Body Modification. fashion . bizzare clothing

1. Fashion Deviation; Body Modification and Bizarre
clothing preferences of the Generation Z
(A Term paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the subject Advance Social Psychology)
Polytechnic University of the Philippines
Graduate School
September 18, 2013
BATALLA, JOSHUA J.
Master in Psychology
Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Hopefully this 2016

2. Background of the Study
The fashion trend of the new generation turns from bizzare to outrageous,
these new generations now moved from the conventional to divergent from
bizzare clothing choices, rapid change in personality, and practice of body
modification.
Body modification can be carried out and accomplished through
manymediums and in many different ways, from piercing and tattoos to
more cultural andreligious modifications such as circumcision; henna
painting, lip plates, neck ringsand the preparatory measures for wearing
Chinese bind shoes. Cultural and sociallyimposed images of what is right to
be normal such as the „ideal body‟ created throughcelebrity culture leads to
body alterations related to weight, toning and cosmeticsurgery.
To deviate from normal is to stand out. This may had been the theme of
people who practice body modification some use this technique to beautify
themselves and hide their impurities. But others decapitate and lacerate
their bodies for the thrill and fun of it.
There hasn‟t been much research on the aforementioned topic as it is a
new spring of revolution. But there are a lot of articles and blogs detailing
the reason why people involved in such deviancies.

3. Statement of the problem
This study intends to determine the reason behind Fashion Deviation;
Body Modification and Bizarre clothing preferences of the Generation
Z.
Specifically, this study will try to answer the following questions:
1. What is the newest trend in fashion people use nowadays?
1.1. Body modification
1.2. Bizzare Fashion Statement
1.3. Personality modification
2. Why do people tend to deviate their overall personality ?
2.1. Psychological
2.2. Biological
2.3. Socio-Cultural
3. When would be Fashion Deviation would be considered as a
disorder?
4. What are the possible treatments for people who become addicted
by Body modification?

4. STUDIES ABOUT BODY MODIFICATION
The Art and History of Body Modification
by LORI ST. LEONE
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2010 | 1483 WORDS
Body Modification. The term can have weird and scary implications for
people who have no personal interest or experience in the subject, and it
can be all too easy to judge or malign its participants and practitioners. But
in reality, to willfully modify one‟s body is to take part in a culture and
tradition that spans class, race, and human history like nothing else.
In the simplest terms, “body modification” means to deliberately alter one‟s
physical appearance, though people usually assume the phrase applies
only to such practices as tattooing and piercing or the more esoteric
branding and scarification. However, all one has to do is look at society‟s
present definition of aesthetic to discover that almost all of us engage in
some form of bodymodding or other. For instance, it would be pretty hard to
find a woman these days who doesn‟t have her ears pierced, and one of
the most involved, long-term, and committed types of body modification,
bodybuilding, is not often even considered to be so. And, of course,
surgical body modification has become extremely common in the form of
cosmetic surgery, but that‟s rarely considered shocking or odd unless the
procedure goes wrong or the resulting aesthetic is outside of the socially
accepted standard of beauty.
In every group of humans in known and recorded history, there have been
members who modified their bodies. The reasons behind their choices vary
widely, even within a single society. In many cultures around the world,
social status, group affiliations, and wealth are advertised with jewelry and
adornments; in others, deeper meanings are behind the punctures, scars,
and tattoos they wear. In certain African cultures, for instance, rites of
passage successfully completed are denoted by scarrings all over the face
and body, painfully administered by the practiced hand of an elder or
religious leader, the discomfort bravely endured by the new initiate, and the
marks worn proudly ever after. In some groups of people in India and
Southeast Asia, genital modifications are sought after by devotees of the
arts of love, and desired and preferred by their partners. And, of course, in
almost every culture there are modifications that are done purely for
aesthetic reasons–adornment and beautification of both sexes and all

5. genders, striving towards an accepted goal or standard of human
perfection within their culture.
So, with all that said, let‟s look at some of the history and present practices
of a few of the more common (and uncommon) body mods.
Piercing
It‟s a commonly accepted misconception that body piercing is a relatively
recent trend or fashion, but ear piercing, of course, is incredibly common in
almost every culture throughout history, with a huge range of legends,
myths, and meanings behind the jewelry worn and its placement. Nostril
piercing has been documented in the Middle East as far back as 4,000
years. The fashion continued in India in the sixteenth century, and is still
widely practiced there to this day. Both ear and nostril piercing and jewelry
are mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 24:22, Isaiah 3:21). And piercings in
other parts of the body, such as labret or lip piercings, are widely practiced
often in the form of enlarged piercings and lip discs. Tribes across Africa, in
Southeast Asia, and in North and South America all participate in lip
piercing.
And today, of course, all of these types of piercings are still practiced in the
West, though the primary motivation behind them is aesthetic adornment
and enhancement.
Tattooing
Tattooing, as we know it, can be documented as far back as 3300 BCE as
seen in the discovery of Otzi the iceman in 1991 and ancient Egyptian
mummies bearing tattoos of animals and various creatures. The practice,
however, is believed to have originated over 10,000 years ago. The
mechanics of tattooing have changed a bit over the years, and the
pigments and inks used have wildly improved in recent times, but whether
hand-tapped, poked with a single needle, or administered with the telltale
buzz of a modern tattoo machine, the basic reasons behind the choice to
become tattooed haven‟t changed much in all that time: fashion, function,
or just to make a statement of some kind.
People have also been forcibly tattooed to identify them permanently as
criminals or undesirables in society, and that associated stigma of tattooing
as “lowbrow” or undesirable still exists in the minds of many. Despite that,

