Body as Surface

In this segment, Bird introduces us to the ancient historical tradition of marking the body with paint, jewels, tattoos, and even scaring.  I find it interesting that this practice may have it's roots in the branding of slaves and prisoners, as well as spiritual ritual and cultural traditions.   Today, tattooing and other forms of body modification could be seen as a mix of both historical influences, bearing strong connotations of status, values and opinions, group affiliations, and general signification of identity; in other words, a sort of self-branding, indicating who you are and what formal or ideological groups you belong to.

I hadn't really considered it before, but I could see this concept having a lot of application in my work, which is concerned with ritual and spiritual significance.  Depicting witches or shamans adorned in ritual paint is not a stretch to imagine, but perhaps these patterns could provide an additional layer of expression through which I can articulate her meaning or identity.  Technically, it may not be "using the body as surface", but taking my inspiration from that artistic tradition, I could also envision applying tattoo-like ornamentation to other objects, both in 2-D and 3-D mediums, in order to imbue them with both visual and spiritual significance.