Body Marks: Tattooing, Piercing, and Scarification (Single Titles)

Gr. 6-12. This comprehensive overview traces the history of decorating the body from ancient civilizations until today. The discussion of current trends shows the practice to be common and much influenced by the many celebrities with tattoos and piercing. The authors' straightforward tone presents information without judgment and sometimes even with a sense of awe for the extraordinary lengths the people in some cultures go in an effort to reshape and ornament their bodies. Early chapters highlight how broad and common body marking has always been. Latter chapters show how the practice both separates and unites people of diverse cultures. Attractive page layout, high-quality glossy paper, well-designed graphics, and plenty of color photographs make for great browsing. Probably more appealing to students wanting to decorate their bodies than to those researching the pitfalls of doing so, this book offers a balanced look at its subject by also addressing the health risks and cultural drawbacks of permanently altering the human body. A bibliography and extensive source notes are appended. Roger Leslie
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Grade 10 Up-A compelling overview of tattooing, piercing, and other body modifications. Gay and Whittington trace the roots of body decorations and modifications from ancient cultures where tattoos were marks of ownership for slaves or punishment for criminals to today's trends where celebrities and teens often sport both tattoos and piercings. The authors include good sections about safety precautions as well as warnings about the social implications of body modification. The tone throughout remains neutral, and the text is well researched and well organized. Good-quality, full-color and archival photos appear throughout. While this is a good resource, readers interested in body modification and decoration would likely be interested in a pictorial approach as well.
Elaine Baran Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.