The years of evolution make people struggle for changes of different kinds. They can be observed and analyzed from various points of view. In terms of the latter, stereotypical worldviews and alteration mania seem to become the most acute aspects of social and cultural life of any person. The obsession with perfecting or altering the physical body includes everything from extreme diets, to body piercing and tattooing, to tanning booths. Health care professionals have issued warnings about future, long-term risks involved with various expressions of body alteration, which can finally become the turning point in the whole understanding of what way will be chosen by a human being for evolution.
There are many theories either supporting or contradicting any kinds of body modifying obsessions. The Christian religious point of view seems one of the most prominent and clear philosophies standing against body alterations. Being created after the image and likeness of God, a human being’s body is a sacred vessel of higher powers. Christian religion denies any alteration, because the body is created in a perfect way, and changing it presupposes the contradiction with the divine power and righteousness. Nevertheless, tattooing, piercing, and other body modifications seemingly come not from Christianity, but from other cultures, including tribal traditions of smaller nations and distinguishing markings for differentiation purposes. It leads to a conclusion that the tendency for body modifying goes deep into the cultural varieties all over the world. The very notion of body altering is a cultural issue, as it includes the desire to come out of the mass to become more specific.
Anyway, a distinct obsessive pattern of behavior in terms of body alterations can be seen in modern society. A mania of any kind can hardly be considered a positive aspect of cultural and social life. One of the most acute ways of alteration is plastic surgery. Its side, which keeps in touch with the modern understanding of beauty, goes exactly into the field of the negative influence of body alteration. The main point here is that having a fast way for changing the appearance, people get not only the increase in the self-esteem level, but also narrow the view on traditional understanding of beauty as it is. Instead of being different from others, they match the mass consumer society, becoming similar to most of the population around, until plastic surgery is in trend. This obviously leads to a conclusion that the cultural level and the worldviews become more shallow and simple without a tendency to evolve.
Tattooing, piercing and scar creation can also be listed among the modern trendy body modification patterns. There are some theories, which suppose that making harm or changing the appearance of skin can be the result of some traumatic worldview or the desire to differentiate oneself from the mass culture that is stereotypical and harmful for a personality. It is also noteworthy that tattooing is now one of the most popular kind of body modification, which is probably acquired from pop-culture and trends, brought by the famous ones. Again, here one can observe the result, which is opposite from the initial aim. Instead of going out of the mass, a person becomes a distinct part of popular consuming society, and it destroys the idea of body changing to have everything changed, bringing alterations as the normal and ordinary procedure. Speaking specifically of the most painful modifications, it is logical to suppose that the whole process is based upon the seeking for the appearance that can substitute the existing one, which leads to the psychological roots of body modifying the disability of accepting one’s own personality as such and the lack of harmony of the inner world.
Another aspect is tanning. According to the flow of history, people perceive skin color in various ways. Seemingly, pale skin has been a sign of a nonpareil in many cultures for a long time. There are still cultures, in which tanned skin is considered vulgar and inappropriate, like Japan, where a tan presupposes the low origin or a low payed job outside in the sun. Nevertheless, nowadays, tanned skin is also a part of pop-culture, which gives it an opportunity to be listed among the body modifications under discussion. The tendency for artificial tanning comes out of the average understanding of a prosperous healthy person. If there is a tan on the skin, there is probably time and enough income for spending them somewhere in tropical countries. On the other hand, tanning can be probably called one of the most body state influencing kind of alteration. It is a widely accepted fact, that tanning can not only be health ruining due to the uncontrolled ultraviolet influence, but also call for a certain kind of addiction, as even knowing that tanning gives faster skin eldering and increases skin cancer risks, people still do it.
Overall, body alteration has a tendency for develop by mass consuming and stereotypical viewing, but together with that, it also has deep psychological basis. The desire to change one’s appearance can not be analysed in isolation with the understanding of traumatic low level of self-esteem and the pressure of modern economic and social situation, bringing non diagnosed depressions and manias. They say that a healthy society is the one, where people live in harmony with themselves and the surrounding reality. However, seeking for changes shows the reverse result. The future of body alterations will obviously lead to serious changes in psychological and cultural standards together with understanding of a human being in his initial state, which brings rather a negative conclusion that people still do not understand who they are, what they seek for, and what the real value of life is.