Nearly every culture has practiced body modification, and the most popular forms are tattoo and body piercing.While new forms of body art are gaining in popularity, the tattooing business is still holding its own.Atomic Tattoo has been catering to the University area since 2004.”It’s a college-based [business], so people usually want stuff to do with LSU or Louisiana,” said Jeremy Granger, tattoo artist and body piercer.Granger says the most popular tattoo these days is the fleur-de-lis.”It used to be that you couldn’t give them away,” he said. “They got big after Katrina, probably because it represents New Orleans and Louisiana.”All tattoo stories, however, aren’t picture perfect.”We get about one or two clients in a day that need their tattoos fixed,” Granger said. “We try to get them in if we can.”A unique form of body art gaining popularity is scarification, which includes branding and cutting. Ryan Ouellette, scarification practitioner and owner of Precision Body Arts in Nashua, N.H., has been scarring clients since 2001.”I’m primarily self-taught as far as technique goes, but I have lots of formal safety and anatomy training,” Ouellette said. “I myself only perform cutting.”Scarification was one of the first forms of body art, but it didn’t gain popularity outside of tribal cultures until the late ‘80s, Ouellette said. Branding is also an extreme form of body art that consists of a design being burned into the skin. Once the burn heals, it leaves behind a design of scar tissue.”It wasn’t until the ‘90s that it really started to grow as an art form equal to tattooing,” he said. “It’s not the same kind of demand you would have for tattooing or body piercing.”Now, it is becoming widely accepted as a respectable art. Ouellette has worked all around the United States, in Tokyo and London. He was also instructed in Germany.The process is very different from tattooing, but the pain experienced is about the same.”It’s uncomfortable, but it’s tolerable,” Ouellette said.The healing process is also different because clients are basically dealing with an open wound.”It can certainly be sore … you don’t really notice it as long as you don’t bump it,” Ouellette said. “The most important thing is to keep it clean.”Those who receive the scar must wash it regularly to keep it clean so it can heal correctly. The actual scar, however, may take weeks or months to develop fully.The scarification body art attracts a different type of people.”It tends to be more of a personal body art than a lot of pop culture tattooing,” Ouellette said. “The designs usually hold a more personal meaning and are usually more well thought out than tattoos.”Ouellette has done many “cuttings” on clients who do not have any other body art.”You can never really visually pick out a ‘scarification type,'” he said.The demand for scarification artists is still quite low, as is the number of skilled practitioners.”If you’re good, you end up getting a lot of work,” Ouellette said.—-Contact Ashley Norsworthy at [email protected]