Body modification has been something that so many cultures have been doing for hundreds of  years.  Whether it’s the long necks of the hill tribes people in Thailand or the tattoos from the Polynesian islands, body art and body modification is something that people have been doing for a long time.  It could be something as simple as an ear piercing or as complex as a the brass rings of the Karen hills tribe women, anytime you change your body for art, beauty, or transformation it has an impact on your identity.  Beauty is in the eye of the cultural beholder.  

There might be a physical change, but it also brings about psychological change.  Beauty has changed over the years, and the way that we display it has also changed.

I listed to an interview of one of those hills tribe women and she has had the brass rings for over 45 years.  She says that she will be buried with it.  The rings have become a part of her identity.  It had become a part of her.

You can change your body, and it changes your identity.  Whether it’s brass rings or tattoo ink, all of those things can become your identity.