Body modification practices have proved fertile ground for sociologists interested in deviance, social control, and the social construction of problematic behavior. Most of this literature fits within the symbolic interactionist tradition, focusing specifically on the ways in which people negotiate definitions of body art such that it becomes scary or beautiful, dangerous or alluring, rebellious or inclusive, and so on. The vast majority of this work is framed as discussions of labeling and differential association orientations that explain social definitions and the processes by which body modifiers learn how to be successful in changing the ways their bodies look both to themselves and to those with whom they come into contact.