A 2008 Harris Interactive Poll found that 14 percent of all adults in the U.S. had at least one tattoo. The decorative tattoo applied to the skin by professional tattoo artists with tattoo guns is the most common type, though some people have cosmetic tattoos that permanently color parts of the face the way lipstick, eyeliner, blush and other make-up products traditionally do.
Body piercings involve poking a hole through a part of the body and inserting a piece of jewelery in the hole, such as an earring. For both men and women, the ear is the most common site for piercings, though people also have their lips, noses, eyebrows, navels and genitals pierced.
Scarification involves deliberately cutting or burning the skin to leave permanent marks.
A more expensive and drastic form of body modification is cosmetic surgery, in which people go under a surgeon's knife to alter various parts of their bodies. Breast augmentation, nose jobs, tummy-tucks and lipsuction are among the different forms of cosmetic surgery. Sex change operations, in which surgeons change the gender of the patient, are another form of body modification.
Pallor was a sign of beauty in Victorian times. In modern Western culture, however, tanned skin is considered desirable and many people tan their bodies not just on the beach but in tanning salons under man-made ultra-violet lights. If done to excess, however, tanning can cause skin cancer and premature wrinkling.
The Mayo Clinic states that sunless tanning products are a safe alternative to regular tanning. Creams, lotions, gels and sprays containing dihydroxyacetone darken the skin's appearance by interacting with dead skin cells on the surface of the skin. The effect cannot be washed off but, as the dead skin cells naturally fall away, the coloring fades.