Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

35 Introduction
artistic endeavor. In short. a significant segment of tattoo production
is proceeding along the traditional route by which a variety of
other "inferior" media have come to be sanctified as art.
While accounts of the collective action by which photography.
print-making. pottery. weaving. and other marginal forms of cultural
production have come to be defined as art are instructive.
they do not mirror entirely the status transition of tattooing.
These other creative practices were never saddled with the intense
public distaste and ongoing association with social deviance that
has surrounded. and continues to impede the legitimation of. tattooing.
In many regards. the literature on social problem definition
and the growth of social movements directed at prompting
ameliorative public redefinion of certain actors and activities is
equally relevant. Central participants in the tattoo subculture are
engaged in a process of collective legitimation similar to that pursued
by other disvalued social actors whose behavior is stereotypically
defined by an "unknowledgeable" public as constituting a
"social problem" (cf. Spector and Kitsuse. 1977). Like homosexuals.
the mentally disordered. political radicals. recreational drug
users. racial minorities. and other unconventional groups. tattoo
artists and other key members of the tattoo world are attempting
to publicly redefine tattooing and the tattoo mark as nonthreatening.
unproblematic. and. even. admirable. To the extent that they
are successful, tattooing will continue to expand as it comes to be
more broadly defined as a legitimate art form. as it continues to
be taken up by skilled practitioners who value creativity and
stylistic innovation. and as the pool of collectors and enthusiasts
becomes more heterogeneous and requests art products that are
unique. aesthetically exciting. and socially relevant.