Japanese Tattoo

irezumi refers to the insertion of ink under the skin to leave a permanent, usually decorative mark, in other words, tattooing.

It tells a story

seceret art form

Performed by masters.

Footbinding

Foot binding was a custom practiced in some parts of medieval China on young females for many centuries and finally discontinued in the early 20th century. it was done for aesthetic reasons, much as many women today wear high heels, despite the discomfort.

Young girls’ feet, usually at age 6 but often earlier, were wrapped in tight bandages so they could not grow normally, would break and become deformed as they reached adulthood. The feet would remain small and dysfunctional

Forms of plastic surgery

Plastic surgery is a general term for operative manual and instrumental treatment which is performed for functional or aesthetic reasons. Can be either reconstructive or cosmetic.

The word “plastic” derives from the Greek plastikos meaning to mold or to shape

Rhinoplasty (or “nose job”):

Mentoplasty chin surgery

Mastopexy (breast lift)

Differences between tattoo and scafication

A tattoo is a design or marking made by the insertion of a pigment into punctures or cuts in the skin.

Scarification is a permanent body modification that uses scar tissue produced by the body to form designs, pictures, or words in the skin.

Reasons:

l  Scarifications are usually more visible on darker skinned people than tattoos.

l  Endorphins are released in the process of obtaining the scarification that can put a person into a high or euphoria.

l  Unlike tattoos, scarifications are a product of one’s own body.

Methods

Branding    Cutting    Abrasion

Circumcation  clitoridectomy  excision..

Circumcision is the removal of some or all of the foreskin (prepuce) from the penis.

Clitoridectomy means the partial or total removal of the external part of the clitoris.

Excision: to remove clitoris and outer labia

Infibulation is the practice of surgical closure of the female labia by sewing them together to seal off the female genitalia,

The foreskin is a retractable double-layered fold of skin that covers the penis and protects the urinary meatus when the penis is not erect

Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It can include the introduction of forms of dress or personal adornment, music and art, religion, language, or behavior. These elements, once removed from their indigenous cultural contexts, may take on meanings that are significantly divergent from those they originally held.

What one group views as cultural appropriation, however, another may consider simply “borrowing”. There is a natural human tendency to mimic, adopt and adapt tools and behaviors which are admired, valued, or considered useful. But when a dominant group copies and begins to assimilate certain cultural aspects of another group, resentment and sometimes open hostility can arise among members of the originating culture.

In capitalist economies, particularly, commercialization plays a central role in the packaging and marketing of cultural expression of all kinds. When combined with cultural appropriation, particularly if the cultural expression in its original context has religious or spiritual value, some people may feel that the subject culture has been cheapened, or made the appropriation a “meaningless” part of pop culture. Further, if the culture of origin does not receive proper credit, or its people receive little or no monetary recompense while others profit, there is often a sense of exploitation as well.

In some cases, a culture usually viewed as the target of cultural appropriation can become the agent of appropriation. For example, the government of Ghana has been accused of cultural appropriation in adopting the Caribbean holiday of Emancipation Day and marketing it to African American tourists as an “African festival.”

A more subtle example is brass band music (trubaci). While this kind of music is almost exclusively performed by Romani people, who may not consider themselves Serbs, many people of Serbian origin will consider this to be their own style.

It has been argued that such action not only steals from the originating culture, but also devalues its people because it reduces the appropriation. others hold that some practices are transcultural, and that no culture has a right to claim them as exclusively their own or to assign a nontransferable status or meaning to them.

Body modification  is the permanent or semi-permanent deliberate altering of the human body for non-medical reasons, such as spiritual, various social, or aesthetic. It can range from the socially acceptable decoration (e.g., pierced ears in many societies), to the overtly religiously mandated (e.g., circumcision in a number of cultures) to provocative statement by the rebellious (e.g., tongue splitting), some even get physically addicted with a painful procedure in a way analogous to that experienced by those who self harm. Some people experience an abstract but distinct compulsion to modify their body that appears to have no underlying or external reason.

