Roberto Scordino : Punk Cinderella
Archeology show that body painting preceded the oldest forms of wall painting, making the body the first “canvas” of primitive man. Although we know little of the motivations of these practices, they have been handed down to the present and evolved in the different cultures.
For thousands of years, men and women, all over the world underwent changes in their bodies in order to feel more attractive, conform to the prevailing culture of their society or in modern time, to be different. The reasons behind body alterations vary from religion to search for sexual partners, from the desire to show a social status to the need to feel unique as an individual. Therefore, while some changes are well accepted or required by society, others may transform those who make them into outcasts; the question is who is to decide what can be done about the body and what cannot, as this change from culture to culture, from moment to moment and is deeply linked to the theme of freedom of the individual. The motivations behind the bodily modifications are the most varied; however, any person who modifies his/her body, consciously or unconsciously, modifies their relationship with him/herself and the world around them.The purpose of this work is to explore these changes.The way I intend to proceed is to tell a series of meaningful small stories of people that decide to change their body. This chapter entitled “Punk Cinderella” focuses on a group of young from Mexico City who live together and are part of a large group of punk modifications culture in Mexico. Manzana, the protagonist of this story, started to tattoo her body when she was 18 because her father, a wealthy doctor, forbad her to have a tattoo so she left home, got her first tattoo and never stopped doing that. She worked for a long time in tattoo studios but every time, being a female, was forced to also do the cleaning. She decided to start working from her home where she lives with her lover and other modified artist guys. All of them work in body modifications, all of them are heavily modified and are happy being so.
