Interviews with 15 tattoo and body modification artists. Modern
Primitives examines a vivid contemporary enigma: the growing revival of
highly visual (and sometimes shocking) "primitive" body modification
practices - tattooing, multiple piercing, and scarification.
Also added is a new community section, where current practitioners have been invited to have their cards displayed. Modern Primitives
was the first book to investigate not only the "how" but also the "why"
of body modification practices. It reaches far back into history to
multiform cultural traditions to illuminate one of today's most
wide-spread youth culture visual signifiers. Heavily illustrated with
detailed, contemporary photographs, as well as archival anthropological
images and drawings of ancient tattoo traditions, Modern Primitives was ground-zero for today's body-modification trends.
Fakir Musafar: By the time he was twelve, Fakir had begun a systematic,
personal exploration of virtually every body modification and ritual practice
known to man--all done clandestinely until the '80s.
Since the release of the 1985 film
Dances Sacred and
Profane (in which he did the primitive rituals of a Sun Dance and a Kavandi
Bearing), Fakir has given numerous lectures accompanied by slide shows, "live"
demonstrations of rituals and practices, and showings of
Dances Sacred and
Profane for which he is the booking agent. He has published a series of
publications titled
Body Play, and has been featured in several videos
by Charles Gatewood and others. Fakir is now world-renowned for his workshops,
performances and publishing. What follows is a condensation of conversations
conducted 1982 to 1986, and is representative of his philosophy and thought to
that date.
Ed Hardy: One of the foremost practitioners of the ancient art of
tattoo is Don Ed Hardy, a philosopher, historian, painter and innovator who, on
a global scale, has greatly advanced the cultural credibility of his profession.
As editor of
Tattootime he chronicled and disseminated little-known
mythology, anthropology, history, and photo documentation about tattoos. He
also spotlights current innovative trends both in technique and content. His
goal: to raise artistic standards and extend the range and complexity of symbolism
depicted, while reinvestigating and preserving past traditions...
Monte Cazazza: A founding theoretician of the Industrial
Culture movement, Monte Cazazza has continued producing videos (having recently
completed a successor to True Gore); music (with his band the Atom
Smashers); media studies (Marshall McLuhan being a perennial favorite); film
screenplays; and other project/collaborations with Psychic Television (PTV) and
artist Deborah Valentine.
Genesis and Paula P-Orridge were known for their
music and video projects under the names
Psychic Television (PTV) and
The
Temple of Psychic Youth (TOPY). Previously, Genesis had been a prime
innovator in the Industrial Culture Movement, producing dozens of albums as
part of the groundbreaking quartet, Throbbing Gristle, as well as releasing
recordings by SPK and others on the Industrial Records label. In the following
interview Genesis and Paula reveal motivations and philosophical imperatives
for their tattooing, piercing and scarification explorations.
