2023-07-20 21:00:00
“Tattooing” on the body appears to be a remarkable social phenomenon for the younger generation in our current societies, and its use has been remarkable and widespread, especially among adolescents, and the matter has transcended more than one generation. These emblems, or signs and symbols, constitute an attractive topic that should be studied and the reasons leading to it identified. Is this practice and its use considered new to us, or is it an imitation of ancient and modern societies and customs? Are they just new forms of relationship with the body, or are they some kind of ritual of transformation? Many questions can be asked, and we cannot dwell on this urgency, which requires us to read quickly, concisely, and possible..
In my book “Formal Stations, Modern and Contemporary”, Lebanese University Publications 2018, I dealt with a study on “Bady Art”, through which I tried to shed light on this type of art, which turned into an existential obsession and my identities, violated human taboos, and exaggerated in the torture of the self and the body. The body has been an expressive material for man since ancient times, the center of pleasures, taboos, and human laws. It began with primitive peoples and tribes through tattooing and adorning themselves with ornaments made of bones, metals, and wood that accompanied the bodies of the dead during their burial, passing by wrinkling, henna, and controlling the neck, neck, and lower lip by lengthening it, as happens with African tribes, for example.
The human concept of his body differed according to beliefs and civilizations, starting with his sanctification and ending with his vulgarity and violation of this sanctity that has been necessary for him for a long time.
The purpose of using the body in the past was religious, ritual, ceremonial, or purely aesthetic, including what was related to expelling spirits, attracting the other party, or to distinguish members of the tribe from other tribes, or to distinguish a single woman from a married woman, or to highlight the social status of the individual, and that was done by painting on the body with colors and dyes taken from nature.. Today, the concept of this art and the concept of using the body differ in our contemporary societies.
In their valuable book “Identity and Identities, the Individual – the Group – the Society,” French researchers “Catherine Alpern” and “Jean-Claude Roano Bourbalan” dealt with this issue by linking it to the issue of contemporary identity. The two researchers believe that physical emblems constitute an attractive topic in our societies, and they ask if the new uses have a connection with the old, and can they be compared to what is called “transformation rituals”, or are they just new forms of relationship with the body?
The two researchers discuss the opinion of psychologists who described the tattooed people as “savage”, that is, people with low intelligence, barbarians, and an indication of their shame and their defection from the values presented as values of civilization. Then they stop at giving examples under the name “the emergence of a cultural phenomenon” in England and California in the mid-1970s, where tattoos spread, specifically with the so-called “punk” in London, as a desire to ridicule social norms and physical and clothing appearances; They pierced the body with pins, and hung swastikas, religious symbols, and every kind of Western object on their bodies. The body became subject to burning, amputation, piercing, finishing, and tattooing, as a translation of a crude defection from British society. This phenomenon has spread in America and Europe, where it has been absorbed by the “urban tribes” (punk, hard rock, techno (electronic dance music), grunge (a type of rock music), bikers, bikers, homosexuals, and modern primitives. The methods include marking (drawing or marking on the body with red iron or a laser), finishing, cutting the skin, making raised scars, enlargement, and subcutaneous grafts by adding organs to it.. Perhaps the French “Orlan” best expresses this by changing the features of her face, head, and body.. Orlan took her face as a mirror to simulate artistic models from primitive civilizations, or an approach to the works of some of the faces of artists’ paintings through the ages, like Kalah. Arriving on a forehead close to Mona Lisa’s in beauty, or to resemble the lips of one of the characters in the artist’s paintings “Francois Boucher, etc. She may implant some materials under her skin to obtain a swelling or protrusion that serves her subject and purpose, or to reproduce herself as a new being. Her surgeries were transmitted live via satellite for the world to see. And the meat extracted from the surgical operation will be displayed in museums around the world, along with the tools used in the operation. She also performed performative movements, these movements that often accompanied body artists. There is also the artist «Yoko Ono». And there is the artist, Ingrid Mwangi. And there is the Australian artist “Stirlac”, who used advanced devices of modern technology attached to his naked body to display his performances, as if his body had turned into a machine. And there is the artist “Jeanne Panet”, whose work was overshadowed by pain, suffering and sacrifice in the seventies as a masochistic act, as she used to write off herself, so that blood would flow from her exposed to dangers, not to mention the permanent marks and scars left by wounds in her feet, arms and stomach! As for the American artist «David Vojnarovic», he finished his lips and closed them as if he were sewing a dress! He also buried himself in the ground, leaving his face exposed to the air to breathe. and many others. (For expansion, see our mentioned book).
So, the tattoo has an identity value, as the aforementioned researchers see: it expresses the individual’s affiliation to a group, to a social system, and accurately defines religious affiliation. The contemporary badge gains individuality; Affirmation of individuality that does not belong to others. The body of a person who belongs only to him. It expresses his dissociation as an individual, because our society is changing in individualism, making the body a tool for separation and affirmation of the “I”. Also, tattoos and piercings indicate an ontological change, and increase self-confidence and personal maturity! Body badges also imply a desire to draw attention, to create an aesthetic presence, as the surface of the skin radiates a special aura.
The bodily badge declares belonging to oneself. It translates the need to complete an incomplete body by itself, on an individual initiative, in order to embody personal identity (as researchers Catherine and Jean-Claude see).
Whoever wants to see the amount of tattoos and their prevalence among young men and women must go to swimming pools during the summer, where bodies compete with their tattoos like a wrestling ring: I am the strongest, the most beautiful, the finest, and the most present! The body is no longer as clean as we were created on it, but has become a tool to play to confirm our madness, futility, and loss.
of the. Yusuf Ghazawi
1689905847
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