Table Of ContentTATTOOED:
THE SOCIOGENESIS OF A BODY ART
Tattoos have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially
among young people. While tattooing is used as a symbol of personal
identity and social communication, there has been little sociological
study of the phenomenon. In Tattooed: The Sodogenesis of a Body Art,
tattoo enthusiasts share their stories about their bodies and tattooing
experiences. Michael Atkinson shows how enthusiasts negotiate and
celebrate their 'difference' as it relates to the social stigma attached to
body art — how the act of tattooing is as much a response to the stigma
as it is a form of personal expression - and how a generation has appro-
priated tattooing as its own symbol of inclusiveness. Atkinson further
demonstrates how the displaying of tattooed bodies to others - techni-
ques of disclosure, justification, and representation — has become a part
of the shared experience.
Cultural sensibilities about tattooing are discussed within historical
context and in relation to broader trends in body modification, such as
cosmetic surgery, dieting, and piercing. The author also employs re-
search from a number of disciplines, as well as contemporary sociologi-
cal and postmodern theory, to analyse the enduring social significance
of body art.
MICHAEL ATKINSON is an assistant professor in the Department of
Sociology at McMaster University.
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MICHAEL ATKINSON
Tattooed
The Sociogenesis of a Body Art
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2003
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-8777-9 (cloth)
ISBN 0-8020-8568-7 (paper)
Printed on acid-free paper
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Atkinson, Michael, 1971-
Tattooed : the sociogenesis of a body art / Michael Atkinson.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-8777-9 (bound). ISBN 0-8020-8568-7 (pbk.)
1. Tattooing - Social aspects. I. Title.
GN419.3.A84 2003 391.6'5 C2003-901041-4
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities
and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to
its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xiii
1 Tattooing as Body Modification 3
2 Tattoo and Sociogenesis 23
3 Academic and Media Representations 51
4 Meeting Tattoo Enthusiasts 69
5 Subculture or Figuration? 91
6 Sociogenesis and Personality Structures 127
7 Life-course Transition and Representation:
The Deviance Tightrope 157
8 Shame, Social Control, and Display 207
9 The Body-modification Habits of Canadians 237
References 267
Index 289
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Preface
In the early 1990s, I wandered into a dank tattoo studio on a pier in
downtown Halifax. It had not been the first time I had sauntered into a
tattoo parlour, and definitely not my first encounter with tattoo artists.
On this cold and blustery day in the middle of February, I entered into
the first significant agreement I had ever made with my skin. With a very
dear friend of mine, with whom I have shared some of the more impetu-
ous and potentially destructive moments of my life, I decided to join the
ranks of 'tattoo enthusiasts' - a relatively small band of individuals
devoted to marking the skin in an ancient and deeply human way. As
describe in this book, a tattoo enthusiast is simply a person who has a per-
sonal/cultural fascination with tattoos, and at some point in the life course
decided to become tattooed. My friend and I did not know anything about
the process, had not deliberated about the designs we were going to
choose, nor about the locations on our bodies that were to be tattooed.
With naive trust and a sense of adventurousness, we clumsily flipped
through the designs available in a decrepit photo album sitting on the
artists' front counter in the shop. After selecting a design, I sat down
and rolled up my left shirt sleeve. Through the course of the hour it
took to apply the tattoo I felt exhilaration, nausea, and a recurring
twinge of shame. But at the end, I was tattooed.
Reminiscing about the experience just about every time I gaze down
at the tattoo, I wonder if I would do it all over again. If the tattoos from
my arms could be magically erased, would I begin to have my body tat-
tooed once more? I thought a single tattoo would suffice, and that I
would be satisfied in doing what I had always dreamed about that one
time. But I have now been tattooed by artists across the country, with
both of my arms adorned in tattoo sleeves. I know very few people with
viii Preface
only one tattoo, and some of their experiences will be discussed
throughout this work on tattooing. However, I would hazard a guess that
in the years to come, they too will seek out tattoo artists on more than
one occasion, filling in bits and pieces of their bodies with ink. I do not
know when, or perhaps where, my predilection for tattooing will end.
