My body, my art

For many people, their body is their art, as well as an expression of a history of personal and group experience. And everyone practises some form of body art.

We might have rings or other forms of jewellery that symbolise graduation, engagement, marriage, a birthday or a personal milestone. We cut and shape our hair in ways that reflect both personal and cultural tastes, styles and practices. Some of us grow facial hair into elaborate, intricate or outrageously ragged patterns.

We clothe ourselves in all manner of material, substance, and colour. We mark our skin with temporary or long-lasting designs - scarred, burnt, tattooed, dusted and painted on very intimate and very publicly accessible parts of the body.

We have elaborate traditions that celebrate status, rites of passage, religious beliefs, and cultural histories. Some of us change our shapes through a variety of time-consuming and, often, painful practices.

Some of us eat to look fat; others diet to look thin. We may hold different ideas of what constitutes “beauty” but we share an ideal that “beauty” exists, both for ourselves and for others. This is one of the things being human is all about.

But what of the future? What new, bold, shocking and stunningly beautiful body art can we expect over the next millennium?

Perhaps body modification will be taken to new heights with interchangeable faces, complete scalp and hair transplants, wrinkle-proof hands, and even the addition of animal body parts becoming common.

Certainly, new forms of marking and modifying the skin will be invented, such as permanent changes to skin colour, implants that project outward into a myriad of fashionable forms, and new types of tattooing such as 3D designs or changing or shifting patterns triggered by variable lighting.

Perhaps even the cyborg machine-body fusions of science-fiction films will soon be possible. One day we may be able to genetically engineer interchangeable body parts, changing shapes, heights, colours and textures for different occasions.

Only time and human imagination will tell, but it is predicted variation will increase rather than decrease as people search for new ways to express themselves in an ever-changing, technologically-driven world.

Our bodies will remain deeply personal - perhaps they will also remain the one aspect of our lives over which we will have some measure of control.