Remarkable

text by Karen Lisa G. Salamon

Marked
Marilyn Monroe had a beauty mark which was part of her visual signature and iconic image. Other stars, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, Cindy Crawford and Blake Lively, also accentuated their small, special signs on the skin, distinguishing them from other good-looking faces of the entertainment industry. The beauty spots signal that these ideal types are also real, natural women with unique personalities.
Birthmarks have long functioned in this double capacity as both naturally carnal and ideally transcendent. For centuries and across cultures, these floating signs have moved in a space spanning airy symbolism and bodily, earthly matter. In this span, humans have interpreted, changed and improved their birthmarks, sometimes accentuating them; sometimes covering them up. The marks have been altered, played with and fought against, and their meaning reconstrued.
At the magnificent court of the rococo king Louis XV in French Versailles, fake beauty spots were in high fashion. Ingeniously designed stickers were applied to the skin or painted on to cover smallpox scars, emphasise beauty and send coded, flirting messages at court balls. The trend spread and later became a popular symbol of the Rococo Period alongside powder and wigs.
In other places and periods of world history, naturally occurring marks on the skin have been interpreted as signs left by supernatural powers, telling about blessings or doom; or as natural signals telling about certain genes, threatening disease or specific personality traits.
Human beings instinctively interpret facial features. The gaze is drawn towards visible marks breaking with customary expectations, patterns and norms. Unfamiliar skin patterns have often been interpreted as if they were mystically coded signs or letters in a puzzling text.

Markers
The interpretation of birthmarks takes place within cultural contexts. 

In modern science, altered skin pigmentation may be seen as just an arbitrary biological variation, or indicating certain genetic markers and evolutionary conditions affecting the embryo. In other cultural contexts, similar pigmentation might be understood as a divine or magical mark, set by supernatural powers.

In Ancient Greece, birthmarks were sometimes interpreted by oracles who regarded them as revealing signs, sent by gods and other superhuman forces. It was widely believed that birthmarks could be caused by statues and paintings surrounding a pregnant mother, so that the shapes of the marks on the foetus were determined by these idols and images. 

The belief that a pregnant woman’s experiences would cause birthmarks on the child remained influential for a long time. It reappeared in various versions, not least in periods when Antique philosophical doctrines came back in fashion, for example during the Renaissance and Neoclassicist periods. As late as in 1714 a self-trained, English physician wrote that birthmarks were incurable results of the mother’s fantasies during pregnancy. He was contradicted by another physician who argued that this belief was ridiculous and disturbing to families. Still the debate continued, and a generation later, a French professor of medicine claimed a clear connection between a pregnant mother’s yearnings and the child’s appearance at birth: “Envies, or desires [..] are strange marks to be found at birth, some of which are located on the face, and others on other parts of the body as well… […] wine spots or milk spots; all this, through the powerful imagination of mothers, who, while pregnant, ardently wished for certain things…”

Thus, a widespread conviction remained – originating millennia back in time with Greek philosophers and spreading to folk beliefs – that birthmarks were incurable products of uncontrolled female desires and imagination, disturbing to the male order of Nature. 

In the Danish and German languages this belief is still reflected in the words for “birthmark” which directly translate to “mother’s mark”: modermærke and Muttermal.

Marked out
More positive approaches to birthmarks have existed elsewhere and during other historical periods. In Buddhist Tibet of the 1930s, skin pigmentation played a significant role in the appointment of the fourteenth Dalai Lama. After the death of the highest leader; the previous Lama, a special delegation went out to find the Lama’s next true incarnation. The expedition searched for a little boy child who would fit the prediction that the new incarnation of the Chenrezi would have a certain pigmentation on the upper part of his body. A little boy fitting the prophecy was found and taken as the next Lama. The marks on his skin were interpreted as evidence that he belonged to the correct, hereditary, spiritual succession and reincarnated the previous Lama.
Similar associations between birthmarks and reincarnation are known from modern religious and spiritual movements in the West, for instance New Age, Hare Krishna and Theosophical Spiritism. The possibly most famous version of these beliefs was launched by a North American psychiatrist who in the 1960s claimed to be able to scientifically document several hundred cases of reincarnation. His evidence was children who said that they remembered their previous lives. He claimed that these children’s birthmarks corresponded to marks found on the bodies of those deceased and supposedly reincarnated. Marks on the dead could be wounds from mortal gun shots. The psychiatrist attracted many followers. He inspired alternative therapists to work with a special reincarnation-focused form of regression therapy, where clients would be brought to experience events from their alleged previous incarnations.
This happened even though the psychiatrist’s theory was refuted by scientists who re-examined his data and found serious flaws in the reputed documentation. Just as the theories of birthmarks stemming from sculptures and pregnant women’s fantasies were proven wrong by modern medicine, so also the reincarnation theory was rejected by contemporary science.

