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TThe 1990s saw the dramatic rise of spectacular forms of body modification, which included the tattoo renaissance and the rise in body piercing, the emergence of neo-tribal practices like scarification and flesh hanging, and the invention of new, high-tech forms of body art like subdermal implants. This book, based on years of interviews with body modifiers throughout the United States, is both sympathetic and critical and provides the most comprehensive look at this phenomenon. From punk rock to "modern primitives," from queer sadomasochism to cyberpunks, sociologist Victoria Pitts provides insight into the full range of body modification subcultures. Whether by turning themselves into female punks, neo-tribal "primitives" or science fiction cyborgs, body modifiers are engaged in the project of "reclaiming" their bodies from the machine of modern life. Pitts explores the connections between body modification and contemporary struggles over sex and gender, and widespread attitudes about identity, consumption, and the body.
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IN THE FLESH The Cultural Politics of Body Modification VICTORIA L. PITTS For Joe IN THE FLESH Copyright © Victoria L. Pitts, 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. 0-312-29310-0 hardback 0-312-9311-9 paperback Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available from the Library of Congress A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. First Palgrave Macmillan edition: May 2003 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index Bodies of Power: New Body Art Technologies ix 1 Subversive Bodies, Invented Selves: Theorizing Body Politics 23 Reclaiming the Female Body: Women Body Modifiers and Feminist Debates 49 Visibly Queer: Body Technologies and Sexual Politics 87 Modern Primitivism and the Deployment of the Other 119 Cyberpunk, Biomedicine, and the High-Tech Body 151 Reading the Postmodern Techno-Body 185 199 225 235 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS THIS PROJECT COULD NOT HAVE BEEN COMPLETED WITHOUT THE generous assistance of many people. Foremost among these are, of course, the women and men who agreed to share their “body-stories” with me, to whom I am very grateful. I would also like to thank the Brandeis University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which awarded me a dissertation fellowship during the early stages of this project. Later, the Research Foundation of the City University of New York awarded me a PSC-CUNY award that helped me in the final stages of the project. At Brandeis University, I would like to thank Stefan Timmermans, Peter Conrad and George Ross for their encouragement and mentoring. Stefan and Peter each had a particularly vital role in supporting this work from the beginning, for which I am especially grateful. I thank Stephen Pfohl for agreeing to be an outside reader. My colleagues and friends at Queens Colle