Nearly every human society practises or has practised some type of body modification in its broadest definition, from Māori tattoos to Victorian corsets to modern breast implants.

Some futurists believe that eventually humans will pursue body modification with more advanced technological means, such as permanently implanted devices to enhance mental and physical capabilities, thereby becoming cyborgs. For the substantial number of people with heart pacemakers and brain implants such as cochlear implants and electrical brain stimulators for Parkinson’s disease, this is already a reality.

Controversy

One controversial objective of body modification is the attempt to resemble another race, such as Asians having their epicanthal folds modified to resemble non-Asian eyes or skin lightened with dyes (or even surgically), suntanning, increase in lips, or African-Americans straightening their hair or getting a nose job.

Other sources of controversy stem from the notion of attempting to artificially beautify the natural form of the body, often leading to charges of disfigurement and mutilation. Extreme forms of Body Modification are occasionally viewed as symptomatic of body dysmorphic disorder, other mental illnesses, or as an expression of unchecked vanity. Often the general public are unprepared for some forms of modification and reports of the ostracism of modified individuals are widespread within the modification community. Unlicensed surgery performed outside of a medical environment can often be life-threatening, and is illegal in most countries and states.

“Disfigurement” (a subjective term) and “mutilation”  are terms used by opponents of body modification to describe certain types of modifications, especially non-consensual ones. Those terms are used fairly uncontroversially to describe the victims of torture, who have endured damage to ears, eyes, feet, genitalia, hands, noses, teeth, and/or tongues, including amputation, burning, flagellation, piercing, skinning, and wheeling. “Genital mutilation” is also used somewhat more controversially to describe certain kinds of socially prescribed modifications to the genitals, such as circumcision, female circumcision, castration, and surgeries performed to conform the genitals of individuals with intersex conditions to those of typical males or females. Those opposed to the practice of sexual reassignment surgery may consider it genital mutilation, done for psychological reasons; this is universally rejected by those in favor of it, who more often consider the reasons medical.

The National Flag of Canada, popularly known as the Maple Leaf, is a base red flag with a white square in its centre featuring a stylized, 11-pointed, red maple leaf.

Canada, after the First World War, increasingly used various versions of the Canadian Red Ensign as the national flag .The Maple Leaf Flag has been used officially since its adoption in 1965. The Union Flag of the United Kingdom and the Canadian Red Ensign are still sometimes flown in Canada by veterans groups and others who continue to stress the importance of the monarchy and the British Commonwealth connection.

As early as 1700, the maple leaf began to serve as a symbol celebrating Canada’s nature and environment. The maple leaf on the flag is a sugar maple leaf. Sugar maples are native to Canada and have brilliant fall foliage. The number of points on the leaf has no significance; they do not, for instance, represent the ten provinces plus the federal government. In fact, some of the very first Canadian flags made had maple leaves of 15 points: the lower single points were tripled like the top three.

By a figure-ground reversal of the white square and the maple leaf, the two upper corners of the square can be seen as silhouettes of two angry faces arguing. This has often been considered evocative of the nature of Canadian federalism, but was wholly unintentional.

In Canadian Culture, various patriotic comic book Canadian superheroes use the Maple Leaf Flag as the basis for their costumes, much as Captain America‘s costume is based on the Stars and Stripes flag. Hence, these characters’ costumes are typically red and white with a red maple leaf as their symbol. Canadian superheroes who use this visual motif include:

Captain Canuck   Guardian and his successor, the Vindicator    Northguard

Ever since the adoption of the Canadian flag in 1965, there have been programs sponsored by the Canadian government to promote the flag to their citizens and to the world at large. Two of the most famous examples is the Heritage Department’s Parliamentary Flag Program and the flag program run by the Department of Public Works. The flag has also been featured on several definitive stamp series issued by Canada Post since 1989. This increased exposure of the Canadian flag and the flag as part of the Canadian identity at home and abroad through the circulation of postage stamps.