Some relevant reading material:

Camouflage Body Painting (part 2)

Liu Bolin – The Invisible Man

Liu Bolin was born in the Province of Shangdong, China, on 1973. He moved to Beijing in 2009. At Beijing, he attended the Central Academy of Fine Art, and got a degree in sculpture in 2001. After graduated from school, Liu had been through a very tough time of his life. “After I graduated from school, for a long time, I had no family, no job, no love in my life… I had no position in society”, said Bolin. Since then, he had the idea of visualize his sense of invisibility. In 2006, he was forced to move out of a commune where the government decided to conduct a redevelopment of the area. Liu Bolin painted himself to protest against this move.

Liu Bolin spends a great amount of time before hand to do the preparation work. He chooses the location in which he will be camouflaged into. He plans the steps on how to do it. With the help of technology, he visualizes the process to give his assistants better ideas. He chooses which assistants will be doing the painting and instructs them carefully. The most difficult part of the whole process is not when his assistants painting his body, but when Bolin has to stand for 5 hours straight at the location. The total process to create a project takes Bolin and his assistants up to half a day. After they’re finished, they take digital camera shots of him from different angles to provide the complete view of his work and to look for suggestions for improvement.

Photographs of Bolin’s works have been exhibited in many big cities in United States and Europe. On October 2011, Bolin had himself camouflage into the Wall Street’s landmark bronze bull and the half-built Freedom Tower at Ground Zero.

The art works of Liu Bolin is not only creative and fascinating, but they also contain messages regarding the current political and social issues. The process of creating the project takes a massive amount of time and effort. However, with Liu’s dedication and passion toward what’s he doing, the hardship does not bother him much as he has said: “That may be my fate. Like death in the snow for a mountain climber. Like seafarers who die at sea. I choose to work this way.”

Body Modifications: Beauty is Skin Deep

While major body modifications are very noticeable and exaggerated, there are other forms that have a great historical background, but have been heavily used in recent days to create subtle, yet impressive, body art. These include alterations to the skin called scarification (cutting and branding) as well as subdermal saline injections.

Scarification is any permanent damage done to the skin. This has been a cultural instrument, much like tattoos, for many tribal civilizations as a ritual that has even been known to produce euphoric effects. In today’s world, modern technology has made it easier to safely damage flesh without many of the risks associated with such means. Both cutting and branding can now be broken down into a scientific process that is minimally harmful, and can be somewhat reversed by skin grafts should the need arise.

Cutting refers to simply cutting skin, usually into designs, and popularized today as an alternative to tattoos. Instead of ink, trained artists surgically slice the skin using scalpels, then allow the tissue to heal, but leaving a slight gap for scar tissue to form (while still keeping it clean to prevent infection or bleeding out). Many people prefer this method to tattoos because the process is less painful than injecting ink, just as long lasting, and is a lot more subtle because of the natural flesh tones.

Branding is the burning of skin, typically with very simple shapes or patterns. Like animal branding, a person must use either a very hot tool to inflict the damage, or they can use much more recent equipment such as lasers to etch designs into skin. Laser branding has become really popular, since it is far less painful and much more accurate than other means. Lasers can carve intricate patterns in very little time, with lines as fine as you can imagine. Laser branding is typically pretty expensive because of the equipment requirement, so there are a lot of people that simple use more common tools and burn themselves rather than hire an artist.

The last form of body modification I will discuss is also one of the most bizarre and recent inventions. Saline injections under the skin can cause the effect of temporary 3D designs in body parts, and many people that use this art form tend to show off their crazy creativity. One of the most common places to have an injection is in the forehead, and often this is seen with a slight pressured dimple made at the injection site to produce a ‘donut’ shaped 3D form. While this is not widely used, the effect of being seen in public with such a modification can be quite startling, with a lot of the users bringing their new look to parties and events.

I hope you have enjoyed these segments on body modifications, and stay tooned for more awesome body art!

Body Piercings - Navel Piercings

http://www.tattoosbodypiercings.com/belly-button-piercing-technology.html

The navel piercing, better known today as the belly button or umbilical dip piercing, is more commonly seen on girls in modern society. However, there are sources that claim to often hear that navel piercing was practiced by ancient Egyptians on males. It was said to signify eternal life, manhood, and courage. Like the ear piercings that I talked about in the last post, navel piercings are also said to signify wealth and higher social status back in ancient society. (http://www.tattoolous.com/blog/2012/07/10/historic-piercing-the-egyptian-navel-ring-controversy/) 

http://veronicascott.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/0011.jpg

There is a common misconception that the navel piercing is actually in the belly button itself; but truth it, the top rim of the navel is usually pierced, and the jewelry hangs down the navel. To get a piercing, people usually book appointments in advance and take painkillers about one hour prior to the piercing process. The person doing the piercing will usually have the skin around the piercing spot clamped to isolate it for a needle to make the hole.

http://www.bodypiercingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/body_piercing.jpg

The skin should be sterilized before the needle goes through and again after the piercing is made. The jewelry goes in after the hole is made by the needle. After that is done, you are pretty much set with your navel or belly piercing and the healing process begins! The jewelry or place holder at your piercing should not be taken out until it has healed, or the risks of infections would increase. With proper caring, like using antiseptic, showering carefully, cleaning the piercing, and sleeping in the right position, the belly piercing should heal just fine in six to nine months!

http://www.original-press-releases.com/2012/05/belly-bars-website-featuring-industrial.html

http://www.tattoosbodypiercings.com/good-age-for-belly-button-piercing.html

- Le To