Conclusion
The modern revival of piercing, tattooing, scarification, and body painting in Western nations has its origins in tribal culture and practices. Since earliest times, tribal cultures around the world have used body decoration and techniques to indicate membership and rank within a group, to identify with spiritual totems, to express sacrifice and loss, and to enhance physical attraction and sexual enjoyment.
Today we are witnessing a worldwide revival of body adornment that many interpret as a return to our tribal beginnings - a way to identify who we are in a world that has lost its sense of community. Nevertheless there are still enormous differences between the Western traditions and those of the African tribes. This will probably never change because the simple fact remains that all human communities have their own map of the body and within any single society or culture the system of body techniques and decoration of the body will have an interconnected structure.
…
