Berlin  - The practice of decorating the human body known as body modification is booming in Germany right now. Placing hollow tubes called flesh tunnels in ear lobes or deliberately cutting scars into the skin is a growing practice in some sections of society.

Body modification is about more than the conventional forms of piercing and tattoos. "Is a bit more okay?" was a phrase often heard by customers from their butcher. But more people are asking the same question when it comes to their own flesh or skin.

A flesh tunnel is a large, hollow tube used to expand a hole in the wearer's skin and has a long tradition. Many South American and African tribes used flesh tunnels as status symbols such as lip plates. But altering the body's skin has now caught on in the West.

Until the 1980s having your skin pierced was regarded by many as a provocative act. By the 1990s it was common to see pierced eyebrows, belly buttons of even tongues. In the techno scene lower back tattoos became very popular to the extent that they were sometimes derided as "Tramp Stamps." In the meantime tattoos and body piercing have become generally accepted in many countries.

"Flesh tunnels are real eye-catchers," says Dirk Hueckler. The 33-year-old owns a body modification studio in eastern Berlin called "Naked Steel." He says many people want a flesh tunnel in their ear lobes and a few even in their genitals. "That has really caught on in the last five years," says Hueckler who has one-centimetre-diameter flesh tunnels in both ears.

You need patience to stretch the body's skin. Usually it takes four weeks before the skin can be stretched a millimetre. An expanding pliers is used to push the skin apart and insert a new stud. After a few millimetres a flesh tunnel can be inserted in the form of a stainless steel or bone ring.

Holes up to one centimetre in diameter can close themselves over time but that is no longer possible with larger holes. "I want a 16 millimetre hole in my ear because I think it looks good," says flesh tunnel wearer Peter. He got his left ear lobe pierced in a studio in Hamburg. At the moment the hole is 10 millimetres in diameter. The 36-year-old says it hardly hurt at all.

The owner of the "Freie Manufaktur" piercing and tattoo studio, Totto Jeratsch, says: "People think it looks sexy." Jeratsch does sometimes wonder at how naive some of his customers are. "They complain when they see a yogurt that's passed its sell-by-date in a supermarket but have no worries when it comes to hygiene in a piercing studio."

Germany's 7,000 piercing studios are subject to hardly any regulation and there are many irresponsible people in the business, according to Jeratsch.

Doctors and psychologists have their concerns. Dermatologists such as Thomas Dirschka don't think much of this trend towards stretching skin. "The body's skin is like a plastic bag. In the beginning its very smooth but as soon as you stretch it, it won't return to its original shape." Dirschka also points out that it also damages collagen in the skin tissue.

The psychologist and author Erich Kasten says: "Scarification and flesh tunnels are trends that came with a few years delay from America." He believes that many people who chose body modification will pay any price to look original and are deliberately looking for a painful experience. "Anyone who wants to look different these days must go to extreme lengths," he says.

Hueckler thinks that explanation is "very simple" and does not consider himself to be someone looking to experience pain. He believes there are many reasons to explain why people modify their bodies.

He says that people who were teenagers in the 1990s now want something that fits in with the office. A septum piercing such as a ring in the nasal wall can be easily removed and leaves no obvious trace. (dpa)