Seven Bizarre Body Modification Practices

From a 1000 year-old Chinese tradition of foot binding, to young Kayan women with neck rings and to adolescent girls from Cameroon forced by their mothers to have breast ironing – these are just some of the seven bizarre body modification practices that will shocked your imagination. Read on to learn more.

All parents expect their children to be normal and hope that everything will turned out ‘normal’. But what if these children grow up and intentionally indulge in some bizarre body modification practices as a form self-expression or just for aesthetic values. Would you be you proud of them? The pros and cons of body modification is a running debate and will take some years to have some closures. But the weirdness of these body modifications is not a debate. Here are seven bizarre body modifications that for centuries have existed and a few are products of modern times.

Scarification

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Scarification is something of an elaborate form of body beautification meant to formed scars on the body. This bizarre body deformation practice was used in primitive societies to mark citizen’s status, achievements or just a method of punishment. Scarification can involve any of these methods: branding, burning, cutting, scratching, or etching words, designs, or pictures into the skin resulting as a lasting body beautification/deformation. There are also aesthetic, religious beliefs, social status, or artistic accomplishment are some known reasons for scarification.

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Scarification has evolved into an art form in most modern cultures. mid-1980s. This weird body modification practice was first embraced by gay and lesbian subcultures in the mid-1980s. These modern genre express their idealism, express feelings, or even important event in their lives into permanent scars upon their bodies. Cuts, or abrasion are made between 1/4″ and 3/4″ into the skin. Scarification is deemed unsafe by many because it produces harm and trauma to the skin.

Tooth Sharpening

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Human tooth sharpening is yet another form of bizarre body modification practice where the teeth, in particular the front incisors are manually sharpened. In primitive societies, this ritual is done to drive away evil spirits, however tooth sharpening does served another purpose in today’s culture – an art form of body modification. The Mentawai people in Bali, specially the women performed this ritual in a spiritual light, to change negative emotions such as anger, jealousy, and fear. The Mayan performed this ritual to distinguish those in the upper-classes.

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Today human tooth sharpening is done because some individuals, specially the teenage group, just wanted to look like vampires, or imitate their idols. Perhaps, beauty-conscious gals think having sharp teeth will make them feel beautiful or for food lovers – chew food a lot easier.

Extreme Corset

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Popular amongst women during the 19th century, corsets are very stiff undergarments, typically made of lace and whalebone. These undergarments were worn tightly around the woman’s waist area to help shape the female body. To fit into a ridiculously 14-inch waist dress, many women had to wore these extremely fit undergarments regularly almost 24/7.

As result, this bizarre body modification exercise would adversely affect breathing and might permanently deformed the waistline. The sad part of it is that mothers let their daughters wear corsets at about age 7. Today, corsets are worn as part of a woman’s outfit or an outer garment. Modern corsets come in different shapes and styles and are commonly made of rubber, leather, and latex.

Neck Rings

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The custom of wearing neck rings is another bizarre body modification that has become a popular attraction for tourists. The Kayan tradition of wearing neck rings has been observed for over a thousand years. These long brass coils are worn for beauty and a way to attract good husbands. The Padaung women of the Kayan tribe start to wear the first neck ring at the age of 5. As they grew, rings were added. The full set of neck ring is wound around the neck manually, and can weigh about 10 kilograms. Few women wear this full set.

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Actually, the brass coils does not stretched the neck, but only push down the shoulder neck giving the impression of a longer neck. A fully stretched illusionary neck can reach to about 10-15″ long! There is no danger in removing the coil; however, woman with rings around her neck has to bear drinking any liquid from a straw! Why, because tipping her head back could result to a fall.

Body Piercing

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Body piercing is another bizarre body modification exercise that requires puncturing or making a hole in your skin, so a piece of jewelry can be worn as body decoration. Body piercing have been practiced for thousands of centuries ago. Traditional body piercing practices demand the use of sterilize, specialized and non-disposable piercing tools. The most popular pierced body parts are the ears, eyebrow and the belly button. Other common body parts to pierce include the lip, tongue, nose, nipples and to some extent the genitals.

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People who have indulged in body piercing do it for some reasons including, religious reasons, cultural reasons, for artistic value or for self-expression. Whatever the reason maybe, just make it sure that this bizarre body modification practice is done in the most safest way.

Foot Bindings

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Foot binding is a Chinese tradition that started in the 10th century and died out and the custom finally died out in the 1940’s. The feet of young girls of affluent families were tightly bound together to prevent further growth. During those days, women with tiny narrow feet were considered beautiful and the ideal bound foot was only 3″ long.

The painful process is began when these young girls are between the ages of four and seven. For about two years, they will have to endure the excruciating pain of having their feet tightly wrapped with bandages, forcing the four small toes bent under the sole. The bandage was tightened each day and the foot was fitted into smaller and smaller shoes.

Breast Ironing

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A traditional practice in West Africa, breast ironing is the process of the pounding and massaging the breast of young girls with an extremely hot object in an attempt to stop or delay its development. Several documentary films showed a mother with the aid of others holds her daughter aged 8 and iron her chest with an extremely hot object. The reasons beyond this bizarre body modification practice include: to prevent early pregnancy, a way to prevent sexual harassment and rape, and to allow the girl to have a chance to finish her education and to avoid early marriage.



Though the intentions are good, nevertheless the process is so savage leading to a traumatic experience for the victims. Also, breast ironing permanently damages the skin that may result to breast cancer. A survey done in 2006 by the German development agency GTZ, revealed more than 5,000 (1out of 4) Cameroonian had undergone breast ironing,