Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

188 Epilogue 2008
ited by the blinders provided by disciplinary perspectives. Psychologists
and psychiatrists see body modification as indicative of
some form of psychopathology, members of the medical community
see it as a threat to individual and public health, criminologists
see it as being related to involvement with dangerous deviant
social groups, and so forth. It would seem far more reasonable to
see body-modification activities and other features of social life as
involving people who are relatively aware of their circumstances
working together to make purposive decisions to live their lives in
particular kinds of ways. These people typically negotiate the
complexities of social worlds with relative skill, choose paths of
behavior based on what they see as reasonable alternatives, and
assemble a collection of selves and present them to others based
on how they understand the situation they are in and what they
want to accomplish within it. Consequently, those who seek to
explain social worlds like that surrounding tattooing and other
forms of body modification need to respect the perspectives of
those who live within those social worlds. They should avoid imposing
judgments about the relative legitimacy of these practices
and should remain open to understanding the world as the people
they are studying understand it. Sociologically “appreciating” certain
groups and their collective activities is not the same as condoning,
agreeing with, or even partaking in those activities.
Understanding is not the same as, nor does it necessarily require,
appreciation. While the body-modification phenomenon upon
which Customizing the Body focuses is touching, uplifting, creative,
and expressive on the one hand, it is also bizarre, unfortunate,
and stigmatizing. What is central, however, is to recognize
that these social practices are the consequences of people’s
normal desires to have close relationships with others, see themselves
as special, and mark the passage of their lives on earth.