body modification

noun

Deliberate physical alteration of the human body for aesthetic purposes, such as tattooing and piercing.

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Meanings

nounbody modification (countable and uncountable, plural body modifications)

plural body modifications

  1. countableuncountableDeliberate physical alteration of the human body for aesthetic purposes, such as tattooing and piercing.

    Voluntary amputeeism or apotemnophilia — where the subject wishes to have a limb or appendage removed — might arguably fall within the category of radical body modification.

    2008, Belinda Bennett, Terry Carney, Isabel Karpin, Brave New World of Health, page 78
Cite this entry
APA

body modification. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/body%20modification

MLA

“body modification.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/body%20modification. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “body modification,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/body%20modification.

Source: body modification on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.