[The body, point of references for youths living on the street or their quest for a territory giving a sense of belonging.].

Many youths and young adults "living on the streets" wear or inscribe on their bodies distinctive signs: nicknames, torn or skilfully cut out clothes, restructured or inspired from another time, flamboyant hair colour and hairstyle, tattoo, piercing, painted masks on their face. Yet, the society in which they are brought up is marked by historical discontinuity and the values enhanced are that of excessive consumption likely to entail an over-investment to what pertains to the body. Our clinical observations as well as an incursion into the literature on tattoo and mask have brought us to draw notions of ritual, identification and transformation as tools of understanding various transformations having the body as object. The experiences of Stéphane and Lydia who took the risk of speaking through the therapeutic process, conveys their quest for a territory giving them a sense of belonging as well as an effort to appropriate their personal and often divided history inscribed within the body or its attributes.