Signs
Regardless of scientific critique, many of these supernatural ideas linger on in alternative movements and popular superstition. These ideas fit well into both ancient and current convictions that everything in Nature must be understood as deeply meaningful and intently produced by supernatural beings.

During the Renaissance this persuasion was expressed in a total theory and all-inclusive paradigm – the doctrine of signatures – which gave humans access to the meaning of signs given by God and Nature. During this historical period, the sciences and religious beliefs were not yet separated as different types of knowledge. In the beginning of the 1500s, alchemist and astrologer Paracelsus could thus both function as occultist and physician, declaring that “everything has a sign”: All patterns and forms could be decoded for a deeper, predestined meaning by those who had the right knowledge, such as Paracelsus himself. 

Still today, elements of these notions remain, for example in homoeopathy, astrology and alternative medicine. The doctrine of signatures also influenced the formation of early scientific diagnostics, and its traces can still be seen in medical interpretations of indications and symptoms.
Outside the scientific world there are still many techniques claiming access to deeper knowledge, true identities and destinies via the deciphering of signs hidden in the letters of a name, the numbers of a date or in the lines of a palm. Within this framework nothing is accidental. Everything still has a sign.
Both inside and outside of scientific contexts, only certain remarkable phenomena are regarded as actual signs. For example, not every little freckle or birthmark is interpreted as having a deeper meaning. The pigmentation must first of all be regarded as a mark. Whether a different skin colouring or texture is perceived as trivial or significant depends on the given technological, social and cultural conditions.

Stigmata
In the Christian Bible, the Apostle Paul said: “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus”. In the Ancient Greek version he actually said “stigmata” which meant marks such as those left on the skin by a pointed tool, tattoos or burns. The Apostle seems in the context to have commented on the covenant of circumcision. Since many centuries prior to Paul’s lifetime, male circumcision had symbolised a divine contract “which you shall keep between Me and you”; between the Biblical God and his people; and it is still kept today as an essential, Jewish ritual.
The precise meaning of Paul’s remark remains a theological discussion, but Christian posterity has interpreted his words so as to say that devotion to Jesus shall not be marked through the sign of circumcision, but rather might appear as divinely produced stigmata on the body. These may resemble the wounds of the crucified Jesus; for instance those left by the nails that pierced his palms. Accordingly, marks found on the skin of a saintly or devout believer could be interpreted as signs of strong piety and select blessedness, especially if the marks were placed on parts of the body corresponding to those where the crucified Jesus had also suffered lesions.
Within this logic, also far less blessed markings could be selected out, producing quite a different kind of public stigmatisation. A sinister and socially destructive side of the doctrine of signatures appeared in especially Renaissance European and American witch hunts, where the accused person’s birthmarks or “witch marks” often were read as “the devil’s signature”. Here marks on the skin could be interpreted as signs of sorcery or marks set by evil forces rather than good. In this cultural context it could be dangerous to have a strikingly irregular skin pigmentation, as this could be deciphered as an indication that unnatural or evil forces were present. The “marked” person could thus be accused of being “the devil’s property” or of having made a pact with evil forces, and could end up convicted and killed with legal sanction.
The association between demonic powers and certain marks on the skin is still found in popular culture. Witches in cartoon versions of classic fairy tales often are distinguished by the large, dark moles on their noses and pigmented facial scars. Also in contemporary movie productions like Vampire Diaries, beautiful, young pop vampires can be recognised by their well-designed skin deformities which look like scars after burns.

The trade mark
All of these marks and stigmata are in each of their contexts perceived as identification tags, left by somebody as a token of a special relationship, domination or ownership. Like other kinds of signatures, these marks are connected with identity and forms of ownership, as they are placed on property to represent the owner’s identity. 

In modern marketing and sales, “trade marks” and “brands” are essential elements, but the original meaning of these terms is rarely mentioned: Brand means fire or burning in Germanic languages and has passed into English. In “brands”, the link between ownership, claimed identities and physical marks is clear: A fashion brand on a garment supposedly also rubs off on the identity of the person carrying the brand.

Far back in time people have physically branded their property with personal marks and signatures, often to prevent theft. Many contemporary, corporate logos and product brands still borrow aesthetic elements from those stigmata or burns which in earlier epochs were used to mark leather and wood with monograms. 

Serial numbers on meat and bacon also indicate a similar connection between ownership and markings, making it possible to identify and track the origin of sold goods. 

