Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

190 Methodological Appendix
Fairly early in my academic career I realized that sOCiology had
something special to offer me. It provided what I saw to be a useful
and sensible analytic perspective and offered a legitimate context
in which I could focus on social activities and objects that were of
personal interest and sources of private pleasure. Attracted by
people and phenomena that are generally outside the boundaries
imposed by conventional society. I have tended to focus on what I
have come to think of as the "soft. white underbelly of American
culture:' Among other things. I have researched and written
about narcotics police. underground comix. horror films. drug
use by GIs in Vietnam. various domestic drug-using subcultures.
club performers and other cultural producers. and now tattooing.
Since my graduate school experience in the 1960s I have also
been drawn to participant observation. It is a research approach
that allows me to work independently (I have usually found interaction
with anyone in the role of "boss" to be. at best. annoying).
and I find I possess a certain ability to interact comfortably with a
fairly wide range of people. Doing this sort of "lone-ranger" fieldwork
(Adler and Adler. 1987: 14) in the kinds of social settings I
tend to choose has always provided me with a certain measure of
adventure and allowed me to escape legitimately from the narrow
confines of academia. In general. I am more at ease interacting
with junkies. freaks. night-people. bikers. musicians. and other
unsavory sorts than I am in rubbing shoulders with academics.
Doing SOCiology prOVides me with the opportunity to interact
within settings and social networks that I have come to feel comfortable
in. and that are commonly closed to. and therefore unexplored
by. my more conventional colleagues. I do not intend this
to sound overly cavalier or derogatory. Instead. I am taking to
heart the adVice of Mills. Hughes. Park. and others who have emphasized
the importance of deriving an understanding of the
complex richness of human behaVior from information collected
within a variety of social settings. My own inclinations and experiences
have drawn me to employ what skllls and knowledge I possess
to participate in the lllumination of some of the darker
corners of American culture.
My initial first-hand contact with tattOOing came about when I
was visiting San Francisco during the summer of 1979. Since the