Modern Primitives: Tattoo, Piercing, Scarification- An Investigation of Contemporary Adornment & Ritual

by V. Vale (Editor), Andrea Juno (Editor)

Modern Primitives': 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 ritual 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 the human body." *** * Introduction * Fakir Musafar * Tattoo Mike * Man Woman * Don Ed Hardy * Captain Don * Jane Handel * Wes Christensen -- Mayan Culture * Anton Lavey * Leo Zulueta * Roelyn Gallina * Bill Salmon * Sheree Rose * Lyle Tuttle * Vaughn * Vyvyn Lazonga * Monte Cazazza * Dan Thome * Hanky Panky * Charlie Cartwright * Greg Kulz * Heather McDonald * David Levi Strauss * Jim Ward * Genesis & Paul P-Orridge * Miscellaneous * Quotations * Sources * Index

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Cultural, History, Reference, Anthropology, Cultural Studies

211 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Japanese-American writer and publisher. He also played keyboards for the later famous power trio Blue Cheer.

In 1977 he started to publish the punk fanzine "Search and destroy" In 1980, he began publication of RE/Search, a tabloid format zine focusing on various counterculture and underground topics.

RE/Search later became always a format for books, of which Vale is a regular contributor.

Reviews

[Theo Logos · Rating 4 out of 5]

In ancient days, before internet, prior to the inception of social media, this book served as a social shibboleth. If you were hip to it, or better, owned a copy, you were part of a select group of subversives. If not, you were likely on a path to join the Chamber of Commerce.

The body modifications displayed in Modern Primitives were shocking for their time. Full body tattooing, repurposing one’s skin as artist canvas, was merely the vestibule to the shocking possibilities. All manner of body piercings, many previously unimaginably intimate, body scarification and branding were illustrated. Extreme corseting (which surely must have been dangerously damaging) and radical and painful looking genital modifications pushed this book well beyond the bounds of any previously accepted codes of good taste. To own this book, even to discuss it, was a symbol of your Outsider bona fides.

But American consumer culture is implacable. Since I first discovered Modern Primitives in the late ‘80s I have personally witnessed every one of these modifications (save for the most extreme of the genital modifications) in my own circles. Tattoos, long exclusive to bikers, sailors, and convicts, now are essential and common ornaments on every basic bro and sorority girl. Once exotic piercings — nose, lip, tongue, eyebrow, nipple — are now commonplace, fully integrated by the mainstream. You see fewer brands or scarified patterns, (probably because they are harder to adopt as salable commodities) but they don’t carry their old shock value.

So for me, this book has a dual significance. It is an artifact of my youthful initiation into a tribe of hopeful outsiders. And it is an object lesson as to how voracious capitalism can turn absolutely anything into a mainstream commodity to be exploited and sold.

[Mustafa Al-Laylah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The RE/Search Journals were my late teen year's version of pop-up books of alternative culture. Each and every one of them were the supreme arbiters of what was cool and imminently subversive. They served as field manual and survival guide to the pre-Net world of unique subcultures that were both dangerous and strangely delicate.

Modern Primitives was the first of the journals I had picked up shortly after reading Gibson's Neuromancer for the first time. The synthesis was a profound one which eventually led me to meeting Fakir Musafar and performing a ceremonial body modification rite at a Beyond Vanilla conference back in the early nineties.

Filled with all manner of body modification technologies - some ancient, some modern, some overtly spiritual in nature, some merely motivated by vanity - this book cataloged all manner of historical tattooing and piercing styles. In addition to these were added other, more unusual forms of body-play which still have yet to be exploited by the fraternities and sororities of the world. I mean, can you imagine a Pike sporting a saline-filled scrotum while his Tri-Delt sweetheart dances around him with cowbells stitched to her with fishing line. Maybe in the future, true believers. Maybe in the future.

[Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

When this book came out in 1989, it presented something which was still reserved for an extremely marginal subculture: full body tattooing, scarification, piercing of everything you can imagine, and more.
A lot of the photographs in this book were quite shocking to me in my mid twenties. It didn't stop me from buying the book though. :-) Nothing was hidden. I felt physical pain and cringed quite a bit from looking at some of the pictures. It certainly didn't convince me to imitate them. :-) It's quite amazing to me how something so marginal has, like so many other things in our world, become mainstream and the subject of reality TV shows. Even though it is now very popular, I still don't want to get anything pierced. I'm too much of a wimp I guess. :-)

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

In an alternative history of modern culture, this would be like the Book of Mormon, or the Fountainhead, or Dianetics, or something; something that is completely absurd, contradictory to every bit of evidence, immediately dismissed as a bizarre novelty by almost everyone, but so boldly asserted, and so seductive to a certain sensibility, that it becomes central to an ongoing parallel subculture, which slowly, ignored by most, ridiculed by the mainstream, becomes powerful and self-perpetuating over time, and then surfaces, already entrenched, to change the landscape.

My neighborhood would look very different if it weren't for this book.

[Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

DNF

I didn't finish this book, but read through about 2/3 of it. For those interested in the origin and evolution of tattoos, piercings, and scarification, this is a super interesting book.

My recommendation would be to focus more on the interviews and skip the "scholarly" articles. Those articles tended to be bloated, meandering, and boring; they also required some buy-in from the reader into the far-flung concept it was discussing.

