Sociology Behind Tattoos
Introduction
Body modifications have existed in our society for centuries and the way in which it is perceived has changed somewhat over the years. But certain stigmas still persists to this contemporary day. One such body modification is the act of inking or marking the skin: Tattooing. Like most body modifications, tattoos are an often misunderstood form of body modification. Despite the stigmas, tattoos have become a unique object of desire to diverse groups of people. But are the popular perceptions of tattoos out of synch with the true meaning behind them? This essay will explore the social and cultural practices of tattooing and the causal connection between the mind and the tattooed body. It will also explore why tattoos engender uneasiness and curiosity, and constitutes a challenge to normative discourses and discursive practices.
In order to understand the stigma behind tattoos, one must first look into the past and understand the history of the body modification.
The Journey from Stigma to Commodity
The word ‘tattoo’ first emerged after James Cook’s voyage to Polynesia in the 18th century (Fisher, 2002). However, it seems that the art of inking or marking one’s body dated way back to the Greeks. In fact, the Greek word stigmata actually indicated the act of pricking one’s skin with ink (Caplan, 2000). Making sense out of the contemporary linking of tattoos to stigma in our society. The word stigmata was used by the Greeks for marking ‘Others’, such as felons and slaves. The association of the word to social others was later spread to the Romans and they treated the act of marking as a state control mechanism (Caplan, 2000). This touches on Michel Foucault’s framework on social control in his book Discipline and Punish:
“But the body is also directly involved in a political field; power relations have an immediate hold upon it; they invest it, mark it, train it, torture it, force it to carry out tasks, to perform ceremonies, to emit signs. This political
Body modifications have existed in our society for centuries and the way in which it is perceived has changed somewhat over the years. But certain stigmas still persists to this contemporary day. One such body modification is the act of inking or marking the skin: Tattooing. Like most body modifications, tattoos are an often misunderstood form of body modification. Despite the stigmas, tattoos have become a unique object of desire to diverse groups of people. But are the popular perceptions of tattoos out of synch with the true meaning behind them? This essay will explore the social and cultural practices of tattooing and the causal connection between the mind and the tattooed body. It will also explore why tattoos engender uneasiness and curiosity, and constitutes a challenge to normative discourses and discursive practices.
In order to understand the stigma behind tattoos, one must first look into the past and understand the history of the body modification.
The Journey from Stigma to Commodity
The word ‘tattoo’ first emerged after James Cook’s voyage to Polynesia in the 18th century (Fisher, 2002). However, it seems that the art of inking or marking one’s body dated way back to the Greeks. In fact, the Greek word stigmata actually indicated the act of pricking one’s skin with ink (Caplan, 2000). Making sense out of the contemporary linking of tattoos to stigma in our society. The word stigmata was used by the Greeks for marking ‘Others’, such as felons and slaves. The association of the word to social others was later spread to the Romans and they treated the act of marking as a state control mechanism (Caplan, 2000). This touches on Michel Foucault’s framework on social control in his book Discipline and Punish:
“But the body is also directly involved in a political field; power relations have an immediate hold upon it; they invest it, mark it, train it, torture it, force it to carry out tasks, to perform ceremonies, to emit signs. This political
References: Bauman, Z 1995, Life in Fragments: Essays in Postmodern Morality, Oxford, Cambridge: Blackwell, pp. 114-122. Bell, S 1999, Tattooed: A participant observer’s exploration of meaning, in Journal of American Culture 22, pp. 53-58. Caplan, J 2000, Written on the Body: The Tattoo in European and American History, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Edgerton, R, Dingman, H 1963, Tattooing and Identity, in The International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 9. Fisher, J 2002, Tattooing the Body, Marking Culture, in Body and Society, Vol. 8, Sage Publications, pp. 91-106. Foucault, M 1979, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, A. Sheridan, Harmondsworth: Penguin. Kang, M, Jones, K 2007, Why Do People Get Tattoos, in Contexts, Vol. 6 (1), American Sociological Association, UC Press Journals, pp. 42-47. Sullivan, N 2001, Tattooed Bodies: Subjectivity, Textuality, Ethics and Pleasure, Praeger Publishers, Westport, Connecticut London.