Bodies in antiquity were emblematic of one’s status in society - beauty standards were visually widespread through statues and paintings of idealized individuals, and gender, ethnic, and racial backgrounds affected the roles that people were made to take as part of marginalized or enslaved groups. Bodies had a profound impact on ones’ day-to-day life, especially in highly militaristic societies such as the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The ability for an individual to conform to visual standards as well as the standards of capability had a genuine effect on their social standing.
Body modification in the Ancient Mediterranean was used to both enforce hierarchies of dominance through emphasizing subjugation, as well as to shatter rigid social structures through self- and cultural expression. The presence of tattoos specifically could reveal the cultures to which individuals belonged, or they could highlight someone’s status as an enslaved person. Different societies throughout the Ancient Mediterranean held different relationships with body modification, and even within the same society, individuals held different ideas around what changes were acceptable. In addition to their contemporary views, body modifications show up in the myths of antiquity as marks of punishment or on those that were fated to act immorally. Tattoos were used to construct the “other” in many societies, and, specifically from the point of view of Greek and Roman societies, to identify “barbaric” societies.
