Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

Notes
Preface to the Revised and Expanded Edition
1. A recent survey of teenagers found that 62 percent agreed that when
celebrities get a piercing it prompts teens to do the same and 58 percent
said that celebrities getting tattooed causes teens to make the same choice
(Majewski, Lori, “Teens and Celebrities,” USA Weekend, May 19–21, pp. 6–7).
2. In mid 2007, a search on Amazon.com using “tattoo” as the search
term yielded over 26,000 hits.
3. For extended lists of labels applied to this collection of graphic materials,
see Juxtapoz 3 #1 (Winter 1996): 4 and Juxtapoz 7 #2 (March/April
2000): 4.
4. For evidence of the major part played by tattooing in lowbrow art,
see the Spring 2004 Special Tattoo issue of Juxtapoz. For a discussion of
the work of Greg Irons, the artist who moved most effectively between
the worlds of commercial, serious, underground, and tattoo art, see
Rosenkranz (2006).
5. For manifestos of lowbrow art, see Juxtapoz #1 (Winter 1994): 1 and
Juxtapoz #48 (January/February 2004): 4. For extended discussions of
this artistic genre, see Jordon (2005) and the essays in Anderson (2004).
6. The derogation of tattooing also occurs in more authoritarian or traditionalist
cultures. Recruits who wish to become officers in the Chinese
People’s Liberation Army are banned from admission to military academies
if they are deemed to be too short, too fat, too skinny, or have tattoos
(The Week, May 5, 2006, p. 7).
7. A minority of those who are tattooed—around 15 percent (Read,
2006)—wear them on their faces, hands, or necks.
8. On the other hand, some employers—Bank of America and Borders
Books for example—do not have “dress codes” that prohibit tattoos (Kang
and Jones, 2007: 42; Read, 2006). Presumably, these more “accepting”
firms are more interested in their employees’ skill than in their body decorations
or wish to appeal to a younger clientele. There is even a listing of
“mod-friendly” employers who hire people with visible tattoos and piercings
on the modifiedmind.com website (Wessel, 2007).
9. In 2006 a medical researcher from the University of California