REMOVED: Skin as Material and Medium for Artistic Creation.

we were children, we would draw wrist wat ches, colorful rings, or our friends' t elephone numbers on t he backs of our hands and crib sheet s wit h not es of mat hemat ical formulae or endless list s of kings and queens on our palms. Having a bat h or sweat ing would erase t hose works of art or mini-encyclopedias. During t hose early years, our skin was t he canvas on which our rudiment ary art ist ic effort s were oft en expressed: our skin cert ainly played a role t hat st ret ched well beyond it s mere biological funct ion. We use our bodies for not e-t aking, drawing, or t emporarily t at t ooing t he name of a person we like. We may even mark our skin wit h permanent scars, unerasable signs for t he body and t he mind. They are, aft er all, t at t oos; some are ephemeral, like t he paint ings used by ancient t ribes in t heir rit uals, and ot hers resemble t he t at t ooed anchors t hat adorned t he shoulders of explorers and seamen. Tat t oos have now become j ust anot her fashion craze. Formerly, t hey ident ified social out cast s or convict s; t oday t hey are worn by t eenagers and young people from good families who t at t oo t heir skin t o mark t heir own ident it y wit h urban t ribes, as a sign of self-affirmat ion and individualizat ion wit hin t he social group t o which t hey belong. 1 Our skin ref lect s our personal hist ories. Through it , we can see what we have experienced and what has marked us; we can decipher t he t races of t ime. We read t he skin, observing t he det ails t hat bet ray whet her people have been sun-damaged, whet her t hey have some form of dermat osis, or whet her t hey bear t he scars of accident s or operat ions. Our hist ory remains in our memories and also on our skin. Body Art 2 is t he name given t o pract ices in which art ist s specifically use t heir bodies as a medium …