The Painted Body

Despite the absence of remains (the oldest preserved body tattoos mummified bodies date back to 3000 BC), several clues seem to support this the idea that man took his own body as the first support for painting. Despite the richness and extraordinary variety of body decorations in all so-called "primitive" societies, it is possible to determine certain clearly distinct general functions: Body paints, which have a ephemeral character, and which are associated with festivals, ceremonies, magical practices. They take us into the realm of the sacred, that is, the ritual transgression of taboos. They also manifest psychic dispositions which, in Western culture, are repressed or affected by a psychotic character. The most lasting marks, for tattoo or scarification, which is equivalent to an inscription on the body of the cultural order of the community and the social situation of individuals. With the invention of writing and the constitution of states, inscription is transferred from the bodies of individuals to a more anonymous skin: parchment. The body, to be now intact, is nonetheless the object of retouching aimed at subjugating it to its own image: cosmetics, makeup and operations aesthetics of all kinds. Seduction plays on the limit between occultation and the confession of these artifices. However, the body mark is deliberately assumed in certain marginal areas: the tattooing of convicts, adventurers, prostitutes, the makeup of actors and clowns, the children's face painting, etc. The evolution of modern painting can be interpreted as the anti-illusionist reactivation of the epidermis of the canvas. In fact, at the end of this evolution, the body is once again assumed in its original support function of the painting, particularly in the movements of the Body Art and Transvestism.