reasons, including alignment with the cultural constructs of beautification and status, demonstrations of strength, and rites of passage.
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People have altered their bodies for many and varied reasons throughout time, including beautification, remembrance of lost loved ones, expression of individuality, marking milestones or achievements, and spiritual expression. For instance, in China, women would bind their feet to inhibit their growth and keep them as tiny as possible as a symbol of beauty and social status. At the same time, Western women would wear tightly-laced corsets to alter their figures into extreme hourglass shapes.
The most common, albeit temporary, body modifications include styling and dyeing one's hair or wearing makeup to achieve a desired physical appearance. Types of body modifications can be as varied as the reasons for them, from the more common piercings and tattoos to the more extreme body modifications like scarification and implants.
Tattooing
The oldest tattooed man, Otzi the Iceman, was discovered in the Alps and lived approximately 5,000 years ago, though tattooing likely goes back even further. Tattoos have been discovered across many ancient societies, including the early Europeans, ancient Egyptians, early Asians, Celts, and Samoans. Tattoos were used for various reasons, including bodily adornment, representations of spirituality, demonstrations of social status, and as rites of passage.
Ancient Egyptian women tattooed their bodies for spiritual reasons. The early Japanese tattooing was primarily for physical adornment, while ancient Russians tattooed to demonstrate social status. Romans adopted tattooing as a means of marking slaves and criminals. Historians believe that Otzi the Iceman's tattoos were likely for adornment or spiritual reasons.
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Piercing
Piercing also dates back as far as 5,000 years. Otzi the Iceman not only had his ears pierced, but they were also stretched, meaning that the holes in the ears were enlarged to hold bigger pieces of jewelry. Tribal peoples believed that piercings would ward off evil spirits. People in Borneo would pierce their children's ears as a sign of their dependence on their parents, and sailors in the 1600s held the superstitious belief that piercings would help keep them safe at sea. In the United States, infants' ears are pierced for cosmetic reasons. Today, ear piercing is the most common type of body modification.
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Scarification and Branding
Scarification is one of the more extreme types of body modification. Scarification involves making minor cuts to create designs in the skin, a tradition that goes back thousands of years. African tribes, for example, practice all types of scarifications to demonstrate strength, social status, and beautification. It is thought that scarification is so prevalent with them because the scarring designs stand out better against the darker skin than tattoo ink. The Maori of New Zealand also practices scarification to demonstrate artistic skill and tribal affiliation. Scarification is new to Western cultures, not coming into common practice until the 1980s, when it began to be used as a means of connecting with one's more primitive, spiritual side.
Branding is a type of scarification, but instead of using minor cuts to create the scarred design, the skin is marked using heat and burns. Thermal cauterizers, which use supercooled metal to freeze the skin, are used to draw designs on the skin, while strike branding uses fire-heated metal to burn the design on the skin, much like cattle branding. Scarification and branding are two of the most permanent types of body modifications.
Some of the more extreme body modifications include branding, cutting or removing body parts, and dermal and transdermal implants, which involve changes beyond the skin.
Extreme Body Modification: Gender Reassignment
One of the newest forms of body modification is gender reassignment. While this is more a medical procedure done by doctors and surgeons using medications and surgeries, it is extreme body modification. Gender reassignment helps the person feel more beautiful or physically attractive and more spiritually connected with their physical self. Like other alterations, gender reassignment is done to help the person alter their appearance to more accurately reflect their inner self.
Extreme Body Modification: Horns, Tongue Forking, and More
Many other forms of extreme body modification involve cutting into the skin and changing, removing, or adding to the physical anatomy, such as through dermal and subdermal implants. These kinds of changes include:
- Tongue forking
- Subdermal implants such as horns, brows, and other shapes
- Saline injections
- Ear expanders
- Flesh tunnels
Body modification has been in practice in many cultures around the world throughout history. The oldest known tattoos were discovered on the body of Otzi the Iceman, who lived more than 5,000 years ago. Women in China practiced foot binding to achieve the ultimate beauty standard in their culture, while tribes in Africa used tattooing and scarification to demonstrate strength and social standing. Cultures worldwide view body modifications as ways to beautify the body, demonstrate strength or social status, and deepen spirituality.
Some forms of body alteration are temporary and meant to align with the cultural constructs of beauty, such as cutting and dyeing one's hair or wearing makeup to achieve a specific look or style. At the same time, more permanent tattoos, piercings, scarification, and even branding have become much more commonplace, particularly in the United States. Even the more extreme body modifications, such as tongue forking and implants, while still considered shocking and on the outskirts of society, are becoming more and more popular, particularly in the Western cultures.
Video Transcript
What is Body Modification?
