Interviews with 15 tattoo and body modification artists. Modern Primitives examines a vivid contemporary enigma: the growing revival of highly visual (and sometimes shocking) "primitive" body modification practices – tattooing, multiple piercing, and scarification. “…The atom bomb of books, RE/Search’s MODERN PRIMITIVES was published in 1989 by V. Vale. The book exploded the tattoo and body modification scene by simply and matter-of-factly documenting what was already going on in the underground. It’s difficult to express the gravity and impact that single book has had on culture…”—Bureau of Found Objects   “In 1991…the pierced, tattooed, post-grunge crowd had not yet been identified as a market sector. Its trappings still had a tantalizing bohemian air. One important text of the movement was RE/SEARCH, a slick, independently produced book series published by V. Vale, who had earlier edited the now-legendary punk zine Search & Destroy. Issue No. 12 of Mr. Vale’s magazine, the Modern Primitives, in 1989, featured articles on the elaborate body modifications of tribal cultures and also cult tattooists like Leo Zulueta, and became a small-bookstore best-seller. It seems hard now to believe that, before turning oneself into a human sandwich board became a rite of teenage passage, it was possible to shock parents with a pierced nipple or a Celtic tattoo… “Every single kid has a tattoo now… No matter where we go, the kids are all tattooed…”— New York Times, July 29, 2003 Fakir Musafar: By the time he was twelve, Fakir had begun a systematic, personal exploration of virtually every body modification and ritual practice known to man—all done clandestinely until the ‘80s. Since the release of the 1985 film Dances Sacred and Profane (in which he did the primitive rituals of a Sun Dance and a Kavandi Bearing), Fakir has given numerous lectures accompanied by slide shows, “live” demonstrations of rituals and practices, and showings of Dances Sacred and Profane for which he is the booking agent. He has published a series of publications titled Body Play , and has been featured in several videos by Charles Gatewood and others. Fakir is now world-renowned for his workshops, performances and publishing. What follows is a condensation of conversations conducted 1982 to 1986, and is representative of his philosophy and thought to that date. Ed Hardy : One of the foremost practitioners of the ancient art of tattoo is Don Ed Hardy, a philosopher, historian, painter and innovator who, on a global scale, has greatly advanced the cultural credibility of his profession. As editor of Tattootime he chronicled and disseminated little-known mythology, anthropology, history, and photo documentation about tattoos. He also spotlights current innovative trends both in technique and content. His goal: to raise artistic standards and extend the range and complexity of symbolism depicted, while reinvestigating and preserving past traditions… Monte Cazazza: A founding theoretician of the Industrial Culture movement, Monte Cazazza has continued producing videos (having recently completed a successor to True Gore ); music (with his band the Atom Smashers); media studies (Marshall McLuhan being a perennial favorite); film screenplays; and other project/collaborations with Psychic Television (PTV) and artist Deborah Valentine. Genesis and Paula P-Orridge were known for their music and video projects under the names Psychic Television (PTV) and The Temple of Psychic Youth (TOPY). Previously, Genesis had been a prime innovator in the Industrial Culture Movement, producing dozens of albums as part of the groundbreaking quartet, Throbbing Gristle, as well as releasing recordings by SPK and others on the Industrial Records label. In the following interview Genesis and Paula reveal motivations and philosophical imperatives for their tattooing, piercing and scarification explorations. EXCERPT from Monte Cazazza interview: RE/Search: Why do people tattoo certain symbols on them? Is there a collective unconscious? Monte Cazazza: I think a lot of people at this time in history have tapped into something primal or basic. Sure there are fakes in every endeavor, but there are also people who are serious astronauts of inner space. Even though some of Fakir Musafar’s practices might appear somewhat sensational, you can’t say he isn’t serious about what he’s doing. If you’re put in a centrifuge and spun around, and hung upside-down, maybe things do happen—who knows? Obviously, these practices have been going on for thousands and thousands of years—why? There has to be some kernel of basic truth there. That’s not saying to build your whole life around one practice, but obviously there’s something going on… Obviously, the Number One problem today is  identity . Identity is nourished by privacy as well as the converse situation of an alliance in action, and both of these are hard to maintain in modern society! Privacy is almost a to