Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best..., July 6, 1999
...of many recent books on body modification and the attendant culture. Probably the best follow-up to "RE/Search 12: Modern Primitives" in its respectful and knowledgeable approach. Exquisite black and white photos of beautifully adorned men and women, revealing themselves in every way: their desire for freedom and transformation, their sometimes troubled histories, their quest for new identities or for exploring their old ones. I used to work in an independent bookstore whose owner would get upset with me when I stocked books like this. Let some people live in a world of banality and the everyday; the rest, rejoice!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Human pinstriping, wallpaper and remodelling, January 2, 2003
A fantastic collaboration between Ted Polhemus (frequent contributor to the UK publication bodyart) and Housk Randall (photographer extraordinaire). What do you define as body art? This book covers tattooing, piercing, scarification, branding, hair dressing (head and pubic) and shaving, finger and toe nails, body building, plastic surgery and gender identity. The catalog is extensive but still retains a warm, intimate feeling. The portraits are sepia tone, showing many variations on what it is to be individual. Good for the beginner as this volume will provide an excellent overview of body art. Valuable for the collector due to the quality of the portraits and breadth of body art depicted, supported by the personal and intelligent commentary.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of pictures, a mixture of personal opinions and facts, July 23, 2001
This review is from: The Customized Body (Paperback)
It contains mainly information on bodypainting, tattooing, scarification, bodypiercing, gender transformation, masks and other forms of appearance manipulation. it has big clear pictures and personal comments from each person photographed. It's a very nice book to look through it doesnt have a large focus on writing as I wanted. It includes a mixture of personal opinion and actual facts. My main reason in buying the book was because I am interested in body piercing and I was disapointed that that only 12 pages were specifically focused on the subject. It does not give the "why you should not do it" lecture but looks at it in an anthropological view point. Looks at at reasons why people do it, how they feel when pierced and the non western tribes, eg Amazon. I find it disapointing that All pictures are in black and white. I was also disapointed that a lot of the book contains material on costumes, different hair and shoe styles which do not interest me at all. Even so for a person who is interested in them I would think that it is a book that they would enjoy.
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