Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

32 Introduction
not required in order to maintain an active market. the client pool
is fairly homogeneous. and most tattooists are careful to avoid the
official heat that would be generated were they to inscribe tattoos
on "public" skin or underage customers (Best. 1981).
Where tattooing is officially regulated. established tattooists
tend to support regulation. Licensing and other forms of legal restriction
limit the incursion of competitors. In addition. the proprietors
of licensed establishments use official sanction to
symbolize the high quality of their service and enhance their status
relative to underground competitors. It is common for licensed
tattooists to prominently display signs attesting to their
official legitimacy (for example. "Approved by the Board of Health")
and to include these statements on the business cards provided to
customers.
CONCLUSION: FROM DEVIANCE
TO ART
As a world of cultural production. tattooing is in the midst of
Significant change; it is moving away from its historical roots as
a disvalued craft while vying for the honorific position of being
defined as a fine art form. The issues of status and control are
central to the process by which objects and activities come to
be valued as "art" and those that produce them given the label
of "artist." The social role of artist affords cultural production
workers significant control over their worklives-they have the
advantage of being seen as creative people rather than technical
instruments by which client demands are fulfilled.
This process of redefinition typically entails a variety of tactical
maneuvers on the part of the central actors of the production
world vying for artistic legitimacy. First. the activity is attached to
an ongoing body of history and tradition encompassing an identifiable
aesthetic. Second. the practice is identified with a body of
practitioners who are innovative. uniquely skilled. and who. commonly.
have earned artistic legitimacy through involvement in
production activities (for example. painting or sculpture) that
have previously been labeled as art. Third. the production process