TRAUMA-INFORMED BODY MODIFICATION

Sexual assault survivors will often use piercings or tattoos

to take back control of their body after the attack.

Become a trauma-informed professional to: decrease customer discomfort and

increase customer satisfaction and retention.

Sexual assault is about power and control. Offenders use sexual acts as a vehicle to meet their own needs for power and control. Sexual assault is not about sex, intimacy, arousal, or desire. Those are elements of consensual activity, not of rape.

Body modification has been described as a “strengthening of mind, body, and spirit.” Many survivors who seek out body modification do so as a way to reclaim ownership over their bodies, exercise control, and restore the beauty

that they feel has been “tarnished.”

Body modification professionals have the potential to help survivors of sexual assault

by establishing a safe and empowering experience during a time of extreme

vulnerability. Through trauma-informed services, customers can receive a body

modification experience that is positive and healing.

S A P E C Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Center

sapec@ku.edu sapec.ku.edu @ku_sapec

TRAUMA-INFORMED APPROACH

Using trauma-informed care in body modification is about providing your customer

with safety, trust, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. Here are some examples

of what trauma-Informed actions could look like:

SAFETY

TRUST

CHOICE

COLLABORATION

Introducing yourself, establishing a way for the

customer to stop or take a break at any time,

reassure that you will listen to their needs

throughout the modification, asking permission

before touching the customer at any time, etc.

Intentionally provide the customer with choices

throughout the appointment: “Would you like to

sit down?” “Do you mind if I close the door/

curtain?” “I can turn around while you take your

top off, if that would make you comfortable?”

Explaining what will happen step by step in the

modification, giving customer intentional chances

to ask questions, following through on safety

promises, addressing the customer by preferred

name and gender pronouns, etc.

Offer the customer RVAP contact information if

they express an interest in receiving help with

their healing process or have a very emotional/

intense reaction to their modification experience

EMPOWERMENT Supporting the customer’s choices and needs, allowing them to share or not share the details behind

their modification, intentionally letting the customer know that others use modification as a means to

healing also, and thanking the customer for allowing you to be a part of their journey

After my assault, I struggled for a long time with feeling that my body was not my own. But I came to

a good place with myself and decided that the best way to commemorate my personal agency was by

choosing to change my body with a positive symbol of my recovery. I celebrated the recovery of my

mind and body by choosing to get a tattoo of a sun. This tattoo still serves to remind me of my own in-

ner strength and fortitude.” -Survivor

“My piercing is about the future. What I want to do with my body going forward, not about what was

done to my body in the past.” -Survivor

“This will hopefully decrease any discomfort they have with the physical contact, increase their feel-

ings of body ownership, increase customer satisfaction, and increase customer retention.”

-Studio Owner