Censorship and controversy concerning art, literature and culture dates back as far as 3rd Century, and as recently as the 20th and 21st Century. From the 3rd Century in China, the Qin Dynasty burnt books that represented a threat to the dominant or prevailing order. The Nazi book burnings in the 1930s and 1940s destroyed books by Jewish, or perceived degenerate authors. Picasso delivered Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in 1907, which represented a group of prostitutes as opposed to the traditional passive woman, which challenged the contemporary art community. Even in May, 2008, Bill Henson’s exhibition opened to a private viewing, and was cancelled soon after due to complaints and anxiety that it was too close to child pornography. Robert Valenti, who is the director and owner of Polymorph Body Piercing Studio in Newtown, believes that at the end of the day, “[t]he human body is the only thing that… basically you can do whatever you like to, and society, the government can’t actually stop you from doing that; it’s the only thing that politics and the government has no actual control over you. And for them to actually say, ‘no, you can’t put a hole in your body or modify your body in a way you see fit,’ it goes against anyone’s basic human rights.” While using the human body as a statement or protest may cause controversy, it can arguably never be censored. When we consider the Buddhist Monk’s self-immolation during the Vietnam War, or even of suicide as a form of self-representation, Valenti’s use of body modification can also be seen as a challenge to what is socially acceptable.
Valenti has two eyebrow piercings, one in his left and one in his right. He has a large labret piercing/plug, about 20mm in diameter, and two conch piercings, which is the inner ear cartilage, and they are 8mm in diameter. He has stretched earlobes that are 33mm, which took about two and half to three years to stretch. He has 3 small implants around his left eye, 2 transdermal implants as horns on his forehead, and a transdermal Mohawk. He has faint scarification on his forehead, as well as some lines on his chin. His nipples are pierced at 8-gage, which is about 3mm thick, as well as his 3mm thick naval piercing. On the shaft of his penis, he has 3 bead implants, and a 6-gage, Prince Albert piercing, about 4mm thick at the end. Valenti also has tattoos, one design of a cartoon-esque rooster chasing a duck, a half angel and half devil, the Mother Mary, his family tree in contemporary Maori art and another tribal design.
So how does Valenti do it? How does he cope with inflicting pain upon his own body and the body of others? Renaissance art and literature viewed the body as sacred, and Modern day science sees the body as a site of empiricism, a clinical exploration ground. Valenti has created a balance between viewing the body as clinical, as well as a type of text, or artwork, which is evident when you look at Valenti himself. He says that, “[d]ealing with other people’s blood, skin, really doesn’t phase me… I’ve always had an interest in the human body. Before I wanted to be a piercer, which I told mum I wanted to do when I was about 6 or 7, before that, it was brain surgery.” Polymorph offers anything from basic piercings and stretching through to heavier modification, branding and scarification as well as ritual suspension, where hooks are placed in the skin and the person is suspended. Their website, highlights anthropological concerns in different cultures to stretch piercing and scarification which dates back as far as the Aztecs, and Valenti thinks that probably further than that. In tribal cultures, it was to mark a certain event in a person’s life, such as birth, marriage or death. However, in today’s society, where there is no tribal structure, he says that we do body modification for different and usually aesthetic reasons, whether it is for fashion, or changing their own body in a way more acceptable to the individual.
(to be cont...)
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