Body Modifications

Just a warning you guys!!! This video is really graphic! :-/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OunA04eqrUA

JonathamO. "YouTube - World´s Strangest Body Modifications (Part 1)." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 26 Mar. 2009. Web. 15 Sept. 2009. .

This 21-year-old YouTube creator is from Portugal and has the username of JonathamO. It was created on March 26, 2009. There isn’t much background on the YouTube artist other than he compiled these images and has sequels to the video (parts two and three). In an excerpt about himself on his homepage, Jonatham O states, “Someone said one time on the comments that I am the World Strangest Uploader, and probably I am, my name is Jonathan and I have this channel to make videos about the strange things, the marvels in the world, I’m a bit crazy and I love good music, so I make research in the internet about interesting stuff and then combine them with a good music, like you can see in my videos…” He has almost eight million views of his videos so far.

This video really drew me in because it is so unusual. Body modification is a controversial topic because some people view it as “disgusting” yet others think of it as “cool”. There is definitely a “yuck” factor in this video. Some of the images made me cringe. However, I believe that the people who have these body modifications are looking to be different and are looking for some sort of reaction out of people whether it is good or bad. Many people believe that the body is made how it is supposed to stay. Others believe that they should be able to do whatever they want to their body because they own it in a sense. I love these sorts of controversial topics because it makes people talk and react to something that usually isn’t seen everyday.

The subject of this video is the most unusual body modifications. I believe that the artist is trying to show how far some people will go to truly express themselves and make a statement with their bodies. The artist of the video uses graphic images to get reactions out of his audience and subtle, calm music to go with what is being viewed. Whether or not the artist of the video uses calm music to contradict the harsh, graphic images or to try to calm the audience while they are watching the video is somewhat unknown. I think he used the music medium in both ways.

Body modification is art in my opinion. Artists sometimes paint something or draw something depending on what mood they are trying to convey. I feel people use body modification as a way to express inner emotions and feelings directly on their own flesh and bones (literally). Because of this, I believe that body modification represents the emotionalist view in Anderson’s “Quartet of Traditions”. However, it can be argued that body modification represents the instrumental view as well. When people get modifications done to their bodies, they are making an impact on others who look at them in different ways. Body modifications also make a significant impact on society and other art forms. The mimetic view can also be seen throughout this video. Those with the split tongues can sometimes represent a lizard and the burned wings in the back of others could possible represent an angel of some sort, etc.

I believe what we are talking about in class definitely relates to this video. Some people who view these people call them monsters or ugly. Others think it’s interesting and beautiful. I think these different views that people have can be seen with not only body modification, but in other art forms as well whether it be a painting or a tattoo. The “ancestor” of this art could date back to times when cultures made women had to wear rings around their neck to make it longer because it was perceived as beautiful. Other ancient body modifications can also be seen in Egypt where piercings represented the love of beauty. Body modification has been a form of ancient expression thousands of years ago and thousands of years to come.