Modern Primitives (Re/Search) [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Andrea Juno (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Modern Primitives is the Bible of Body Modification, including tattoo, piercing, and scarification. An amazing 30-page interview with Fakir Musafar, as well as in-depth interviews with Ed Hardy, Lyle Tuttle, Leo Zulueta, Bill Salmon, Vyvyn Lazonga and other tattoo giants is featured. This book describes non-tribal people who felt and responded to strong "primitive" urges. A classic; this is the first book to chart out all the basic ways to creatively express one's individuality using the body as a canvas, especially emphasizing the need to find something rooted in one's own personal experiences and mythology. Inspiring and wide-ranging, Modern Primitives provides a vast anthropological context for implementing a truly unique body-decoration expression. An illuminating section of quotations rounds out this volume.

From the Back Cover
An anthropological inquiry into a contemporary social enigma--the increasingly popular revival of ancient human decoration practices such as symbolic/deeply personal tattooing, multiple piercings, and scarification. "Primitive" actions which rupture conventional confines of behavior and aesthetics are objectively scrutinized. In context of the death of global frontiers, this volume charts the territory of the last remaining underdeveloped source of first-hand experience: the human body.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Re/Search Publications (October 4, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965046931
• ISBN-13: 978-0965046930
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #267,047 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deliciously Wonderful, November 10, 2003

By	Heather (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

"Modern Primitives" is easily THE best book that explores contemporary body modification. The book has hundreds of pictures, wonderful in-depth interviews with important figures and tons of other great content. Though it focuses primarily on those in the world of body modification today, it also refers back to the origins and meanings in past and present cultures.

The interviews are relevant, interesting and very readable. You could sit down and read the text like a novel or you could simply refer to them for reference as necessary.

The best part is that this book takes an approach that will speak to those reading for personal reasons *and* those reading for academic interest. "Modern Primitives" is entertainly while still highly intellectual. The text is not sensationalistic like many are; it does not set out to shock the reader or obscenely glorify body ritual -- but simply to educate and inform.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the subtitle should be the "body art bible", August 22, 2001

By	Rae Schwarz "post-modern Renaissance woman" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

I got this book when it was first published by ReSearch in SF, the summer of 1989. I took it as one of two pleasure reading books while I attended a 6 week writing workshop, and almost never touched the other book. I had never explored such a diversity of differentness. I had no idea you could do so many things to one's body, or that you could pierce so many places!

Put together out of a series of interviews, this book includes "everyone who is anyone" from the birth of the modern body art movement. Tattooing, piercing, branding, cutting, it's all in here, with tons of amazing photos from the best of the fetish world. If you're thinking of piercing your navel, or adding your school logo to your bikini line, read this first.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You haven't seen this before, November 29, 2000

By	SH in Tampa "SPH" (Tampa FL) - See all my reviews

If you think are a jaded connoisseur of alternative lifestyle practices and have seen everything, this book will make you think again. Re/search has delivered a fantastic compendium of stories and photos of people that take the art of body modification to the extreme - piercing (everywhere and with anything), tattoo, scarification, extreme corsetry and surgical alterations (including genitalia splitting). The interviews that accompany this fantastic array of photos are interesting, genuine attempts to understand why people would go to such extreme lengths to alter their bodies.

This is the kind of coffee table book that your guests will not be able to put down.