BODY ART
Way back when, body art and modification was reserved for the bold, impulsive and devil-may-care. It was also criminal. The Yukuza, a collection of transnational organized Japanese crime syndicates not dissimilar to the Mafia, were said to be heavily tatooed and practice amputation of the left fifth finger. “Normal” people tended the temple of their body, keeping it pure, without marks or elective modifications. Then, something changed, beginning from my San Francisco perspective with the rising popularity of piercing. At first, held to be self-destructive and a sign of mental illness, mainly childhood trauma. Piercing, however, became a “fad” followed by or contiguous with tattooing, typically done by body modification artists, part of the ritual being “taking a risk” with poor execution or failure, life-threatening infection including HIV and other unhealthy side effects. What the two seem to me to share in common is a semi-permanent public or selectively visible display of what today is more nicely called “individual expression” or “body art.”
In the sci-fu (science-based future) world of THE EDGE OF MADNESS, body art has advanced into common practice and is integrated into the now very public ritual of coming-of-age. Body modification is offered to adolescents to assist them in creating their individual “brand.” In the story, Draff Rob Brie [Septican-Smite] elects to have a prehensile tail to his best male friend’s surprise and his female friend’s aghast. Thinking on it’s possible uses, maybe not entire aghast. In essence, humans are now able to safely obtain functional body extensions, a significant advance though not necessarily the epitome of body art. While a prehensile tail might sound somewhat ludicrous to people living on one-gravity Earth, it might be highly useful in space or other alt-gravity situations. Something to think about in the future world where one major focus of business is on interplanetary emigration. After all, in the future, whoever controls the space lanes of communication will control a vast socioeconomic empire. Whoever doesn’t will be destined to languish. It’s a decided different world where massive change leaves everyone constantly “on the edge of madness.”
In the sci-fu (science-based future) world of THE EDGE OF MADNESS, body art has advanced into common practice and is integrated into the now very public ritual of coming-of-age. Body modification is offered to adolescents to assist them in creating their individual “brand.” In the story, Draff Rob Brie [Septican-Smite] elects to have a prehensile tail to his best male friend’s surprise and his female friend’s aghast. Thinking on it’s possible uses, maybe not entire aghast. In essence, humans are now able to safely obtain functional body extensions, a significant advance though not necessarily the epitome of body art. While a prehensile tail might sound somewhat ludicrous to people living on one-gravity Earth, it might be highly useful in space or other alt-gravity situations. Something to think about in the future world where one major focus of business is on interplanetary emigration. After all, in the future, whoever controls the space lanes of communication will control a vast socioeconomic empire. Whoever doesn’t will be destined to languish. It’s a decided different world where massive change leaves everyone constantly “on the edge of madness.”
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