Body alterations

Abstract

Across cultures and historical epochs, body-altering practices—ranging from decorative tattoos to permanent modifications—have been employed to convey aesthetic values, mark group affiliations, and many subfunctions. As these practices evolve, so too does the need to understand the psychological, anthropological, social, and aesthetic motivations that underpin them. This dissertation presents a comprehensive exploration of body alterations through the lens of three interconnected studies. Together, they investigate the mental functions of body-altering behaviors, the conceptual structure of tattoo aesthetics, and the mechanisms underlying aesthetic appreciation of tattoos across diverse populations. By synthesizing insights from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and empirical aesthetics, these studies contribute to a deeper understanding of why individuals engage in body alterations and how these practices are perceived in modern society. The first study examines the mental functions of body-altering behaviors, emphasizing the dual roles of aesthetics and group affiliation. It identifies the aesthetic drive as the primary mental function, supported by secondary functions. The second study shifts focus to the conceptual structures of tattoo aesthetics, examining how internalized social norms and expertise shape aesthetic judgments. Finally, the third study provides an empirical investigation of how tattoos influence the aesthetic appreciation of human stimuli, revealing variations in perception influenced by expertise, age, and the extent of tattoo coverage. The abstracts for each of these studies can be found underneath, where they are presented in detail. Together, they offer a multidimensional perspective on the phenomenon of body modification, addressing not only the motivations behind these practices but also the intricate ways they are perceived, appreciated and understood by individuals with varying social and cultural norms. The findings have significant implications for understanding human aesthetic preferences, social identity, and cultural evolution in the context of body-altering practices. Study 1. Decorating the body as well as (semi-)permanent bodily modifications are a longstanding human practice, together with spending a great amount of time and effort on such body alterations. The present article reviews the mental functions of body-altering behavior. The primary aim is to identify and elucidate the predominant mental function underpinning these body alterations. Following several guidelines for reviews, we synthesized the literature, including several categories of body-altering entities from different eras. We argue that there are two crucial commonalities for individuals engaging in body-altering behavior that comprise the mental functions for doing so: aesthetics and group affiliation (dynamics), including the latter’s subfunctions of supporting individuality, resistance, personal narrative, physical endurance, and sexual motivation. Incorporating the existing literature, we find that aesthetic motivation takes precedence over group affiliation, thereby establishing aesthetics as the primary mental function of body-altering behavior; factors substantiating this conclusion are explored in detail within the article. Study 2. While body modifications have increasingly gained acceptance and popularity, how different subpopulations aesthetically appreciate tattoos remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the conceptual structure underlying tattoo aesthetics, focusing on the effects of internalized social norms and expertise. Using a timed free-listing task, three groups (≤49 years, ≥50 years, and experts) comprising 497 participants were asked to write down adjectives that could describe tattoo aesthetics. Statistical analyses of frequency, cognitive salience indices, co-occurrence dimensions, semantic dimensions, similarity measures, and valences were applied and, to directly compare the three groups, a generalized Procrustes analysis was applied. The variance and complexity with which individuals verbally expressed their perceived aesthetic appeal of tattoos were highlighted. However, the results do not reveal a unified concept of beauty, nor do they present a clear bipolar dimension of beautiful/ugly for two of the three groups. Nevertheless, the concept of beauty was found to be prominent in tattoo aesthetics, and aesthetic and descriptive–evaluative dimensions were identified, with terms such as beautiful, ugly, multicolored, and interesting being the most notable adjectives, although not with the highest valence. Possible factors explaining the intracultural differences between the three groups are also discussed. Study 3. Scientific interest in body modifications continues to grow, and tattoos have recently become a subject of empirical aesthetics. While conceptual structures of tattoo aesthetics have been studied, the question of how tattoos are aesthetically appreciated has not yet been studied. In this study, we examined how tattoos influence the aesthetic appreciation of human stimuli and uncovered differences in beauty perceived by individuals older and younger than 50, which we consider indicative of different internalized social norms, experts (tattoo artists) and nonexperts, and tattooed and nontattooed individuals. Images of a male and a female model were manipulated to vary in the amount of tattoo coverage across six manipulation conditions: Baseline (none), Light, Moderate, Heavy, Extreme, and Extreme + Face. N = 487 participants rated the beauty of these stimuli. The results suggest overall group differences (experts vs. nonexperts; tattooed vs. nontattooed; older vs. younger). The perceived beauty of the stimuli decreased as the extent of tattoos increased, with the Extreme + Face condition standing out as the lowest rated condition. These findings confirm that tattoos influence aesthetic appreciation, which is highly dependent on expertise and social norms as indicated by age. We also discuss the generalizability and implications of the findings.