The interviews were more just getting to know people and digging into how their paths through life resulted in such drastic body modification. The interviews are made much more interesting because they trace lives (and were also conducted) from a period of greater repression. Pursuing these body modifications wasn't just a little mark you get on your body like what people do today; it was a commitment to a lifestyle that oftentimes resulted in ostracization.

[Mander Pander · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have you ever started drinking with some relatives and said something, hey, tell me some stories about the old days, and then it gets to be past midnight and some of them are telling maybe some sexist or racist jokes and you’re not really smiling anymore, it’s more like a grimace or just baring your teeth?
Like, just hypothetically. What I mean is, some of the old stories are better off collecting dust in the dark.

[Eyehavenofilter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illustrated in black and white, with photos and drawings ( some extremely graphic) this is a "no holds barred " anthropological quest ( if you will) into the humans travels through the modern, primitive, and primitivist body modification practices. Human sacrifice, male wounding, sword swallowing, it's all in here. It is not about mutilation without consent.
" The necessity to prove to the self the authenticity of unique" , is fully explored in explicit detail. From banding all 4 extremities, waist bands, tattoos, piercings in and on every part of the body, Maya body modifications, cuttings, Samoan naval tattoos etc. From the Philippines, Thailand, Hawaii, New Zealand, Borneo, and beyond, hand tapped tattoos by the greats are illustrated.
At first I found this very disturbing to read, but as I continued, I began to understand, that some have always sought to to be unique, different, to signify their transition into maturity and some have tried to find a way to be closer to God. Hence the religious rites. Through some of these rituals this was by their permission and their way to find what ever path that they chose to follow, regardless of the pain.
Implants, incising, and scarification are also included.
Since this particular edition was published in 1989, I'm sure much more has been added to an updated version but I haven't found one as of yet.

[Dani Julian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should be three and a half stars. I enjoyed the fascinating profiles looking into the pierced, tattooed, and overall modified and came away with a new appreciation for the ritual and psychological aspects of being a tattooed person (and one who tattoos others).

I do wish that there had been a little more anthropological narration looking into history and world culture and a bit less interviewing (most of the book seemed composed of interviews).

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This actually seemed shocking when I first read it. Some how looks pretty tame now, especially having recently seen Genesis P-Orridge on the street in the cold light of day.

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

A roommate and good friend had this and we studied it closely for a few years. Today everyone looks like this but back then it was freaky stuff. Does all this body-modification have something to do with gender non-conforming body wishes? Probably. Anyway, saw it cited in Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity and had a nostalgic moment.

[Shi · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of interviews or prominent American tattoo artists, piercers, and body modifiers during the 70s - 80s. A good look into the history of body modification in America as a whole. Some of the people they interview are knowledgeable yet also insufferable. With a non-zero amount of fetishizing of other cultures by a bunch of white people. The overall tone of the book, however, is written with a high amount of respect.

[Jessie Edelstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 soooo informative and inspiring!! I highly recommend for anyone interested in learning about tattoos/piercings/body modifications on a deeper level + really good pictures (although I wish they were in color tho)

[Isham Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

This startling book which came out in 1989 (the Robert Mapplethorpe era) with its shocking photographs of torture artists would test any government's censorship guidelines.

[Rachel Hollingsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most comprehensive and detailed books on modern body modification and its role in popular culture. If you’re into any of that you need to know this book!

[Ron Anderson]

A somewhat interesting/entertaining, I read this back in 1989, personally I have always tried to avoid fads of any kind.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time I opened this book it actually revolted me and I had to put it down. I'm still not sure why I bought it a few weeks later. Loved it and inspired me to finally get a temporary tattoo. (The picture and accompanying story of the dude that surgically split his wee wee down the middle is still a little tough to stomach. But it's a great picture to photocopy and include in your Christmas cards to aunts and uncles.)

[Windowshady · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had no small role in the rise in popularity of tattoo and other body modifications, especially throughout the 1990's. Definitive, informative and entertaining, Modern Primitives interviews dozens of tattoo artists, body modification experts, ritual participants and relevant odd-balls who provide insight into body modification history and culture.

[sam kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

wildly intresting for anyone who is just beginning to look into body modification. there are many more specific books on the subject, but this gives a great overview, interviewing many predominant figures in the body modification circle.

[Jyllian Martini · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so important to me when it came out. I was lucky enough to meet and even be tattooed by several of the people in it. It is dated now, but it was wonderful then.

And just look how much Genesis P-orridge has changed since then.

[Aaron the Pink Donut · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great place to start your voyage of self dicovery through body modification.

[Chandra Shukla]

This book blew me away when it came out...now it seems trite.

[nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book to have in highschool 8)

[Zoomusicguy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for the week of stomach although much of this is stuff you see on the streets of any major city nowadays.

[Benjy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most influential books I read in my Midwestern youth.

[Allison Thurman · Rating 4 out of 5]

History of the modern body art/tattooing culture in the U.S.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're into piercing, cutting, tattoos, or body modifications of any other kind, then this is worth your time. The entire Re:Search series is very well done. A cult classic.

[Steve Gassen · Rating 1 out of 5]

good book, subject boring to me was the problem.

[Yunweixiaobao]

“Modern Primitives is the Bible of Body Modification, including tattoo, piercing, and scarification.”

刺青亚文化相关/猎奇

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Get over it, Burning Man motherfuckers!

[Mills College Library]

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