6. tattoos are enjoying a resurgence of popularity and are very common in
modern culture, and for the most part, accepted as the norm.
Scarification & Branding
Traditionally, scarification is seen most widely amongst dark-skinned
people in equatorial regions-people who tend to have so much melanin in
their skin that tattooing isn‟t very effective, visually. The “crocodile” people
of Papua New Guinea‟s Sepik region, several Aboriginal tribes in northern
Australia, and the Karo people of Ethiopia are just a few of the many
cultures who, to this day, participate in traditional rites involving
scarification.
In the modern-day Western context, scarification and branding, while
markedly less popular than tattooing, are still common forms of body
modification, with beautiful end results for many devotees. The aesthetic
outcome of a healed scarification, however, has less to do with the artist
and more to do with the healing and genetics of the wearer, and that (along
with the pain and discomfort of the procedure and healing) will probably
ensure that scarification never becomes as common as, say, getting a
tattoo.
Implanting
The process of surgically implanting a foreign object beneath the skin is a
relatively recent development, but genital beading (or “pearling”, as pearls
are a very commonly implanted item) has been common among seaman in
the South Pacific and the Japanese Yakuza for several hundred years,
although specifics about the history of pearling are rather vague. It is also
extremely prevalent in the prison systems of the former Soviet Union and in
Eastern Europe. Indeed, it‟s still a commonly requested procedure in many
piercing studios in the western world, with biocompatible Teflon or silicone
beads and ribs replacing the non-sterile and possibly dangerous organic
implants traditionally installed. And, of course, in Western society, plastic
surgeons implant foreign objects into people every day in the form of
breast, calf, and chin implants.
Transdermal implants–a surgical implant placed beneath the skin, passing
outward like a single-point piercing–have been experimented with by many
underground “cutters,” a term for body modification practitioners with a
great deal of surgical skill and training who work quasi-legally or illegally
performing surgical procedures on select clientele. While somewhat

7. problematic to heal, these forms of implants are still popular with die-hard
body mod devotees and in the last decade, transdermal jewelry has been
redesigned and procedures refined to the point where one can walk into a
piercing studio almost anywhere in the world and acquire a microdermal.
Also called “surface anchors,” microdermals are small bases implanted
beneath the dermis in a quick, simple procedure with no more trauma than
any other piercing. The microdermal‟s threaded end then heals flush to the
skin, allowing threaded attachments to be worn and interchanged as
desired. Metal mohawks of spikes, sparkling gems worn all over the body,
and gleaming accents to pre-existing tattoos are just a few ways people are
wearing these fashionable implants. However, surface anchors require an
ongoing commitment to care and adjusting one‟s lifestyle to accommodate
the piercing, and therefore, won‟t suit everybody, but they are a huge
advancement in body modification and wildly popular.
Hardcore
Other surgical modifications seen in recent times are ear pointing, tongue
splitting, and many different genital modifications, all offered by “cutters”
and in many cases, by sympathetic board-certified surgeons. But even
within the bodymod community at large, these types of modifications are
often considered “hardcore,” are generally more unusual (though not
uncommon) and are mostly of interest to those body modification
enthusiasts motivated to push the boundaries of social acceptance.

8. Conclusion
Body modification has been around as long as humans have lived, and with
its rich and fascinating history, the practice is unlikely to die out anytime
soon. But despite some lingering societal disdain, modifications, even of
the more esoteric variety, are becoming more mainstream and acceptable
every day, and the craft behind performing these procedures is being
constantly perfected and refined by the artists involved. Professional
organizations such as the Association of Professional Piercers and the
Alliance of Professional Tattooists promote continuing education to artists
to teach new techniques and skills, and educate potential clients as to the
risks and benefits of modifications and how best to safely acquire and heal
their desired mods. And as new ideas and techniques become reality and
traditional standbys are adapted and perfected, it‟s safe to say that humans
will continue to reshape and redefine themselves by modifying their bodies.
The research made use of archival research where it based its
conclusions and findings through studying researches about the
topic that has been made in the last 5 years,