Modified bodies. Between fashion and identity projects

Bibliographic Data

ID4975360
AuthorsAmbrogia Cereda (0000-0003-4038-3651, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume24
Pages45-61
Publication date2013-12-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComunicação e Sociedade (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1645-2089 • E-ISSN: 2183-3575
PublisherUniversity of Minho (PUBLISHER • PT)
DOI10.17231/comsoc.24(2013).1774
OpenAlexW1591795123
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited22

The body has come to play an increasingly crucial role in social context, where appearance represents the privileged sphere for self-expression and identity construction. Among the many ways of decorating, adorning and camouflaging the body, some traditional techniques (tattoing, piercing, scarification) are competing with newer and technological ones (aesthetic surgery, implants) to shape and portray individualities. On the one hand, those techniques are borrowing from the world of fashion purposes and codes of presentation, on the other hand, they challenge that fluidity and continuous change by materializing long term identity projects aimed at resisting transformation.In both cases individuals refer to the body as a privileged realm to narrate and reflect upon their own personal story, they also seem more capable to manage the different techniques, and to mix them for their expressive purposes. The result is a combination of visual codes that can reveal different bodily models as well as different ways of experiencing corporeality and embodiment.The article tries to account for this variety by referring to a research carried out on four techniques (tattoing, scarification, aesthetic surgery and piercing) among a group of users and professionals

Aesthetics · Art · Context (archaeology · Identity (music · Political science · Presentation (obstetrics · Realm · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics · Visual arts · Computer Science · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · History · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Tattoo and Body Piercing Complications · Artificial Intelligence

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