Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

107 The Tattooist
CONCLUSION
The tattooist is. on the one hand. a commercial artist. a worker
involved in exercising (ideally) a unique skill while creating
(again. ideally) for profit a product that contains elements of
beauty-however that is defined by the various interactants in the
commercial exchange. Understanding the problems and rewards
encountered by the tattooist as he or she moves through the career
process aids in understanding the experience of commercial
artists generally. At the same time. the tattooist is involved in pro­
Viding a decorative service; his or her occupational activity is. to a
large degree. shaped by subordination to the demands ofa particular
clientele. The tattooist's ability to ascertain client characteristics.
define client needs. develop viable commercial relationships.
and control clients' demands is similar to that encountered in a
Wide variety of service work from providing medical care to supplying
janitorial services.
While examining the work and experience of the tattooist helps
to enlarge our general understanding of commercial art activities
and service work. the unique features of tattooing imbue it with a
special sociological interest. Tattooing is. in Hughes's (l971c)
term. a "bastard institution" supplying what is still a semi-legitimate
service/product to a limited but increasingly diverse "taste
public:' A diachronic analysis of tattooing demonstrates that services
and products have social careers. Distinct stages and factors
can be identified-alterations in the cultural context. the incursion
of producers with established social legitimacy. changes in
the status of the members of the consuming group. and so
forth-that characterize and shape the product's career. In its
movement from being Widely regarded as a tarnished good
(Shover. 1975) to becoming a marginally accepted form of artistic
decoration. the tattoo and the social world that surrounds its creation
and consumption have undergone significant change. Support
personnel have arisen. technological innovations have been
made. practioner/merchants have organized. various aesthetic
perspectives and related "schools" have coalesced. and agents of
social control have altered or. in some cases. abandoned their regulatory
efforts.