I watched a TV show about ‘Body Art’. Two common body arts we are quite familiar with, Tatoo-ing and body piercing. I am going to share something that stunned me today, a new trend in body art. It is called “scarification”. If you think tattoo and body piercing are crazy, then this is the extreme case.

In the show, a girl was wearing a top completely exposed her back, showing off a magnificent bamboo leaves pattern that “carved” on her back. That is the concept of scarification. The skin of her back was peeled off with special metal tools, exposing the flesh underneath. The body modification was performed by a professional body artist, by applying topical anesthetic onto the desired area. The skin tissues will then be cut according to certain pre-designed patterns. When the wounds heal, there leaves a darker red marks, a permanent patterned scar on the body. Stunning… The host of the show interviewed few viewers, most of them think that was a crazy act, a body torturing rather than a piece of art. What d’u you think? To me, frankly, it was a piece of nice art. Nice, indeed a pity, as art becomes permanent damage to skin tissues, no tuning back. The limitation is, the pattern has to be entirely shown, else it would served more like a “scar” than an art if it is partially seen.

In "The Passage of Time", a stage show, one of the lady performers has a metal ball pierced at her tongue. At first I heard she talked, the speech was not as clear as a normal people talking, it was like someone talks with a candy in mouth. When she sang, then I saw, there was a metal ball mounted in her tongue. No wonder she could not speak clearly. When she sang and opened her mouth wide, I could see flash of the metal ball. It was pretty, I thought. Somehow the process of piercing the ball thru the muscle of the tongue, ouch… I can’t imagine that. Apart from that, a ball in mouth would more or less affect the eating and oral behaviors, I believe.

Most modern ladies nowadays have earrings pierced at the earlobes. I appreciate body arts. However, I do not see a necessity to do so on my body. I have never had any piercing. Body art is very much depending on the angle you are looking at the piece of art. Some people see a naked body as a symbol or sex, and some would suggest a naked body is a piece of art. I am an artistic person, I definitely think a human body is a piece of art. The sculptures of the 17th century were all naked men and women. They emphasized on the beauty of bodylines and shapes, no sexual message at all.

How far do you think body arts can go? It’s beyond you and my imagination, believe it.