ABSTRACT
Ideals for the body, including its height, weight, and shape, and the ways in which it can be decorated, modifi ed, and sculpted, have been around for a long, long time. Indeed, evidence of our interest in body symbolism dates back to culture’s emergence 75,000 or so years ago. Among the artifacts found bearing witness to this transformative event in humanity’s history are shell beads and pigments used for bodily adornment. Later, but not too much later, we begin to fi nd tattoo kits, and evidence on human remains of tattooing.
