Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

161 Conclusion
the artistic redefinition of those cultural materials. To the extent
that a similar process of diffusion continues. gains momentum.
and draws further attention. the likelihood that tattooing will
achieve some measure of legitimacy as an artistic phenomenon
appears rather good (see DiMaggio. 1987: 447-448). Further. as
major tattooists continue to explore new forms of stylistic innovation-especially
as they incorporate styles that have flourished in
the conventional art world (for example. primitivism, photorealism.
abstraction. minimalism)-influential representatives of
the art establishment can be expected to pay more sympathetic
attention. thereby increasing the prospect of redefinition and artistic
legitimation (DiMaggio. 1987: 449, 452).
The recent history of graffiti-as-art offers a particularly relevant
example. In the 1970s graffiti made a minor incursion into the
established fine art world. Like tattOOing, graffiti is a mode of cultural
production connected to marginal and disvalued social
groups-principally poor. minority. urban males. Further. it functions.
like tattOOing, as a "disenfranchised gesture" symboliZing
territorial boundaries. group membership, personal identity, and
protest against the control exercised by the social establishment
(Klofas and Cutshall, 1985; Castleman. 1982: 26-31; Pearlstein.
1978). Largely through the efforts of sympathetic academics, graffiti
"writers" in New York were brought together to form organizations
such as the United Graffiti Artists (UGA) and the Nation
of Graffiti Artists (NOGA) (Castleman, 1982: 117-133). In turn.
these academically connected sponsors used their establishment
associations to move the work of organization members off the
streets and into legitimating academic. marketing. and display
settings. 8
Drawn by the nascent artistic legitimation of graffiti, the media.
which preViously had strongly condemned the practice as criminal
vandalism. began to praise graffiti for its Vitality and
exuberance. 9 Although intense social control activities by governmental
organizations effectively truncated the creative work done
by the original artists in the original public environments (see
Castleman. 1982: 134-175), established artists enthusiastically
coopted the themes and stylistic features of graffiti. In the late
1970s curator Rolando Castellon mounted an exhibit entitled