Body Decorations

Germaine Greer's article "One Man's Mutilation Is Another Man's Beautification," can closely be analyzed and compared to Farid Chenoune's "Jeans and Black Leather." While one story focuses on the evolution of the human body, in terms of western and tribal cultures, the other focuses on the development of fashion as a social influence. Specifically, Greer's story talks about scarification, or a term used by Greer to describe tattooing or piercing one's body, while Chenoune's story discusses jeans and the black leather jacket. Overall, it is clear that clothing and scarification can be correlated into the same spectrum of fashion and popularity, we well as their abilities to communicate collectively. Punk and rock happen to be existing genres which have surely experimented and evolved in the fashion industry as well as the tattoo and piercing field.

Perhaps one of the most common aspects of both inking and clothing, is how they transitioned into society. In essence, both were initially existing in society, but they were not brought to the spotlight of fashion until motivated by a popular cultural influence; all of these influences symbolized the tattoo or the clothing different from what it represented initially.

"For the first time, these gangs lifted jeans and black leather jackets from the drab context of America's plains and suburbs. Such garb was no longer relegated to the work or leisure sphere, but was yanked into the harsh spotlight of high fashion." (147.)