NEWS: New Book Portrays the History and Culture of Body Modifications

CULTURE: New Book Portrays the History and Culture of Body Modifications

A new book documents the use of tattoos and scarification in cultures all over the world. Chris Rainier, award winning war photographer and former student of Ansel Adams, spent seven years traveling to places as diverse as Tahiti, middle America, Ethiopia and the Burning Man Festival, capturing tattoos and body modifications and the cultures that give rise to them in a series of black and white portraits.

Ancient Marks: The Sacred Origins of Tattoos and Body Marking is a thought provoking mix of art, photography and anthropology that asks why has humankind modified the human body for over 5000 years and why do we modify our bodies today? A sign of disparagement in traditional European culture, tattoos are often regarded as a sign of adulthood and prestige in many tribal cultures.

In an interview with NPR's Alex Chadwick, Rainier relates the disparate environments he encountered while creating his photographic journal. He spent several years, slowly winning the confidence of the Japanese Yakuza Mafia before being allowed to photograph Yakuza tattoos. In another, he finds a heavily tattooed man in Tahiti only to discover his subject was a tattoo studio owner in Los Angeles.

A book for anyone interested in tattoos and other body modifications, Ancient Marks is being publicized with a series of author appearances and gallery showings throughout North America into the spring of next year.

Very cool. I hope Fakir is in there. He deserves to be. Such an amazing man.

This book has been getting a lot of positive publicity on NPR... I listened to that interview with the author too. It's nice to see some good news in the media for once

[Edited on Dec 16, 2004 9:39PM]

Very cool indeed...

This is an interesting study...
Id like a read sometime whence the libraries about get copies.