I chose to do this field report on body art because I, personally, find the topic very complex and interesting. It is for this reason that I decided to narrow the scope of my field research. I am focusing this report on the trends and evolution in body art as relating to modern women. When I say modern women I am referring to the women from about the 18th century to the current day. I chose to focus on women imparticular because of the strong societal pressure that is specifically place upon them to fulfill a certain role and aesthetically look a particular way. I wanted to research the history of body art and how it related to these pressures and stigmas. In my research I found everything from information on tattooing practices to body modification through clothing.

As De Mello noted in her book, Bodies of Inscription, "Contemporary tattooing has evolved from a practice that was originally imported from the islands of Polynesia and later transformed into a form of working-class folk art" (p10).  The credit should be duly given to the original tattoo artists of Polynesia, but the art form also existed in North America within Native Tribes. James Swan sights a specific tribe known as the Haida who practiced the cultural tradition of tattooing (Gilbert, 94-5). Both women and men were tattooed, but as common in many cases, the markings were different for each. The women more commonly had tattoos on their hands and forearms. Most had tattoos also on their breast and legs below the knee. These markings are very culturally significant. They allow the tribe identification on the basis of the design which tells the family name of the wearer (Gilbert, 94-5).  The popularization of tattooing in North America came about due to its wide acceptance by sailors, particularly those who traveled to the Pacific islands (De Mello, p 45).

The slow acceptance of the tattoo began, but not without a wide belief in the stigma that a tattooed person was lower in status and in cultural advancement than that of the modern world (p 45-8). In America, tattoos soon began to be . modernized. and changed into more acceptable forms of body art (p.49). Around the beginning of the 20th Century, many everyday people were getting tattooed, but still the largest crowd getting these designs was servicemen (p. 51). A new fetish concerning the tattoo art was the emergence of the display of tattooed people, from the native to the modern tattooed person (p.53). Freak shows became a popular attraction in the amusement industry, but soon became solely focused on the "made freak," the tattooed, as the view of "natural born" freaks evolved (p.53-4). During the late 1800s women began to emerge within the freak show atmosphere and even became the more valued attraction and could even "use their sexuality to sell tickets." The heavy tattooing on these women required them to show their bodies with less clothing than was socially acceptable at the time. The tattooed women were careful to leave their faces and hands clear of tattoos so that it was possible for them to have an "alternate career" (p. 58). As shown by this deliberate planning, the stigma of the tattoo was very clear and it was not one of social acceptance.  These women did pull of the image of being "classy" and "feminine" despite the tattoos they bared. As popular as they were, tattooed women went out with the decline of the sideshow in mid-century (p 59).

Women did not reappear in the tattoo scene again until the seventies (De Mello, p. 59). During this absence many tattoo artists even went as far as to establish policies against tattooing women except under very specific circumstances. One artist claims that he will refuse to tattoo a woman unless she is "twenty-one, married and accompanied by her husband, with documentary proof of their marriage" (p. 61). This has been attributed to the societal belief that, "Nice girls don't get tattooed" ( p.61).  Artists were also trying to avoid any angry husbands or boyfriends or any other male that might feel the need to make an artist pay for what he did to such a "nice girl." Tattoo artists only saw tattooed women who would not qualify as "nice girls," which included lesbians. Lesbians were not included in this belief simply due to the fact that they had "already relinquished their femininity" and they were "no angry husbands to contend with" (p. 61).

The reasons for these expressions of body art are as variable as the individual, but there are some common threads. Women, in particular, received tattoos to give them power in a difficult situation (De Mello, p. 167). The tattoos provided strength of affirmation and to help one cope with a situation in their life, anything from a breakup to overcoming a disease (p 167-9). Women, more than more men, are likely to tell of their tattoos in . terms of healing, power, and control. (p. 172). Many women find the experience of having a tattoo an "important step in reclaiming their bodies" (p. 173). Marking the body can even be seen in a feminist point of view as doing away with the "oppressive marks of a patriarchal society and replac[ing] them with marks of their own choosing" (p. 172). A far cry from the tattooed women of the sideshow, women today see tattoos as an assertion of "personal independence" (p. 174).

The tattoo is not the only form of body art that women have chosen apply to their bodies throughout history. Make up and pierced ears have become the norm in Western society, but were only two of many methods that women used to modify and sometimes "mutilate" their bodies (Brain, p 84-5). As the popular look in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries for women evolved into having a small waist, the corset came into popularity; bringing with it health risks ranging from pulmonary disease to great distortion to the internal organs (p. 85). Women also imposed upon their bodies with lead plates on their breasts, in some cases altering their ability to nurse a child (p. 85). In the 19th Century a process called a clitoridectomy came into practice. This process involved a belt that would be placed onto the waist of a female child to constrict the waist and worn until the wedding night, thus giving the girl the "ideal female form" (p. 85). Female circumcision and breast enhancement surgery are other forms that body art takes, all for individual and cultural reasons. Reasons for female circumcision include religious obligation and cultural beliefs associated with the belief that women are "weak" and "incapable of controlling their sexual urges" (Brain, p. 86-7).

The information I found concerning the history of women and body art all shared a common belief that our bodies need to be enhanced, either to set ourselves apart or to make us accept the body we have been given. The "ideal female form" in society does not exist, but can only be a personal aesthetic by which one alters her own body to express herself in one way or another to achieve her own "ideal female form." The forms of body art will change with the evolution of society and its beliefs, but the desire to modify our bodies will last as long as we possess methods to accomplish this goal.
 
In retrospect, I think that the information I found was wide in the topics it covered, but perhaps not detailed enough in the way I planned for it to be. I was looking for more information that gave details on societal views and how that influenced women in particular in the way they modified their bodies. I did find a wide variety of ways in which women modified their bodies, but perhaps not as many specifics about the society and their reaction to that particular method of adornment. I think I could've probably found much more detailed sources had a looked hard enough for them. In the future I will try to find more detailed information on a variety of subtopics within a main topic to better guide my research.
 

Works Cited
Brain, Robert. 1979.  The Decorated Body.  New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.

De Mello, Margo. 2000. Bodies of Inscription: A cultural history of the modern tattoo  community.  Durham: Duke University Press.

Gilbert, Steve. 2000. Tattoo History.  New York: Juno Books.

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