Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

198 Methodological Appendix
increased. I came to experience personally an almost irresistible
desire to enlarge my own collection. I fantasized about possible
designs and body placement. found myself feeling embarrassed
that I did not have more "coverage" when I encountered heavily
tattooed enthusiasts. and even began to have dreams in which my
body was festooned with large colorful examples of the best work
contemporary fine art tattooing had to offer.
As is often the case with addictions. this one began to affect my
personal relationships. Friends and lovers were initially supportive.
or at least tactfully tolerant, largely because they could understand
the methodological importance of my direct involvement in
the tattoo experience. At one point, however. I had to promise the
woman with whom I have a long-term relationship that, if I could
acqUire one more tattoo from a nationally recognized artist without
her throwing up her hands and calling it quits. I would kick
the tattoo habit (we later had to renegotiate this agreement).
It was through a variety of experiences such as this that I developed
aJeeltng (that key source of qualitative data) for the impact
of the tattoo mark on the tattooee's relationships with intimates.
associates. strangers. and his or her self. I came to truly understand
how the tattoo collector's social life is shaped significantly
by considerations of practical secrecy and delighted revelation.
The focus on the tattoo as a symbol of both affiliation and disassociation.
which is central to my discussion of the tattooee's career,
was enhanced greatly by my own experience as a tattooed
person. Soon after I left the San Francisco studio with that first
tattoo, I began to realize that I was now confronted with a new
category of routine social decisions-to whom and under what
circumstances should I reveal my potentially discrediting decoration?
Those with whom I came into contact were now classified
on the basis of their antiCipated response, ranging from those
who would be appreciative and supportive (primarily, close
friends and other tattooees) to those who would react negatively
(for example. my parents and most of my colleagues). Even such
routine decisions as what clothes to wear-particularly during the
summer months-were now shaped by new considerations.
My transitory encounters with total strangers in public settings
were similarly affected by my personal and professional involve-