Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

191 Methodological Appendix
American Sociological Association (ASA) meetings were in session,
I had a bit of time on my hands. The "Museums" section of
the Yellow Pages offered some promising diversions, and I walked
over to the Museum of Conceptual Art. At the address listed I encountered
a somewhat seedy building that was locked. On the
door was a series of brass plaques commemorating each time
someone had broken into the premises. I found this exhibit to be
appropriate and amusing, but it did not take much time.
Climbing the dingy stairway leading to Lyle Tuttle's Tattoo Art
Museum a short time later, I found myself in a new and fascinating
world of cultural production. Mter looking at the sizable collection
of tattoo memorabilia, I entered the tattoo studio adjacent
to the museum and, like many first-time visitors to tattoo establishments,
impulsively decided to join the ranks of the tattooed.
Mter choosing a small scarab design from the wall flash, I submitted
to the unexpectedly painful tattoo experience. Although
the resident tattooist was not especially forthcoming in response
to the questions I forced out between clenched teeth, I did come to
realize that this was a phenomenon that combined my research
interests in social deviance, artistic production, and body alteration.
At the same time, it offered a research experience that
would prOVide a much needed escape from the thankless task of
writing a textbook in which I had been involved for the last couple
of years.
Returning to the East coast, I visited a small street shop in a
"transitional neighborhood" located a few minutes from my office.
The owner appeared flattered that a "professor" would want to
hang out and listen to him talk about himself; and I soon became
a regular participant in the shop, observing the work, talking to
the participants, and-despite my original vow never again to undergo
the pain of indelible body alteration-eventually receiving
considerable tattoo work from a variety of well-known tattoo artists
with whom I came into contact during the subsequent seven
years.
This book is based primarily on data collected during participant
observation in four tattoo studios located in or near major
urban centers in the East. Three were traditional shops specializing
in the formulaic images favored by military personnel, bikers,