Covered in Ink: Tattoos, Women and the Politics of the Body

216 Pages·2015·2.438 MB·English

by  Beverly Yuen Thompson

Covered in Ink
Alternative Criminology Series
General Editor: Jeff Ferrell
Pissing on Demand: Workplace Drug The Culture of Punishment:
Testing and the Rise of the Detox Prison, Society, and Spectacle
Industry Michelle Brown
Ken Tunnell
Who You Claim: Performing Gang
Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Identity in School and on the Streets
Underground of Dumpster Diving, Robert Garot
Trash Picking, and Street Scavenging
5 Grams: Crack Cocaine, Rap Music,
Jeff Ferrell
and the War on Drugs
Prison, Inc.: A Convict Exposes Life Dimitri A. Bogazianos
inside a Private Prison
Judging Addicts: Drug Courts and
by K.C. Carceral,
Coercion in the Justice System
edited by Thomas J. Bernard
Rebecca Tiger
The Terrorist Identity: Explaining the
Courting Kids: Inside an
Terrorist Threat
Experimental Youth Court
Michael P. Arena and
Carla J. Barrett
Bruce A. Arrigo
The Spectacular Few: Prisoner
Terrorism as Crime: From Oklahoma
Radicalization and the Evolving
City to Al-Qaeda and Beyond
Terrorist Threat
Mark S. Hamm
Mark S. Hamm
Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The
Comic Book Crime: Truth, Justice,
Policing of Women’s Reproduction
and the American Way
in America
Nickie D. Phillips and Staci Strobl
Jeanne Flavin
The Securitization of Society:
Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in
Crime, Risk, and Social Order
New York’s Urban Underground
Marc Schuilenburg
Gregory J. Snyder
Covered in Ink: Tattoos, Women,
Crimes of Dissent: Civil
and the Politics of the Body
Disobedience, Criminal Justice,
Beverly Yuen Thompson
and the Politics of Conscience
Jarret S. Lovell
Covered in Ink
Tattoos, Women, and the Politics of the Body
Beverly Yuen Thompson
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2015 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs
that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thompson, Beverly Yuen.
Covered in ink : tattoos, women, and the politics of the body /
Beverly Yuen Thompson.
pages cm. — (Alternative criminology series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8147-6000-0 (cl : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8147-8920-9 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Women — Psychology. 2. Tattooing — Social aspects. 3. Body image
in women. I. Title.
HQ1206.T4676 2015
306.4'613 — dc23 2015004163
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials
to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also available as an ebook
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Becoming Covered 1
1. Sailors, Criminals, and Prostitutes: The History of a
Lingering Tattoo Stigma 21
2. “I Want to Be Covered”: Heavily Tattooed Women
Challenge the Dominant Beauty Culture 35
3. “I ♥ Mom”: Family Responses toward Tattooed Women 65
4. “Covering” Work: Dress Code Policies, Tattoos, and the Law 89
5. “Is the Tattoo Guy Here?”: Women Tattoo Artists’
Experience Working in a Male-Dominated Profession 122
6. Tattoos Are Not for Touching: Public Space, Stigma, and
Social Sanctions 151
Conclusion: Toward a Tattoo Etiquette 177
Notes 183
Index 199
About the Author 207
v
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Acknowledgments
This book is dedicated to the women who shared their stories to make
this book possible.
This book could not have been completed without the ongoing assis-
tance of those at NYU Press: Jeff Ferrell, Ilene Kalish, Caelyn Cobb,
Dorothea Stillman Halliday, Jennifer Dropkin, and Charles B. Hames.
Also, my mother, Margaret Yuen, and her unending support.
Finally, my father, Robert G. Thompson (even though he hates
tattoos).
vii
Figure I.1. Beverly Yuen Thompson, author.
Introduction
Becoming Covered
Genesis
Right hip. My first tattoo was nothing special; it was regrettable, even.
I was seventeen years old and attending Cornish College of the Arts
in Seattle. Somehow, I had become consumed by a destructive rela-
tionship. He owned a coffee shop across the street from a tattoo studio
owned by Vyvyn Lazonga— one of the most prominent female tattoo
artists in the nation. I did not know Vyvyn was famous at the time. I
didn’t even know the difference between a good tattoo and a bad tattoo.
But somehow, we mutually agreed to the unfortunate plan of getting a
tattoo to commemorate our unstable relationship. It was matching, of
course, combining his zodiac sign Leo and a women’s symbol, repre-
senting my budding feminism. The tattooist, Tina Bafaro, luckily talked
us out of getting “his/her name forever” scripted beneath the symbol.
She said many people who got relationship tattoos broke up. She had
accurately predicted our future ending. While this first tattoo was based
on an unfortunate decision, I had been lucky enough to end up in one of
the best studios, filled with amazing women artists. That left an impres-
sion on me.
Left upper arm. When I got my second tattoo— the word “feminist”
scripted on my outer left arm— I returned to Tina. I felt so strongly
about my developing political consciousness that I wanted the identifier
branded on my arm permanently. I wanted the cursive script to be in
rainbow colors, one color for each letter. Tina pointed out that differ-
ent colors would be more visible than others and fade at different rates,
making the word illegible. The script needed to be solid black ink. Two
symbolic snakes wrapped around the back of the arm, illustrated with
a few different colors, creating a band with the scripted word. I learned
1