I thought this selection of readings was very interesting, and I was particularly drawn to the word “stigma” and how it has been used to define tattooing throughout history. The word “stigma” as used today tends to refer more to a social, collective agreement to look down upon something. Whereas, “stigma” has also been used to refer to tattooing or body marking. In chapter one, it was defined as a “mark of infamy” or “moral blot” (Caplan 1). It is really interesting to think of how that definition has transformed to be less about a physical mark and understood more as a social mark of infamy. In the cases of some of the examples from the readings, though, it was both.
While tattooing was sometimes used as an honor or to mark high social status, the reading mostly focused on how it was used negatively. I would have liked to learn more about high-status tattooing, but I did find the negative associations to be very interesting. For example, the Maenads, or mad women, were portrayed with tattoos on Greek vases. Also, tattoos were used on enslaved people who ran away to mark them and have them returned.
Chapter two goes more into depth about tattooing as a punitive practice. I was intrigued by the concept of religious punishment and how it was unlikely for Christians to tattoo the cross onto people. From my understanding, doing that would give the person too much power because they would bear the marks of Christ. But, talking about it as if it were a cross gives the Christian more power over the person they tattooed. Tattooing itself is a somewhat painful practice, which contributes to the punishment, but I think the biggest punishment is social. As stated in the chapter, “the body can function as a permanently running advertisement of one’s guilt and subjugation,” which perfectly embodies the physical and social dimensions of stigma.
Chapter three also discusses the power of religious tattoos, as it references someone who claimed nobody could hurt him because he had a tattoo of the cross. While some tattoos themselves had stigma, some people saw them as protective and empowering. Similarly, as discussed in chapter four, people found power in tattooing their horoscopes and celestial symbols to try and gain a sense of power from the universe.
Tattooing has a very layered history, and it is still something that seems to hold a lot of stigma today. While I feel that the culture is starting to change, many people still look down upon people with tattoos and view them as unprofessional or societal outcasts (kind of like the Maenads), demonstrating how this stigma today is rooted in the history of these “mark[s] of infamy.”