As markers of difference, celebrations of pride, and, vehicles for embodied pleasure, body modifications in LGBT communities are best read in relation to each community's understanding of the symbols of the physical markings and their relationship to marked bodies.
While essentially an individual activity, body modifications like piercing, tattooing, and scarification have come to be recognized as having particular meanings in marginalized subcultures. Body modification has become a zone of interest for scholars seeking to understand how and why certain groups define themselves through modifications of their bodies. For some LGBT communities, piercing, tattooing, and scarification play important roles as forms of investment in the erotic and somatic potential of the body and as physical markers of social difference and marginalization.