Live cattle and pets often have tattooed numbers or cuts in their ears, or are branded with their owners’ initials. When different herds of cattle graze together, these marks serve to clarify the rightful ownership of the animals. 

Similar techniques have for ages been used to control and dominate human prisoners and slaves. The permanence of the marks prevented these unfortunate people from escaping their masters and the slave identity. They literally were stigmatised for life by the marks on their skin. 

It was this social phenomenon which inspired the modern use of the word stigmatisation. In the social sciences it denominates a communal stamping of certain individuals or groups of people as deviant, and locking them in an outsider role.
Another modern term which can be traced back to physically marked contract relationships is the written “signature”. Today, also highly abstract, digital and biometric signatures count as identity markers. These signs and signatures formally and socially determine who we are, what we own and what we may do.
Nowadays many people also choose to mark themselves with permanent signatures and other signs on the skin, often to signal identity and affiliation and as a form of decoration. With a Polynesian loanword, we call these self-inflicted stigmata “tattoos”. Some people also use these ink markings to cover other marks, as did the rococo courtiers who used fake beauty spots to cover blemishes and scars.

Marked off
From time to time decorative stickers reappear as fashion accessories, for example in the form of modified, India-inspired dots or bindi, made from glass, metal, textile and synthetic fibers. In India bindi are most often placed between the eyebrows, and in modern Hindu practice they might signal a person’s religious and marital status. Many practising Hindus also carry other pigmented marks painted directly on to the skin; on the forehead, in the parting of the hair or elsewhere on the body.
Through these marks people and gods speak from the surface of the skin and tell about the person carrying the mark, indicating his or her social relations and cultural vantage points. Such marks can also function as a form of direct speech to the world, as some modern tattoos also do. Sometimes these (re)marks are taken to be provocations, hence may become socially stigmatising for the person who wears them. 

Especially in culturally alien contexts, it can also be stigmatising to carry the marks of self-imposed tattooing, cutting or scarification – for example of ritual scarification, such as it is known in West Africa. 

Some gang members carry facial tattoos which mark their strong dedication and submission and at the same time function as a life-long sacrifice of anonymity and a contract of eternal membership. The tattoo also signals the gang’s ownership over the member.

The word “mark” actually is all about ownership, as it concerns demarcated territory. In several European languages, a “mark” is a field and thus a territorial property. To “mark off” also means the creation of a borderline or a demarcation of ownership by using signs. Den-mark is such a demarcated, territorial area, owned by Danes. 

Whenever the word “mark” (as in “market”) appears, look out for issues of ownership and demarcated property!

A person who in some way exceeds the limits by crossing the lines of the mark and of normal manners in a given social setting will often get a “re-mark” or even a “bad mark”, which can be experienced as stigmatising. But then there is also freedom in crossing the mark.

Marked
Contemporary definitions of normality are not necessarily any more inclusive than those of previous epochs, but they are different and carry different consequences. It is no longer the doctrine of signature or various beliefs in pious stigmatisation that set the parameters for the interpretation of physical appearance. 

In the modern, industrialised societies, functionalist ideals of homogeneity, efficiency, streamline and regularity have also come to influence taste and normativity surrounding body and skin. Technological developments and commercial competition have made it attractive to buy access to dominant body ideals by way of plastic surgery, fake permanent tanning, shapewear, scientific workout, hi-tech make-up and digital photoshopping.

As in Classicistic architecture, symmetry, homogeneity and regularity are the ideals, even for our very organic and heterogeneous human bodies. In the technologism of modernity we are furthermore brought up believing that all irregularities can and must be planned away. Regularity has come to equate beauty.

Age, gender and other organic differences are thus more or less levelled out by modification and retouching. 

When the same ideal faces and figures have been shown again and again in their photoshopped, regulated versions, the resulting staged look becomes the norm. It becomes the natural truth about who we are – or really should be. (Not least for those deviating from Nature’s apparently homogeneous and still male norm).

Real human beings then try to make that normative, synthetic, photographic and digital world of signs come true by persistently manipulating hips, hair and cellulite, reducing wrinkles and bleaching away all unplanned spots.

Remark
The world is full of signs and patterns. This is what we humans perceive and live. 

Depending on our time and place in history, we see the world through different systems of natural order, and we mark it off with different markings which we interpret in our different contexts. 

Birthmarks, which constitute a visual difference and separate aesthetic territory from average skin, are remarked by human eyes.
Whether these marks are interpreted as signs of divine blessing, deviance – or just as random, normal variations – depends on the eyes that see, and also on the treatment and staging set up by those who carry them. And by those who photograph them or in other ways present them to the world.

text by Karen Lisa Salamon
Associate Professor, PhD
Department of Anthropology
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Copenhagen