Under the Skin

"Under the Skin" explores how cross-cultural body modification practices like tattooing and scalping played a significant role in early American history, symbolizing alliances, conflicts, and evolving notions of identity. The book examines how these physical marks became intertwined with ideas of race, culture, and power, reflecting complex interactions between Native Americans and colonists. Through this analysis, it reveals how bodily practices shaped and expressed social and political tensions in seventeenth and eighteenth-century North America.