Body Marks: Tattooing,Piercing (Single Titles) [Library Binding]

Kathlyn Gay (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up-A compelling overview of tattooing, piercing, and other body modifications. Gay and Whittington trace the roots of body decorations and modifications from ancient cultures where tattoos were marks of ownership for slaves or punishment for criminals to today's trends where celebrities and teens often sport both tattoos and piercings. The authors include good sections about safety precautions as well as warnings about the social implications of body modification. The tone throughout remains neutral, and the text is well researched and well organized. Good-quality, full-color and archival photos appear throughout. While this is a good resource, readers interested in body modification and decoration would likely be interested in a pictorial approach as well.
Elaine Baran Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-12. This comprehensive overview traces the history of decorating the body from ancient civilizations until today. The discussion of current trends shows the practice to be common and much influenced by the many celebrities with tattoos and piercing. The authors' straightforward tone presents information without judgment and sometimes even with a sense of awe for the extraordinary lengths the people in some cultures go in an effort to reshape and ornament their bodies. Early chapters highlight how broad and common body marking has always been. Latter chapters show how the practice both separates and unites people of diverse cultures. Attractive page layout, high-quality glossy paper, well-designed graphics, and plenty of color photographs make for great browsing. Probably more appealing to students wanting to decorate their bodies than to those researching the pitfalls of doing so, this book offers a balanced look at its subject by also addressing the health risks and cultural drawbacks of permanently altering the human body. A bibliography and extensive source notes are appended. Roger Leslie
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Library Binding: 112 pages
• Publisher: 21st Century (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076132352X
• ISBN-13: 978-0761323525
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,392,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but not the one of the best, May 7, 2004

By 

Heather (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Body Marks: Tattooing, Piercing and Scarification (Paperback)

"Body Marks" is an interesting look into the world of body modification. Though its primary focus is tattooing, piercing and scarification, it also has sections neck elongation and body painting (henna is specifically discussed). The book briefly discusses other cultures, but is mostly on modern, Western modification.

The book is well organised and each section is complimented with good photos (albeit sparingly). Some of the content is a bit outdated or inaccurate, but for the most part is well done.

I gave the book 3 out of 5 stars because, while it is well done, both the content and the photography was significantly less valuable than that found in other books ("Return to the Tribal" and "Modern Primitives" are much better). The photos were good, but there were relatively few within the book. As aforementioned, the content was interesting and well structured, but a tad outdated and in some places inaccurate.

If you're looking to expand your collection on body modification books, this is worth buying. However, if you're just looking for a starter book, I'd recommend "Modern Primitives" (or even "Return to the Tribal") instead.