Body Art and Extreme Modification

Modification Around the World: Tongue Splitting Then and Now

In recent years, the splitting or bifurcation of the human tongue has become a popular body modification in many countries.  The reasons for this practice are widely varied, but in many cases, soci...
Body Jewelry History

Modification Around the World: Cinco de Mayo in the US and Mexico

Cinco de Mayo is a holiday celebrated in both the United States and Mexico, primarily in the Mexican state of Puebla.  Contrary to popularized notions, Cinco de Mayo has nothing to do with Mexican ...
Modification Around the World

Modification Around the World: Body Art and Modern Yoga

There are many schools of yoga, traditional Hatha, Yin, Kundalini, Ashtanga (just to name a few), but one of the common threads that connects yoginis both Eastern and Western is body mod.  Many pro...
Modification Around the World

Modification Around the World: Tribal Celebration of the Vernal Equinox

Tomorrow, March twentieth, is the Vernal Equinox, or what most of us know as the first official day of Spring.  For thousands of years and across widely varied cultures, the beginning of the warm a...
Belly Piercings

Modification Around the World: Belly Piercings and Cultural Renewal

The navel piercing is unique amongst modifications.  As a primarily modern piercing, first gaining popular momentum in the 1990s, it remains one of the only standard modifications to never be heavi...
Modification Around the World

Modification Around the World: Lip Piercings and Stretching

Piercings of the lip have steadily grown in popularity over the past 50 years in Western culture, and today such modifications are common place.  Amongst those who are pierced, small groups, such a...
Modification Around the World

Modification Around the World: Early Tribal Tattooing Techniques

Tattooing has been around for thousands of years, but the art that we see today has evolved primarily within the last century.  The tattoo machine in fact, wasn’t invented until the late 1800s, wit...
Modification Around the World

Modification Around the World: Ritual Piercing and the Autumnal Equinox

Many cultures around the world celebrate the Autumnal equinox.  The phrase itself is taken from Latin and roughly translates to “equal night,” a reference to the near equality of the day and nightt...
Modification Around the World

Modification Around the World: Permanent Makeup Tattooing in the West

Tired of applying your makeup every morning just to wash it off each night? Fed up with that time-consuming beauty routine? Sick of spending money on cosmetics? If so, permanent makeup may be the s...