About Tattoos and Body Art

While it may seem like a new fad to see people walking around with different types of body art covering their bodies, there is nothing new about this form of personal expression. Cultures around the world have practiced different forms of body alterations since ancient times.

Exploring Types of Body Art

If you are looking for a more permanent and personal form of self-expression than off-the-rack clothing, radical hair styles or psychedelic interior design, you may be ready for body art such as:

• Branding - This type of body modification uses heated irons to burn designs into flesh.
• Tattoos - This art form involves placing various inks beneath the top most layers of skin to create permanent markings.
• Tongue forking - A more extreme type of modification, the tongue can be severed in the center to create a forked tongue like a snake.
• Scarification - Designs are etched into flesh by cutting and otherwise creating scar tissue in specific patterns.
• Implants - Implants can be studs inserted beneath the skin to act as anchors for studs and other "add-ons", but they can also lie completely beneath the skin to change the contour of a particular body area.

Even if the word "permanent" isn't in your vocabulary, there are types of body art that may appeal to your need to create an outward vision of what you feel inside or to use your body as a canvas to tell your personal story of survival, love and self-discovery. Options such as body paints, Temporary Tattoos and temporary body jewelry could be the answers you seek.

The articles in this category offer the resources you need to both understand the motives behind some of these extreme and not-so-extreme types of body art and what precautions and options are available to you. After all, if you are considering something that may change your appearance for a lifetime, it is only logical to know exactly what you are getting into before you take that final step. Your body art experience should be a positive one that assures you remain a proponent of the right to freedom of expression.