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The skin, a site of aesthetic protest, simultaneously makes visible contemporary identity, expressing its ambivalence, i.e., the ambiguous, difficult boundary between self and other which entails endless mobilization and concern. This is seen in the importance the younger generation gives to attacks on the body, particularly by scarification. The skin is saturated with both the unconscious and the culture, revealing the subject’s own psyche as well as his/her place within the social bond and the history which envelops him/her.