Introduction

This fascinating collection explores the growing range of body modification practices such as piercing, tattooing, branding, cutting and inserting implants, which have sprung up recently in the West.

It asks whether this implies that we are returning to traditional tribal practices of inscribing identities onto bodies on the part of ′modern primitives′, or is body modification better understood as purely cosmetic and decorative with body markings merely temporary signs of transferable loyalties?