I'm not entirely sure when my fascination with body modification began but I'd guess it was some time around my tenth birthday when my sister, who was sixteen, not only decided but was allowed by our parents to pierce her navel. My curiosity and need to emulate was transformed into something much different when at fourteen I was permitted to do the same.
At A Glance Author jenna Contact [email protected] When N/A Location ottawa As I grew into a more independent person my love of modification grew with me. I wanted to do something unique; an expression of who I was and what I felt. All of this was turned into complete obsession at sixteen when my grade 11 media class was asked to create documentaries on subjects they held an interest in. Armed with a video camera and a microphone myself and another mod loving girl headed downtown to Planet Ink (the smaller one) to interview their piercer. But after obtaining all the technical information we could we still found our documentary lacking; we wanted to know WHY people modified themselves. We knew where our love came from but what about others like us? With that in mind we started talking to students at our school about why they had chosen to pierce or tattoo themselves. Answers ranged from "I thought it would look cool" to "I wanted to remember a period in my life."
So this is where I come to the point of this little rant. Over the course of the last few years I have been asked constantly to justify my modifications just as I asked others to justify theirs. I don't have a problem with people wanting to know about my mods (which now include a few more piercings and a tattoo. Because of restrictions both at home and at work I don't have as many as I would like.), so long as their questions come from good natured curiosity and not close-mindedness. Discussions about my love of bm have also lead to some interesting debates, one of which occurred a few nights ago with my ex-boyfriend Michel. Now Michel's a pretty weird guy so he's one of the few people I can count on to discuss things openly and without judgment. After I had described my modifications (Michel lives in Toronto and hasn't seen most of them) I began telling him why I had gotten them done. I knew he would understand that I wanted to express myself with a unique and seemingly limitless art form, I also knew that he isn't the kind of person who questions others but forces them to question themselves. With all this is mind I still wasn't quite prepared for his next question: Is it really art?
At the time I couldn't think of a better response than to ramble on for a few minutes and then change the topic. But over the last few days I've given the question a lot of thought. Can something like body modification really be art? After all numerous people have similar tattoos, piercings or scars. Some have a symbolic meaning but others seem completely random. And if modifications were art whose art was it? In almost ever other form art is considered the property of the artist and not the current owner of the piece. So what does make body modification art?
The answer, I found, was in the question itself. The reason it was art was the reason I had gotten it done. Just like any other art form modification is subjective. When looking at a world famous piece of art no two people are seeing the same thing. While the artist may have created the piece with an idea or emotion in mind it is rarely what is conveyed to the observer. How the beholder interprets art is based on their emotions and experiences. While one may find a piece of art to be filled with joy and a love of life another could feel it as being a loss of hope or faith while yet another could have no emotional reaction to it at all. That is what makes all art; an emotional, spiritual or personal connection to the piece is what transforms paint on canvas, manipulated clay or an eyebrow piercing into a work of art. While many modifications are similar no two are the same because the reason or significance for it never is.
Sure, there are some people who skip into a tattoo parlor, pick something at random or because it's "cool" and never really give it a second thought but those are the people who don't really see their mods as art. Those who do have attached numerous different significances and experiences to them. Personally, one of the things I love the most about my modifications (aside from how they look) is that no two have the same story behind them. My first navel piercing was a tribute to my sister, an emulation that showed just how much I look up to her even if she'll never know. The second piercing, my tragus, was done to show my uniqueness in a school were a second hole in the lobe wasn't even common. My lower navel was an act of rebellion (my parents had told me not to get anymore) and my nipples were done for the supposed sexual perks. Finally, my tattoo may be small but it means more than anything to me. I spent months designing it with a friend of the family and feel that it reflects me perfectly. Even if in ten years I absolutely hate it, as people keep telling me I will, I'll be able to look at it and say, "Well that's who I was when I was seventeen."
Of course not everyone sees my modifications the way I do and this is another reason why I consider them art. Just like a painting or a sculpture they are open to the interpretation of whoever lays eyes on them and those interpretations say as much about the person giving them as my mods say about me. If the interpretation is negative it reflects nothing bad about me as a person but rather the ideas and prejudices of others. Some may find body modifications offensive, others are intrigued and there are those who are just obsessed. In any case they provoke some kind of emotional response either from the wearer or the observer and whether modifications are seen as positive or negative, they're art.