Spiritual Tattoo: A Cultural History of Tattooing, Piercing, Scarification, Branding and Implants

by John A. Rush

Say "body modifications" and most people think of tattoos and piercings. They associate these mainly with the urban primitives of the 1980s to today and with primitive tribes. In fact, as this fascinating book shows, body mods have been on the scene since ancient times, traceable as far back as 1.5 million years, and they also encompass sacrification, branding, and implants. Professor John Rush outlines the processes and procedures of these radical physical alterations, showing their function as rites of passage, group identifiers, and mechanisms of social control. He explores the use of pain for spiritual purposes, such as purging sin and guilt, and examines the phenomenon of accidental cuts and punctures as individual events with sometimes profound implications for group survival. Spiritual Tattoo finds a remarkable consistency in body modifications from prehistory to the present, suggesting the importance of the body as a sacred geography from both social and psychological points of view.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, History, Sociology, Anthropology

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 2005

Reviews

[Juliann Barker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking for a book that helped enlighten me as to the history of tattoos. Although this book did take a detailed approach to explain more than I bargained for. I am grateful, yet could have done without the detailed info regarding the witchcraft involved. He did provide very thorough understanding from a religious/spiritual aspect, yet my attention was lost during the structure of the human skin. John even helped bring to light that tattoos is a permanent act and that self-mutilation, branding, implanting, scarification, and psychedelic drug use can be as well. I would have liked to have seen this author venture into the history of Samoan tattooing, certain South American tribal tattooing. However, I was enlightened by the knowledgeable of the sewing, threading, and evening hammering tattooing.

Reading this book in public may raise a few eyebrows considering penile implants are on display. There is a lot of purging of pain, demonic talk, and religious clarity brought to the forefront. This book talks alot about people being in pain, not from the tattooing, yet from their existence and tribal connections and how tattooing doesn't always release the pain. Tattooing provides a more meek and emotionally distraught person a way to express the pain from the inside out.

This book is not for the faint at heart or seriously religiously closed minded. Please consider this book with an open mind and a fresh perspective. Great book to use for discussion groups.

[Cyone Forrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I skimmed through parts of this, some pieces really stuck with me. I’m a tattoo artist and often tattoo people after they experience a break up or loss. Reading about the idea of inflicting an intentional wound on the skin to initiate the healing process internally really felt profound to me and it’s something I share with my clients who may be going through something emotionally painful. I also felt deeply impacted when reading about different cultural purposes for pain in ritual. Lastly, I found it really important to learn about the ancient history of tattooing. While this section was brief, I plan to continue my research into tattooing’s earliest practices, and hadn’t previously found much information on ancient tattooing.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well researched and written book on the culture of body modification though not the easiest read nor the most exciting if you don't want all the thought behind why we do what we do.

tl;dr - not a breezy summer read

[Merrikay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books I had waiting for me to read in retirement, which has been five years now!  There were two things that intrigued me about tattoos and I wanted to learn more.  One, I began hearing about women with mastectomies using tattoos as a way of healing and helping and saw some seriously stunning pictures (google image mastectomy tattoos if you haven't seen any).  Secondly, I read about the disturbance in relationships between generations of Maoris in New Zealand when Christian missionaries taught them to stop tattooing.  Particularly, the relationships between fathers and sons were harmed.  At the time I was also looking at U.S. gang tattoos and hadn't even considered this perspective and wanted to understand more.

John Rush is an anthropologist who teaches at a community college in northern California and that is the perspective that attracted me to this particular volume.  Anthropology is my favorite perspective from which to learn about many issues.

Rush writes about the history of tattooing, scarification, and piercing as well as branding and implants.  The common thread between these behaviors that Rush covers is their use as a rite of passage of some type, whether it involves, aging, illness, group affiliation or something else.  My favorite part was that he included his own culture, the U.S. with what I considered to be a fairly objective comparison. He examines the specific practices e.g. why paint the lips red, why get breast implants or as some men do now, calves implants, as well as the purpose the behavior serves and other methods used to achieve similar purposes.  For example  he compares the use of psychotherapy for healing (e.g. cancer survivor groups), athletic accomplishments such as a survivor running a marathon, to the use of tattooing.  It is an interesting topic.

Most of this book satisfies my longing for "proof" meaning peer reviewed research as much as possible, but the author does drift into more personal beliefs and behavior occasionally.  That of course can be easy to do especially with anthropology.  Additionally, parts were a little dry and could have been livened up with more case studies. Therefore, three stars.

[Aaron the Pink Donut · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very in-depth and hardly any illustrations or photos

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Educational but not exceptionally deep.