Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

41 Becoming and Being a Tattooed Person
meaningful form of permanent body alteration in contemporary
SOCiety. Choosing to mark one's body in this way changes the tattooee's
experience of his or her physical self and has significant
potential for altering social interaction.
Despite attempts by key members of the tattoo subculture to define
tattooing as an honorable and acceptable form of personal
and artistic expression, the tattoo continues to be seen as an indication
of the bearer's alienation from mainstream norms and
social networks. It is a voluntary stigma that symbolically isolates
the bearer from "normals." Since tattooees are deemed to be responsible
for their deviant physical condition, the mark is especially
discrediting (Jones et ai., 1984: 56-65).
Like most stigmatizing conditions, however, tattooing also has
an affiliative effect; it identifies the bearer as a member of a select
group. When publicly displayed the tattoo may act as a source of
mutual accessibility (Goffman, 1963b: 131-139). Fellow tattooees
commonly recognize and acknowledge their shared experience,
decorative tastes, and relationship to conventional SOCiety. Tattooing
also has affiliative impact in that it is routinely employed to
demonstrate one's indelible connection to primary associates (for
instance, name tattoos) or groups whose members share specialized
interests and activities (for example, motorcycling, use of illegal
drugs, or involvement with a specific youth gang).
THE PROCESS OF BECOMING
A TATTOOED PERSON
Deciding to Be Tattooed
Becoming tattooed is a highly social act. The decision to acquire
a tattoo (and, as we will see in a later section, the image
that is chosen) is motivated by how the reCipient defines him or
herself. The tattoo becomes an item in the tattooee's personal
identity-kit (Goffman, 1961: 14-21) and, in turn, it is used by
those with whom the indiVidual interacts to place him or her into
a particular, interaction-shaping social category (cf. Solomon,
1983; Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, 1981).