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| Body Modification (Photo credit: satragon) |
I
am seeing more and more people sporting a wide array of different body modifications. It used to be that it was uncommon to see a nose
ring or an eyebrow piercing, but those are now as commonplace as
earrings these days because there are more and more people willing to
go to extremes when it comes to body modification.
How
about an eyeball tattoo? Sounds bizarre, right? However, this process
has been around for over 2000 years. The earliest known description
of eyeball tattooing, or to give it its formal name 'corneal
tattooing' is by Roman physician Galen of Pergamum. In those days it
was performed to mask the leukomatous opacities in the eye, but today
the practice is mainly cosmetic although it has been used on occasion
to improve the sight of individuals suffering from a number of eye
problems including coloboma, iridodialysis, albinism and diffusion of
the nebulae of the cornea among others.
There
is also scarification, a body modification which is rooted in an
initiation rite of the people of Korogo Village in Papua New Guinea
where young males are repeatedly cut to create a pattern old scars on
the body. Here in the west we perform a similar procedure in the name
of body modification by having designs etched into the skin by
scratching or cutting.
Another
body modification that is gaining popularity is tongue bifurcation.
Piercing of the tongue is commonplace now, but the more adventurous
are taking it a step further by having their tongue split in two like
the forked tongue of a snake!The legality of this differs from state
to state and in Illinois, New York, Delaware and Texas there are
various laws which either an the procedure or require it to be
performed by a doctor.
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