mask

2012 Blipfoto Challenge, week 3: 'Disguise'

Body modification is something that has fascinated me from an early age. i remember looking at books of the egyptians as a kid, at the make up and mummies, the eyes and all that fancy gold-wearing mallarky. i wrote my a-level art thesis about it, delving deeper into other stuff such as the aweful practice of japanese footbinding, female circumcision and extreme forms of corsetry. during my time at art college in the early nineties i wrote about it again, this time heavily inspired by bodybuilding, tribal tattoos and the more full-on body modifications such as neck rings, scarification and insertions under the skin.

as a man with no skin tattooed or earlobes plugged or lips pierced you'd think, apart from the clothes i wear and my choice of monthly barbercut, there were not many disguises to hide behind or flaunt in front of. unless i wore a hat or glasses. or ran somewhere dressed as a giant banana.

but you'd be surprised. even our choice of smellystuff masks our true self. or accentuates it, depending on the occassion and your point of view. and then of course there's the beard...




(that middle one is my favourite by the way)