Maureen Mercury

In the following excerpt from her book Pagan Fleshworks: The Alchemy of Body Modification, author Maureen Mercury points to the mind/body split as a primary motivational factor for getting a tattoo or body piercing. The author explains that seventeenth century French philosopher René Descartes' famous dictum, "I think, therefore I am," asserted the primacy of mind over body and set in motion the dissociation of feeling experience. Modern society's reliance on mental concentration and acuity has only suppressed the body senses even more, according to Mercury. She argues that tattooing and body piercing can awaken sensate functioning and heal the mind/body split.

Contemporary life has...