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

Camouflage Body Painting- Can you see me? (Part 1)

Part 1: Emma Hack – The Skin Illustrator

Introduction

Body painting is one of the oldest art forms of humans. Camouflage is a form of body painting, first originated in ancient time when hunters painted their face and body to camouflage them into the forest background. In modern body painting, camouflage body painting is very popular in commercial advertisements and PR campaigns. Body painters paint on the skin of models with the same colors and patterns of the background to create the camouflaging effect. However, artists such as Emma Hack and Liu Bolin have reinvented and took this form of body painting up to the next level. They made it a form of art. While Emma Hack beautifully painted the body canvas of her models to make them blend into the wallpaper background at Florence___, Liu Bolin transformed into the invisible man by having himself painted to blend into various background locations. In this entry, I will talk about the camouflage art of Emma Hack and the next entry will be about Liu Bo-lin.

Emma Hack – The Skin Illustrator

The 39 year-old artist from Australia is a skin illustrator and photographer, produces “skin illustrations” by painting on the skin of models. She was trained as a makeup artist, so “painting in skin is the second nature to me”, said Emma. When asked for her definition on skin illustrator and body painting, she explained her thought on body painting as creating a new character and telling a story on the body, and skin illustration as creating a special effect on the skin, with the aid of lighting and camera angles. Emma decided to produce her new collection with the inspirations from the wallpaper patterns of the interior designer Florence Broadhurst. She hired models that she thought that they would fit the wallpaper patterns and paint on their bare skin. It takes Emma approximately 8 to 15 hours to create a piece of camouflage art. Here are some of her beautiful pieces from her Florence Broadhurst wallpaper collection:

                 Emma Hack painting on a model



Source: ‘I am a canvas’: how artists are reinventing body painting  by Tony Meyers. Smart Movie Making http://smartmoviemaking.com/i-am-a-canvas-how-artists-are-reinventing-body-painting/

Picture source: emmahackartist.com

                                                                             Mai Tran

Body Modifications – An Introduction (Part 1)

Ever since humans looked at themselves as a canvas for art, we have modified our bodies in more than superficial holes, paints, and inks. From reshaping bone structures to carving the flesh, body modifications have a wide range of categories that are topics of self-expression. I will discuss some of these topics and give examples of these peculiar arts forms. One of the most basic modifications people make involve a process called binding. By wrapping limbs, necks, or torsos, individuals can physically distort their anatomy. In some cultures, these changes are considered attractive and encouraged, for instance neck elongation of the Kayan people. As early as 2 years old, they wear collars made of brass rings to forcibly shape their necks.

Other forms of binding include the Chinese tradition of foot binding, which is the painful art of keeping children’s feet wrapped in youth to keep women’s feet small, which was desirable. In Western culture, both men and women have used corset training to shrink their waistline. By wearing tighter and tighter laced corsets, the body’s organs are shifted out and away from the constricted portions, leaving just thw spine and some connective tissues. The overall effect is thought to increase attractiveness in women by exaggerating their hip-waist ratio, and making men seem more masculine by having their shoulder look larger in proportion to their waists.

Implants are another common, though mostly recent, form of body modification. Most people are aware of breast implants, the silicone pad surgically installed in breasts to give additional cup sizes, but there are also implants under the skin used for decoration. These transdermal implants can be anything from 3-dimensional shapes, spikes, or studs.

Another recent trend has been tongue splitting. With the goal to have a split-tongue like that of a serpent, these modifiers usually have a tongue piercing that is modified to split or bifurcate the tongue. One of the unusual properties of a split tongue is that both sides can move independently from each other, making it a very alluring and interactive modification.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the introduction, which will include scarification, branding and injections!

Body Piercings - Brief History and Ear Piercings

Today, most of us in industrialized, modern societies view piercings as a way to accessorize the body and a form of self-expression. The truth is, piercings started out as identification of higher social statuses and is part of some cultural traditions. These rituals have started as early as centuries ago, proven by the piercings preserved in mummified bodies and depictions in tribal wall paintings.

Earring found at a grave dating as early as the 6th Century. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_piercing)

This week is mainly about ear piercings! There are so many ways to have piercings around or in the ear, but I will be talking about the fairly to most common ones. I am going to start from top to bottom, beginning with the scaffold or industrial piercing: it is the bar that goes from one side of the cartilage to the other, and it crosses that little curved in "C" space of the top portion of the ear. Going down a little to the side, and possibly the next most common ear piercing after the regular lobe piercing is the rim piercing on the side of the ear; a lot of times, people usually have little rings there or a simple small stud of some shape or stone. Going inside of the ear near the typical side cartilage piercing is the conch piercing where the piercing lays in the curve of the ear.  The piercing located on the little jutting piece of cartilage closest to your face is called the tragus. Then last, but not least, the most common piercing is the one on the lobe.

So far, I have only discussed the different ear piercings, but until next time, there will be more about piercings on other parts of the body!



- Le To

Body Painting

                                   Body Painting

Body painting is a form of body art. In body painting, the artist uses paint to paint directly on the model’s skin. Body painting that use the whole body of the model is called full-body painting. When only the face is being painted, it is face painting. When the body painters just focus working with the model’s hands, it’s called hand art.

Body painting, unlike other forms of body painting like tattoo or piercing, is temporary. The paint only last on the skin for a couple of hours or days at most. Small, detail body painting on a part of the body is also called “temporary tattoo”.

Full-body painting

Face painting

Hand Art

 

Brief history of body painting

Body painting is considered one of the oldest activities of our ancestors, along with group singing and dancing, stomping and drumming. On the first cave paintings which are estimated to be ten or even hundred of thousand of year-old, painting materials such as ochre and manganese dioxide were found. Some scholars assume that human ancestors use these painting materials to paint their own bodies. In tribalism cultures, forms of body painting using clays and other natural pigments existed. People painted their bodies for ceremonies such as worship or wedding.

Forms of Modern Body Painting

In this section, I will briefly talk about some forms of modern body painting that I’m interested in.

Face Painting

As the name suggested, artists of this form of body painting only focus on the face, or sometime the paint can be brought down to the neck area. Unlike makeup that women around the world use everyday to enhance their beauty, face painting using heavier paint with more vibrant colors to create different images or different emotions on the face. Face painting could cover the whole face or just a part of the face.

Hand Art

As mentioned above, hand artist only paint on the hands to made them look like different objects or animals.

Hand art by Guido Daniele

 

 

Camouflage

At the very beginning period of body painting, camouflage style is used by hunters or soldiers to help them hide themselves in forest. In the modern day, camouflage style is one of the most artistic forms of body art.

In these pictures, the models painted by artist Emma Hack blend right into the wallpapers behind them.

 

 

Fine Art Body Painting

Fine art body painting artists use the human skin as the canvas to paint real paintings. Laura Spector is one of those who combined the two categories of “body painting” and “fine art” together. She looked for 19^th century paintings of women, and recreated them by painting her male model. The creation of a women face image on a man’s face is amazing.

Fine art body painting by Laura Spector
Model: Chadwick Gray

 

 

 

 

                                                                                   Mai Tran

 

Hello and Welcome to our Site. 

What you will find here are examples of modern art.  According to Merriam-Webster’s more traditional definition, art is the use of skill and imagination in the production of things of beauty.

What could be a more beautiful canvas than the human body?

Here we will explore various methods of body art including: tattoos, piercing, body paint, and other body modifications. 

Some of the entries you will see on this site may be graphic. 

Stay Tuned!

If you would like to donate to our blog, please click the donate button below!