Tattoo...? nope...skin carving!

Believe it!

To be fashionable means to suffer. But how far can people go in their constant pursuit of the trendiest and individuality? The rising popularity of body carving proves that the limits have yet to be set.

"Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past," said Jack London, who preferred to write about fantastic adventures rather than living them himself. Had the great novelist survived until the twenty-first century, he might have well changed his mind. What was once reserved exclusively for sailors and inmates has gradually made its way under the skins of millions of people, from Hollywood celebrities to the housewife in rural Oklahoma. It is hardly surprising that fashion gurus have began to search for new ways to underline their individuality.

"It's gross!" The reaction to the pictures showing body carving step by step is usually similar. The very few who have seen the process before their very eyes say that water boarding and other deplorable torture techniques pale in comparison with body carving. In both instances pain is equally sharp; only the final effect is different. Even extreme tattoo and piercing fans with no blank points on their bodies find the new fashion unacceptable. "I have 18 piercings and seven tattoos - and I would never consider that. Gross!" says Red_dragn, a 25 year-old girl from Vancouver, Canada.