Tattoos have been used in the past to designate slaves, give protection, and as punishment. Today, tattoos and other body art are a form of self-expression! Those who create body art often have a special set of skills akin to a sculptor or painter, but their work isnt accepted by everyone as art. Through critical thinking questions, readers are asked to consider this question and decide whether body art is a legitimate art form. A colorful layout enhanced by many photographs introduces readers to the many kinds of body art to aid in their consideration of the topic.

An Intriguing and Diverse Survey of Some of the Most ImportantArtists of the Century; New Affordable Format.As part of its critically-acclaimed "Themes and Movements" series, PhaidonPress is pleased to announce the new edition of THE ARTIST'S BODY, acompelling look at the artists' use of self and body as object and subjectin their work, a movement that represents the state of contemporary art andmakes a wider comment on the human condition.Bound or beaten naked orpainted, still or spasmodic: the artist lives his or her art publicly inperformance or privately in video and photography.Amelia Jones' surveyexamines the most significant works in the context of social history andTracey Warr's selection of documents combines writings by artists, criticsand philosophers.Beginning with such key artists as Marcel Duchamp and Jackson Pollock, thisbook examines a selection of the most significant players who have usedtheir bodies to create their art - among them, in the 1960s CaroleeSchneemann, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Yoko Ono; in the 1970s, Chris Burden, AnaMendieta, Vito Acconci, Marina Abramovic; up to the turn of the millennium,Matthew Barney, Mac Quinn, Tracey Emin and Mona Hatoum.In the survey, Amelia Jones, among the world experts in the field,discusses performance and body art against the background of socialhistory.She examines the breakdown of barriers between art and life,visual and sensual experience - how artists have expanded and renewed theage-old tradition of self-portraiture, moving art out of the gallery intounexpected spaces and media. Each image is accompanied by an extendedcaption. The works are organized thematically.* Painting Bodies, concerns work that shows the trace, stain or imprintof the artist's body in response to the paint-on-canvas tradition. * Gesturing Bodies, examines artists who transform the body - its acts,its gesture - into art, gesture, behavior and situations are used in placeof art objects.* Ritualistic and Transgressive Bodies, looks at work which uses thebody to enact challenges to the social expectations of the body, often inrituals that perform a cathartic function.Mutilation and sacrifice areused to rupture personal and social homogeneity. * Body Boundaries, examines boundaries between the individual body andthe social environment and between the inside and outside of the bodyitself. * Performing Identity, looks at issues of representation and identity. * Absent Bodies, explores absence and the mortality of the body throughphotography, casting, imprints or remnants of the body.* In Extended and Prosthetic Bodies, the body is extended throughprosthetics or technology, to explore cyberspace and alternative states ofconsciousness.Parallel to the illustrated works of art, this section combines texts bycritics who shaped the movement, from Lucy R. Lippard to Thomas McEvilley. Alongside these writings by philosophers and thinkers such as GeorgeBataille and Gilles Deleuze who have contributed on a theoretical level tothe discussion around the body - a prevalent theme in twentieth-centurycultural theory.THE ARTIST'S BODY is a powerful and poignant look at an increasinglysignificant movement and art form.This book is an essential referencethat examines some of the most cutting edge and innovative artists of ourtime.This new affordable edition is perfect for students of theater andart as well as anyone with an interest in contemporary art.

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More than eighty full-color portraits celebrate the rich variety and originality of tattoo art, presenting a close-up look at the work of masters of the art form, a brief history of the tattoo, and a listing of tattoers. (view table of contents)

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An artist known for fantasy illustration presents a collection of photographs of the athletic and well-muscled bodies on which he bases his work

Punk body adornment, the most notorious and celebrated of recent styles among youth, emerged in the mid-1970s and has persisted in varying forms to the present day. This book illustrates the confrontational aesthetic of punk style, and examines in detail the symbolic meanings and subversive aspects of punk body art. Like members of previous subcultures, denizens of the punk subculture have created a coherent and elaborate system of adornment calculated to horrify the general public. An aesthetic of shock, negation, and cultural pessimism is revealed not only through adornment, but through music, art, dance, fanzines, and dramatizations of violence. The symbolic inversions, ritual pollutions, and carnivalesque antics of the punk movement violate the conventions of daily life. The anti- commercial, do-it-yourself ethos of punks, with their emphasis on parody and gender confusion and an interest in the exotic and forbidden, further challenge dominant cultural values and ideologies. Along with a history of punk, PUNK AND NEO-TRIBAL BODY ART surveys the distinctive styles that have been influenced by punk ethos and aesthetic (including grunge, Gothic, and riot grrrl), and then examines the commercialization of punk style and how some punks reacted by adopting "neo-tribal" forms of body art inspired by non-Western practices in an effort to create an oppositional identity. Special focus is given to post-punk artist Perry Farrell, former lead singer of Jane's Addiction and founder of the annual Lollapalooza music festivals. Emphasizing individual meanings and personal aesthetics, the book explores the subversive and transformative appeal of tattooing, piercing, and scarification among youth and the ways that these forms of body modification are used to articulate feelings of estrangement, mark memorable events, signify a rite of passage, and individualize the body in an aesthetically pleasing and symbolically powerful manner.