But I am certain I will continue to tattoo my body as part of chronicling
my life.
My first academic encounter with tattooing occurred about ten years
ago. Enrolled in a course in the sociology of deviance, I read a piece
from Clinton Sanders's well-known work, Customizing the Body: The Art
and Culture of Tattooing (1989). Contextualizing tattoing as an example
of stigma management and secondary deviance, Sanders skilfully pre-
sented it as an exotic, disrespected, and marginal social activity. Need-
less to say, my own experiences with tattooing did not completely res-
onate with Sanders's representations. I eventually decided to pursue
a small study of tattooing for a course in qualitative methodology dur-
ing my Master's degree research. I quickly learned that sociologists,
psychologists, and the majority of cultural anthropologists writing on
the subject had advanced no description or explanation of what Cana-
dians were doing with tattoos. Furthermore, even though we have
witnessed a recent boom in academic interest in the subject, the lack
of knowledge we have as an academic community about tattooing is
only slightly overshadowed by our commitment to classifying tat-
tooing processes within the broad category of social deviance or per-
sonal pathology.
Quite simply, we need to inspect critically and readjust our under-
standing of tattooing as a cultural form of expression. With this said, my
own studies of tattooing have never been about political campaigning,
claims-making, lobbying, or condemnation. From the onset of my
research, my intentions were to venture into sociologically uncharted
waters - by talking with tattoo enthusiasts in an attempt to grasp their
experiences with this form of body modification, and eventually repre-
senting these experiences in the most respectful and responsible way I
know how. In this way, I didn't want to produce another coffee-table
book about tattooing, or another detailed description about what tat-
toos 'look like' in contemporary societies. The goal is to analyse tattoo-
ing practices sociologically, exploring how this body project is a deeply
social act. I do not set my work on tattooing up as the definitive piece on
the subject, nor do I imply we should regard it as a point of closure.
Hopefully, this piece of sociological work will encourage others to muck
Preface ix
around in this area, extending what I have done into other contexts, sit-
uations, and cultural settings.
Aside from my personal interest in the topic (that is, as someone who
is tattooed and a sociologist trying to make theoretical sense of the prac-
tice), I possess a fervent sociological interest in issues of corporeality. M
sister, now a lawyer in Toronto, began her academic career by complet-
ing university degrees in English. During her years as a student, she
exposed me to critical readings of the body, often from postmodernist
theoretical perspectives. At the time I believed textual deconstructions
of the body to be academic gerrymandering, a sign and task of someone
with little better to do than pontificate about the textuality of the physi-
cal self. Exploring this literature during my initial foray into the tattoo-
ing figuration, I found a wealth of sociological knowledge and insight
about bodies and their cultural significance.
The sociology of the body is, for me, one of the most exciting, pro-
lific, and innovative sub-fields within the discipline. Arising out of virtual
obscurity in the 1980s, the subject of corporeality has never been more
consequential in sociological research than now. Theory, methods, and
substantive foci of investigation are all affected by our return to bodies.
In writing this book, I cannot help but reflect upon the growth in
research on bodies even since I began this research several years ago. An
interdisciplinary journal, Body and Society, now exists as a vehicle for
gathering and disseminating research on bodies, articles about corpore-
ality in other journals continue to grow in number as do books on the
subject, and courses in the sociology of the body are creeping into
undergraduate curricula across the country. Furthermore, experts in
typically marginalized sociological sub-fields such as sport, gender, and
health/illness are now called upon for their theoretical insight, and
long-standing theoretical dualisms such as the mind/body, self/society,
and agency/structure separations are vigorously questioned through
empirical research.
At the same time, I cannot help but wonder where and how the sociol-
ogy of the body will develop in the future. We currently stand at a criti-
cal point in this area. Looking backwards, we see a path carved out by
individuals establishing that bodies matter in sociological theory and
practice. Viewing our current standing, we see scores of researchers
rushing into the field, rapidly working to construct a bridge so that
others may cross the divide separating modern and postmodern society.
We should, however, carefully inspect the empirical quality, theoretical
durability, and methodological strength of the planks providing this