Think about all the people that you see throughout your day. How many of them have piercings, tattoos, or an unnatural hair color? Now imagine how many more have tattoos or piercings you can't see.
There was a time not very long ago when these aesthetic changes were associated with social misfits or outsiders. Yet, regardless of how they were (or are) perceived by the larger culture, these physical alterations have served an important purpose in societies and subcultures.
Physical alteration, such as a tattoo or piercing, is referred to as body modification, which is a broad category that includes just about any alteration that a person makes to their body. These alterations can be small, like pierced ears, or more dramatic modifications, such as a stretched neck or branded skin.
There are a wide variety of reasons that people choose to alter their appearance, either temporarily or permanently. These reasons are generally culturally specific, which means that what might seem extreme to you could be totally understandable in another culture. For example, in certain Asian and African cultures, women (and some men) will wear a heavy piece of jewelry to stretch the length of their necks in order to be considered more beautiful.
Body Modifications and Beauty
To a Western person, the thought of elongating your neck to be more beautiful might sound bizarre, but that's only because it's not common in Western cultures like the U.S. or the U.K. The concept of beauty is a cultural construct, which is an idea to which people assign certain characteristics and standards within their cultures. These are subjective criteria that vary from culture to culture, fall in and out of fashion, and evolve over time.
The idea of stretching your neck might sound extreme and painful just to be perceived as more beautiful, but think of all the things that Western men and women have done over the years for the same reason. For instance, at various times throughout history, women would wear corsets to make their waists or midsections appear smaller. This probably doesn't sound extreme, but it's not dissimilar from stretching the neck.
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In China, many girls and women have for centuries practiced foot binding, which involves breaking all of the toes, except for the big toe, and tightly wrapping the feet so they cannot grow. The purpose was to make women and girls more attractive in order to find a husband.
Tattoos and Scars
The most common type of body modification is likely tattooing. Despite their ubiquitous nature in the present, tattoos serve very much the same purpose now that they have for centuries in different cultures. For instance, in many cultures around the world, tattoos have long been a way of identifying one's self as a part of a particular group, indicating their status within that group, or differentiating themselves from others.
Though it is much more fashionable today, tattoos are still a way for a person to assert individuality and associate themselves with a particular subculture. The sizes, types, and amount of tattoos that a person has can send a message about that person to the rest of the world. Modifications can be inclusive (getting a fashionable or popular tattoo) or off-putting and exclusive (having tattoos on the face or head).
There are less common modifications that people make to their bodies to achieve a similar effect. Through a process known as scarification, a person will make superficial cuts to the skin in order to form words or patterns once the cuts heal.
Historically, this has been a common practice in many African tribal communities to indicate status or belonging in a particular group. Though it's far less common in Western cultures, people do practice scarification for various reasons. This is a much more extreme form of body modification, which is at times viewed as being a sign of emotional disturbance and can cause a person to be shunned or viewed negatively.
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Extreme Body Modification
As body modifications become more common and accepted in various societies, they tend to be less taboo or shocking. For example, when you hear the term ''body modification,'' you probably don't associate that with, for example, pierced ears or circumcision, because they are so common in Western society. There are, however, some body modifications that probably seem extreme by any standard, and they can be much harder to understand.
You probably wouldn't blink an eye if you saw someone with a tattoo or facial piercing, but what about someone with a forked tongue or horns? Tongue forking involves cutting the end of the tongue with a scalpel to make it appear as a snake tongue would. This is indeed an extreme form of body modification, because it's largely irreversible and dramatically changes the way a person is viewed by others. Similarly, there are some people that voluntarily have a limb amputated or teeth removed.
Unlike other culturally-specific modifications, these examples are generally pathological and can be a sign of emotional instability. For instance, a person who would have a limb amputated may have a compulsion to become an amputee, and might not feel stable until the compulsion is satisfied. Since doctors generally won't perform a voluntary amputation or other extreme alteration, people might ultimately make these modifications on their own, which is incredibly dangerous.
Lesson Summary
Body modifications include any alteration that a person makes to their physical appearance. In many cases, these are done to meet certain cultural constructs (ideas to which people assign certain characteristics and standards within their cultures) of beauty or status, like wearing a corset to make their waists or midsections appear smaller in Western culture, or foot binding in China (which involves breaking all of the toes except for the big toe and tightly wrapping the feet so they cannot grow).
Historically, many body modifications like tattooing or scarification (when a person will make superficial cuts to the skin in order to form words or patterns once the cuts heal) have been done to indicate a person's inclusion in a particular group or subculture. These have become much more common with the general public than they used to be, but there remain many body modifications, like tongue forking, which involves cutting the end of the tongue with a scalpel to make it appear as a snake tongue would, that are still considered shocking and taboo.
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