Tattoos

            Wojcik, in his book Punk and Neo-Tribal Body Art, examines the aesthetics (or anti-aesthetics) or the punk rock style of the late 1970s and early ''80s. More specifically, Wojcik looks at piercing, tattooing and other forms of body modifications associated with this movement. Wojcik examines this sub-culture's trends from two angles - in the 1970s, he too was swept up by it's appeal, and now, as a folklorist he can look at it from a more detached view. In regards to being a part of the punk rock movement Wojcik says: "There was something exciting about it: the music, the attitude, the shock aesthetic, the do-it-yourself aspect, the sense of irony, the horror and condemnation that it evoked in the media. Early punk style was like a form of Dadaism enacted in the streets - a grassroots swelling of expressive culture that exploded into music and art, body adornment and performance." As a folklorist, Wojcik is interested in the cultures of everyday people. "I'm interested in the ways that the punk movement, especially punk body adornment, challenged dominant ideas in society: ideas about appearance, the body, gender, sexuality, fashion, the music industry, you name it . . . Early punk was exciting because it was dangerous and threatening, at least symbolically. It upset a lot of people. Nowadays, we've seen it all. We're jaded and not much is shocking anymore." The book also looks at how punk style was co-opted and commercialized by the media and how, in response, some punks adopted a neo-tribal or urban primitive style. Wojcik's case in point is Perry Farrell (Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros and Lollapalooza inventor). "Part of the book focuses on one punk's reason for being a punk and the aesthetic of his body art. Ironically, the person that I focused on was Perry Farrell, who was unknown and unemployed in 1985." (when Wojcik interviewed him for the book) "Farrell is interesting because he was a punk, then later embraced forms of body adornment inspired by non-Western body modification - tattooing, piercing, scarification - to create an individual style in response to the commercialization of punk.