Even science is beginning to admit that 'consensus reality' is not the only reality. What scares many about tattoos and other body alterations is that they are irrevocable. There is no going back, granted, but you can always go further forward. The possibilities are endless. Don't be afraid to change.
Stagnation is our enemy.
In the last few years since I first wrote Part I of the Mutation Manifesto , the potential for mutation of the human species has increased rapidly. Modern technologies , in additon to giving us access to information world wide, have been applied practically to the human body. Advances in computers, prosthetics and robotics have begun to blur the boundaries between human and machine. Body artists such as Orlan and Stelarc have experimented with using new technologies as tools for physical transformation , offering social comment on future directions via performance art . Orlan 's operations, performed theatrically yet very real, demonstrate an extremity of physical mutation via plastic surgery Modern medicine sculpts her face progressively into a combination of different features modelled on figures from famous artworks.