Prompt 5

The two sources dealing with body modification, the National Geographic body modification gallery and the story on National Public Radio, approach this form of expression in two very different ways. The National Geographic seems to preserve the exoticism of this art by including several examples of body modification from foreign countries, tying their reasons of modifying them selves to religious, spiritual, and cultural practices. Even the two examples of modern primitivism that were shown highlighted the highly spiritual reasoning for their practices. None of their examples displayed tattoos that were merely for decoration, or done under more casual circumstances, as the mainstream tattoo is today. Another thing I found interesting about the pictorial was that none of the subjects were ever identified with names; they all remained only as people in places and cultures, with no individuality of specific people. I believe this was a technique National Geographic used to preserve the exoticism they were arguing of body modification.

The story ran on National Public Radio had a very different treatment of body modification; instead of arguing it was still an exotic practice, as National Geographic did in it’s pictorial gallery, the radio program argued that it was becoming more mainstream. They used one example of a real person, James O’Conner, who seemed like a pretty typical guy. The use of the typical individual enforces the mainstream argument, as well as the job he had, which was not only in a very professional field, but a typical one as well. Supporting with statistics and the interview with O’Conner, they argue that body modification is becoming less and less exotic.

As far as my opinion, I believe that body modification is trending towards the mainstream. Through my experience, I have seen many people who have undergone body modification that still are ‘typical’ people, not deviant bodies that want to be seen. With the increase in those kind of people, body modification shall soon be a much more accepted practice in our society.